Get a proper photo of the gig? Are you having a laugh? My arms were pinned to my sides!
Not quite the 'matinee' a friend described it as when I told him the Academy doors opened at seven but J5's timekeeping is infinitely better than most hip-hop bands who generally (in my experience) turn up in the small hours of the morning because (insert crap excuse here) and that's if they remember to turn up at all - no names mentioned. Mind you, it's just as well J5 rocked up early given that their set was so long I needed another shave at the end of it. No-one could complain they didn't get their money's worth. When DJ Nu-Mark kicked off the proceedings I sauntered across from the bar in time to see rappers Chali 2Na, Akil, Marc 7even and Soup (the artist formerly known as Zaakir) enter stage right. Any hopes I'd held of having a boogie were rapidly dashed as the place was more rammed than a city centre kebab shop at 2 am on a Friday night. And it wasn't really a hip-hop crowd either - barely a pair of fat-laced Adidas Superstars to be seen. Those on the dancefloor were admittedly hampered by space but the crowd was far too polite and middle class (or just too f*cking cool) to actually dance. As a result I spent the next two hours clinging to one of the crowded stairwells (where everyone WAS trying to dance) defending my personal space and my pint from over eager 18 year old girls with no rhythm and breathing in second hand skunk fumes that could have been smelt outside the venue let alone in the manager's office. Not everyone was stoned though, as evidenced by the deafening cheers the band received when they asked the crowd to 'make some noise' whenever the word 'Bristol' was mentioned. The first time this happened caused looks of what seemed like genuine astonishment and prompted 2Na to make some comment about how this 'little' (if only he knew the size of some Bristol clubs...) club crowd sounded more like a stadium. At first I thought - yeah? I bet you say that to all your crowds - but then he added how he remembered Bristol's love for hip-hop from J5's first Bristol gig ('98 or '99 - I forget) "..at a place called - was it the Thekla?" - result - more cheers. So how did that 'difficult' fourth album go down? Well, 'Red Hot' definitely lived up to its name but they were as likely to play stuff from 'Power in Numbers' e.g. 'A Day at the Races' which saw the band rapping over an instrumental of 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley as Nu-Mark mixed this with the original music, and 'What's Golden', or their first album e.g. 'Jayou' and 'Concrete Schoolyard' - which got the night's biggest cheer for a track. Curiously, while they didn't do much off their best album 'Quality Control', they did perform a quality Chali 2Na solo track, 2004's 'Comin' Thru'. There was the skit in the middle of the gig when they band sat down at school desks to freestyle while each banged out the beats on toy-like drum machines, two encores - the last track played being 'Work it Out' off 'Feedback' (possibly a message to those who don't get the new album), and a triumphant final display of beat-mastery by Nu-Mark on portable turntable and something that looked like it had been made by Fischer-Price. After this he left the stage to exultant yelling. The last I saw of the band was outside the Academy where Chali 2Na was on some girl's mobile phone apparently speaking to her friend. I wonder what kind of feedback she was giving him...
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