Anyone got any slaves I can employ to do the technical side of this blog? Photo taking, picture uploading, cleaning the toilets around here. That kinda thing.Chiddy Bang then. I wasn't going to go to this show in all honesty. When I saw that CB (Chiddy Bang not that wife beater Chris Brown) were playing locally I was all over it but you know how time passes and you get less bothered about things? Things like going to gigs, marriages, life. Well that started happening and I was set yesterday for another night of the normal - Call of Duty and deep Buddhist mediation but then a pro active mate got in the case and then BANG! we were Chiddy.
Firstly, I've gotta mention the crowd. By that I mean numbers thereof. I didn't actually count because I'd had too many drinks but with a conservative guess I'd go for about 31 people for Chiddy. The support act, The Constellations, I'd go for a concrete guess of 6. I know this is correct because being early on in the night I was sober and I counted. This number (6) was made up of my crew (3) and some other guys (3). The other guys were all doing that 'comic' dancing stuff that hasn't been funny since Screech in Saved By The Bell use to pull stunts like that. Dear other guys, heed caution when behaving like Screech because we all know what happened to him don't we? Yes, he got into loads of debt and made a sex tape, of course.
These Constellations guys were a funny bunch too. There were quite a few of them (seven maybe) and they were part Fun Lovin' Criminals, part Rage Against The Machine and part teenage kids jamming in the garage with egg case sound proofed walls. The lead singer looked a bit like Kid Rock and swore a lot but for all that, I sort of enjoyed them actually. They played on admirably in the face of, well, all six of us and for that I salute them. If I were in a band (I'm not) and I was playing a show (I never have) to only six people I'd probably just throw some obscenely offensive lyrics and shoutouts into the songs to try and provoke a reaction. Either that or have a nervous breakdown (I do, regularly).
The Constellations. Crowd members one, two, three, four, five and six out of shot.Chiddy took the stage a little later looking pretty pleased to be in my lovely town. They looked pretty happy all night which is also a bonus. Don't you hate it when you feel you're wasting bands/artists time by paying to watch them play*, it's just ridiculous. Anyway, Chiddy's setup is pretty simple as you'd expect. One guy does the beats, another guy does the rhymes. That's about it. They've got a Mac up there too with some samples on it and stuff but I had a sneaking suspicion that Xaphoon (the beats guy) was on chatroulette the whole time looking at the CR standards. Y'know - Erect penis, miserable guy in some dark room in middle America or a still of the Jonas Brothers. In fact, funny I should mention popular-to-passing internet meme Chatroulette because at some point during the show I looked behind me and their was a guy holding a laptop above his head that actually was connected and on Chatroulette. Pretty strange I thought, no doubt the people on the other end were F9ing furiously either way.
I'll never take a good photo as long as I live.
Chiddy only really have a good little mixtape, The Swelly Express (download here), and an EP to their name so when it came to song selection - we knew what we would be getting. The Sufjan sampling 'All Things Go' was as good fun live as on the mixtape and 'The Opposite of Adults' was, or course, predictably frantic. "But I play Ron Burgundy I anchor on the track." At one point we were treated to a Chiddy freestyle (on topics of our choice) over the beat from Tinie Tempah's 'Pass Out'. It was here that, yet again, I dispaired at my peers. Here's why: Xaphoon asked for some topics for Chiddy to rhyme around and below were the (quite small mind you) audiences suggestions:
- Sex
- Drugs
- Sweaty bollocks
- Flintstones
May I remind you that this venue and area of town is dominated by students, y'know, like undergraduates reading various disciplines. Academics apparently. I don't know, you just expect better don't you. Chiddy rhymed on admirably and managed to cobble together a fairly decent freestyle considering. The Passion Pit sampling 'Truth' also zipped along nicely and after an hour or so they were gone. Essentially, it's hard to dislike a group that are such good fun. They use the right samples and have the right sound to get pretty big with young listeners I think. They aren't going to change the whole game or anything but yeah, what's wrong with just being fun anyway?
I'm going to round this review off here because I always always write too much and I'm trying write an essay for my degree too. Did I tell you all I'm studying again? Yeah man, if all goes to plan I will one day graduate and be a proud owner of a B(Hons) in Flintstones and Sweaty bollocks.
Somebody tell Roth that I don't love college.
I'll never take a good photo as long as I live.- Sex
- Drugs
- Sweaty bollocks
- Flintstones
May I remind you that this venue and area of town is dominated by students, y'know, like undergraduates reading various disciplines. Academics apparently. I don't know, you just expect better don't you. Chiddy rhymed on admirably and managed to cobble together a fairly decent freestyle considering. The Passion Pit sampling 'Truth' also zipped along nicely and after an hour or so they were gone. Essentially, it's hard to dislike a group that are such good fun. They use the right samples and have the right sound to get pretty big with young listeners I think. They aren't going to change the whole game or anything but yeah, what's wrong with just being fun anyway?
I'm going to round this review off here because I always always write too much and I'm trying write an essay for my degree too. Did I tell you all I'm studying again? Yeah man, if all goes to plan I will one day graduate and be a proud owner of a B(Hons) in Flintstones and Sweaty bollocks.
Somebody tell Roth that I don't love college.
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