For those that are aware, today is the very last day of Immortal Technique’s short European tour. Matt (our in-house beatboxer) and I got ourselves tickets and went to see him play in Bristol on the 24th of October.
Now there is always a strange dichotomy here when you finally get the chance to see one of your favourite musicians, because a lot of the time they either go far beyond your expectations, or they’ll be so awful you’ll wished you’d stayed at home. This isn’t always the musician’s fault though, as I know a lot of people (myself included) have a bad habit of hyping up the live show so much, that no reality will ever be able to contend with the imagined one. With this in mind I calmed my superfan down as much as I could and went to see one of my favourite MCs of all time.
When we arrived Swave Sevah and Poison Pen was warming up the crowd. I have to be honest and say I wasn’t super impressed with the performances from these guys, but I think a lot of that was to do with the sloppy engineering. Hey here’s a tip to every sound engineer ever that works at live venues, YOU DON’T NEED ANYMORE BASS. I CAN’T HEAR ANYTHING. THIS ISN’T A DNB GIG. Thank-you. They put in a good amount of energy and passion into their songs, and whilst I’m not very familiar with their music they gave it a lot of heart. They just weren’t my cup of tea, but I respected their talent.
When Tech finally came out, the place went insane and he burst straight into ‘The Martyr’, which made me very happy as it’s one of my favourites off his new release. Matt is a giant, and I’m a tiny half-Asian. With this in mind, I reasoned that Captain Longshanks could see wherever he was, but I couldn’t so I did some of that ‘pushy, pushy, move, move’ hustle and got myself a nice view from the side of the stage where all the other short people were. I spent the whole show here, and it demonstrated why I love underground hip-hop, and independent culture as a whole. I had no idea who these kids were, but the generally friendly, and inclusive atmosphere is always such a relief from when I occasionally dip my feet into ‘mainstream’ culture. I’m sure that sounded snobby, but oh well. During the show two dudes decided to start a fight, so Tech immediately stopped playing, got everyone to shout “Stop ruining the show” and told the two guys if they wanted to carry on fighting then they’d have to leave.
Throughout the show, Tech constantly reminded the audience why he was making the music he was, and the background stories behind a lot of his songs. I was a particular fan of him addressing women’s roles within the history of social revolution when talking about the motivation behind ‘Dance With The Devil’. Whilst it wasn’t a true portrayal of his life, it was something that happens every day regardless of whether he raps about it or not, and if we want to change then we needed to change the way we treat women and our communities (Yeah, yeah Captain Obvious, right?). I’m half paraphrasing here but it went a little something like this: “Don’t forget that women were the ones that started the revolution. They’re the ones shooting the guns, and constantly reloading!”. As always Tech is always non-apologetic in his political ideals, and is never one to shy away from hip-hop’s revolutionary foundation and history. In short, if you don’t want to hear ‘big words’ or ‘politics’ then I suggest you get the fuck out of hip-hop and underground culture, and back into the mainstream. This is something we need, and something we are all responsible for. I’m not saying we have to be serious every single day, I’m just saying writing songs about bitches, how much bling you’ve got, and how much crack you’ve sold for 5 albums isn’t responsible. Write a party track, in fact write ten just make them good. Tech carries the legacy and progression of hip-hop on his shoulders. He also acts as loudly as he speaks, and spoke on his trip to Afghanistan where he funded the opening of an orphanage. I don’t think half these radio-rappers can claim something as substantial as that.
Aside from dropping knowledge and making sure idiots didn’t start fighting; the live show itself was fantastic. DJ Static put on amazing set, and has some ridiculous skills. Tech was on point with every song he played, and it was in some ways far better than his recorded material. I was thoroughly impressed, and very happy my own projected fantasies had been long surpassed by the reality of the performance (Hooray!). The show was about an hour long, and he played a healthy mix of his new and old material, although sadly not enough tracks from The 3rd World which was sad, as I would have loved to hear ‘Parole’ or ‘Crimes Of The Heart’. I don’t care what anyone sells, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable album.
I would have happily stayed for another hour, but hey that’s the secret of a good entertainer, don’t outstay your welcome and always keep them wanting more.
If you’re going to see Immortal Technique tonight, then you are one of the lucky ones. I found a little live video of the show, so have a look and see what you missed.
Set-List (ish, hey I was busy having fun!):
The Martyr
Angels and Demons
Toast To The Dead (with a nice shout-out to Roc Raida)
DJ Static mix
Harlem Streets
Bin Laden
The 4th Branch
Caught In The Hustle
Point Of No Return
Peruvian Cocaine
Industrial Revolution
Obnoxious
Dance With The Devil (Zomgzzz)
Words: Aimee
hiphoplifeandtimes 