Horrorshow at the Annandale Hotel - Friday 12 September
“Kick back with the story of how the Inner West was won”…
Friday night was a true celebration of the line which opens Sydney based duo Horrorshow’s debut album The Grey Space.
With all locals on the bill it seemed only appropriate to launch this album at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney’s Inner West.
Before we made it to the venue I received a call from friends who had planned on buying their tickets at the door. The show sold out; this will not come as a surprise to anyone who has heard the album.
Hermitude’s El Gusto had the DJ duties for the night and got things underway followed by local funk band Alamode.
The next set had been advertised as a ‘Secret Elefant Traks guest’, I had my suspicions (and hopes) confirmed when the lights went down and Urthboy and Jane Tryell appeared on the stage through a cloud of smoke. They shined torches into the crowd creating a cool effect as they started with Clocks, probably the most poignant song on his already seminal 2007 album The Signal. Watching from the front I hadn’t realised how packed the room was until it was time for a beer run… on second thoughts I might wait until the end of the set. The heads had shown up early and the room was already full.
Urthy and Jane played an excellent set which just enforces the question: where was the ARIA nomination- At the end of the set Urthboy dedicated the title track from the album The Signal to Last Kinection Vocalist Naomi Wenitong who was last weekend involved in a serious car accident. Our thoughts are with all of The Last Kinection at this time, and we hope for a speedy recovery.
Continuing with the Inner West ballin’ theme, next on stage was Spit Syndicate with DJ Joyride on the cut. Not giving the crowd a chance to come down from the last set they dropped straight into Weapon of choice. Every time I see this pair the fans at the front are quite visibly getting more and more excited about the set, a testament to MCs Nick Lupi and Just Enuf who are as tight spitting live as they are on their flawless debut record Towards the light. Sarah Corry who features heavily on the album joined them onstage for one song; I wish it had been more. Sarah has an unbelievable voice, we will be hearing her name again I’m sure. Song of the set had to be the last track The Lost Boys, a brilliant call to arms which had the whole room joining in “twenty foot letters from the heavens to the ground read city of the lost boys never to be found”
This gig (and even more so this particular set) we were about to see was the culmination of a lot of hard work and determination. Recording your entire first album by yourselves before getting signed is no easy feat let alone managing to produce one as good as Horrorshow have, The Grey Space is out through Elefant Traks. Horrorshow have arrived and will hopefully be with us for a long time to come. The latest addition to the Elefant family, Horrorshow is made up of MC Solo and Producer Adit. Local band Made in Japan and DJ Joyride joined them on stage for the entire set.
We got pretty much the entire record and a lot more, including a cover of a Coldplay song that’s name escapes me due to having much better access to the bar at this point of the night. Everyone who guests on the album came to the party to do their respective verses live. Both Spit Syndicate boys came back to the stage and also MC Fame who helps out on the song Put It To Your Head which for me was one of the standout tracks of the night. Solo and Adit have done an amazing job of translating what in places is a quite relaxed and smooth record into a bangin’ live set. All the artists that performed tonight make it a very exciting time for Sydney and Australian hip hop; Inner West stand up. At the end of the night Solo gave a heart felt thank you for everyone supporting the album and coming out. I’m already looking forward to hearing what these boys produce next.
Horrorshow-... No, it was excellent.