Stormzy @ Metro City
Thursday, July 20, 2017
With perhaps the longest queue ever to have graced the Metro City corner, by 9pm the 300m snake was already spitting volumes as to the expectations surrounding the young grime and hip hop boy Stormzy.
I think the biggest note of fashion for the night were the caps. So many caps on so many male heads. There were caps for days, a sea of caps all piled in to see that rude boy. The collective amount of money spent on Adidas that night would’ve bought a lifetime supply of chupa chups (at least).
In a truely atmospheric entrance, the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning amped up the crowd that little bit extra, as if it wasn’t hyped enough already. Someone grabbed me around the neck and screamed “Last time I saw this dude was at Jack Rabbit’s 2 years ago and he played to not even the f*cking mosh pit man”. He was now coming on stage to a sold out venue of over 2,500 cheering fans – how’s that for exponential?
That was the thing though, he came out in a black tracksuit, a south London accent, went on to say “oh my days” and launched straight into First Things First. He didn’t need the bells and whistles; he just needed his ‘mandem’ to get into it with him. It’s hard to explain the synchronized arm movements you get with a crowd like this. It’s not so gangster but rather strong and gritty. United against the law, that real UK vibe. Once the lights were back up and the crowd was stirring all the way up, a young female punter hung over the balcony and offered her bare bosom to the gracious 1000+ male eyes and the man himself who admitted “Oh wow, well there you go. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Slowing it down a touch he got that smooth singing voice on with Cigarettes and Cush and I thought how good it could have been if only Kehlani (the featuring artist) was coming to Perth three weeks early for an on stage duet.
Bad Boys had us coming all the way back up again and he asked where the energy crew was at? But took us straight back down again. That boy gave us no way of predicting if we were going to be singing along to an Ed Sheeran track (which he did) (and why do people love Shape of You with a hint of rap over the top?) or having him tell us that we were Too Big for (Y)our Boots. His roots shone through as he jumped and danced across that stage with so much vigor and rhythm that it felt almost tribal at times but didn’t for one minute let go of that fire or energy.
Wrapping up the night he finished with what could be roughly translated to ‘This is Australia, This is Perth, This is Metro City’ and so he threw his shirt off and expectedly he asked “where do you know me from?” Any fan would’ve said it was one of the best nights of their lives but it could’ve been that much better if it ran a bit longer than the hour it did!
MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES
Photo by Anthony Tran
