Live Review

Akira The Don – Concrete, London

• 6th Jun 2011

Hip-hop and dubstep reverberate around the sparsely populated venue that looks more like an abandoned underground bunker in the aptly named Concrete, on one side of the room sits Scroobius Pip in front of the DJ booth, that is until he takes his place at the back of the cautiously gathered audience to watch the band seemingly fronted by Lucious Malfoy.

An average night, this is certainly not.

This night is in fact the launch party for Akira The Don’s second album, The Life Equation.  And Akira The Don is certainly not your average rapper.

I mean, how many Welsh rappers with a mane of bleach blonde hair, a penchant for Chris De Burgh and songs about AIDs can you think of off the top of your head?  Yeah, Akira is pretty incomparable in the rap game.

After a brief introduction from the man himself, resplendent in a Marvel Superhero hoodie and Run DMC lounge pants, Malfoy’s band kick off the evenings live entertainment. The White Witches (I kid you not) aim to please with a set of on-edge tunes that cross My Chemical Romance with Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster like a Hogwart’s prom support for Jarvis Cocker’s fictional Weird Sisters.

They came, they played, there was no encore and that was probably the smoothest anything ran all night as the remainder of the evening was filled with a strange kind of shambolic order and rather relaxed approaches to set times, a couple of performers pulled out, some seemed a little unprepared and overwhelmed, whilst others rappers turned up late, took to the stage for support slots and disappeared off again before they were expected back on stage.

Yet, all this chaos didn’t make a moment of the night any less fun, as the venue slowly filled out a little more it was obvious that those gathered close to the stage are all very much dedicated fans, supporting slots were filled by longtime collaborators of Akira and the respect given by both audience and performers made for a light hearted gig that felt more like a gathering of family and friends than artist and followers.

Even Akira The Don’s own headline slot, by this point running way behind schedule, wasn’t the smoothest performance ever witnessed by man, but when you have a mesmerising onstage energy, an impressive back catalogue and a new albums worth of crowd pleasers to lead the intimate crowd in song, then it doesn’t really seem to matter at all that you haven’t informed your onstage DJ what tracks you want to play next and which songs are getting dropped.

Indeed, it is this patter and onstage banter that endears him to us, tales of tour woes of cowbells left on trains and mixers blowing up have not been enough to deter fans from attending gigs, and the commitment to put on a show regardless is indeed commendable, and any faltering is easily forgotten amongst an eager to be pleased audience.

And the music?  Rapturously received mixtape bangers, crowd-pleasing throwback cuts from 2006’s debut album and a smattering of hits-in-waiting from the recently released The Life Equation, all performed with absolute gusto with DJ Jack Nimble attempting to control proceedings from the back of the stage, swiftly moving things along.

The close sense of community prevails throughout the gig, with numerous shout-outs and dedications to crowd members, onstage invitations to his fiance for the hopeful pop of We Won’t Be Broke Forever Baby, old friends joining on saxophone for Jamie and on guitar for album closer Big, and returning support rappers Pixel and Marvin the Martian for the Elastica-sampling Boom! which has the whole venue bouncing.

Closing with the suitably epic We Are Not Alone, Akira The Don has embraced his place in the universe, performing for those that love him and hold his music dear.