Play live stream Live stream

R1 BLOG

Blog

Jordan Irvine, Contributor

GIG REVIEW: Home Brew - Support from Max Dad E, RyeChi, DJ Shan, Big Sima. April 12th, 2024 / Union Hall

Friday 12th April 2024 | Jordan Irvine | Contributor | r1@r1.co.nz

After my friend and I got rejected for a photo by new Vice Chancellor Grant Robertson, we headed to Union Hall to catch the openers for the Home Brew gig. I was going in blind, not hearing of the hip hop collective or any of their songs that they have released in the past two decades. He encouraged me that I would enjoy their stuff due to my love of jazz infused hip-hop. The first openers, Max Dad E, RyeChi, and DJ Shan did not disappoint. A group of MCs on stage with sweat towels and a DJ mixing with real vinyl brung an underground 90s era hip hop show, especially with their Wu-Tang Clan style beats. The range of production did vary though, with boom-bap, drill, trap, and west coast G-funk. The hooks, flows and stage presence were all great, even when they included the miracle spiritual double time flow that ruined the vibe for me. An overall good start to a promising night.

Big Sima then showed up on stage and oozed charisma. He had great crowd control (We all yelled “F**k the Government” and “F**k the Prime Minister.”) Sima’s songs often had the rags to riches approach to rap which I respect, but the big soulful hooks feel very played out and boring to my ear at this point. Sima also liked to use the triplet flow for these songs which went against the feel of the production and felt clunky. The guest singer he had was singing his heart out but I was not feeling it. Once the tempo picked up with the more trap style beats I was more engaged. My friend compared him to Shapeshifter and I felt he had a Royce Da 5’9” vibe. Overall, a decent set that just kept my anticipation and attention for the main act.

Before I start talking about Home Brew, I want to talk about bias in rap. Rap is full of bias. From the conception of the genre in the late 70s to the 90s in the “golden era”, hip-hop was only thought of as being a coastal genre, East or West. This was until OutKast won best new artist at the Source Awards with the iconic acceptance speech “The South got something to say”. Many people did not think women could rap until Queen Latifah and even then held out on saying any women were top 5 until Lauryn Hill swept the Grammys in 1999 with a classic album. White people often made corny rap, and it is still upsetting that Vanilla Ice is the first rapper to go number 1 on the charts. However, in 1999 Eminem came onto the scene and released three great albums in a row to prove it was not a fluke. I suffer from these biases myself. I did not want to listen to someone from England rap until I heard Skepta and Little Simz. Even as a queer person, I was hesitant to hear queer content in rap until Kevin Abstract and Tyler, The Creator. I say all this to say, I did not want to listen to a rapper from New Zealand until I heard Home Brew.

Instantly from the moment I saw Tom Scott on stage I knew why Home Brew was the headline act. Never before had I seen such a charismatic performer that had every member in the audience hanging on his every word. The crowd was fully engaged singing back each hook to Tom and the remarkable live band that gives the sound so much personality and depth. The live band consisting of drums, synths, electric guitar and bass gave such an energetic vibe that complimented Tom’s stage presence. A favourite moment of mine was when Tom sat down and just let the guitar player wail. It was soulful and beautiful. Lyrically, Tom is sharp, introspective and often melancholic, even all at once like with one of my favourites: “Drinking in the Morning” where he says “I’ve been mourning” and the crowd sings along. The music often conveyed the chill jazzy qualities of an early Mac Miller, along with a lyrical transparency of his later years. It is not always clear how Tom is mentally but on stage, it is hard to blame the crowd for not noticing as he just gives it his all.

Like Big Sima, Tom also gets the crowd to focus on politics with a call and response of “F**k Brian Tamaki, F**k David Seymour, F**k Christopher Luxon, Death to the IDF and From the river to the sea”. Tom also was able to reflect on a past song and said “When I wrote this I was a dickhead, and at one point we were all dickheads, and that helps us grow into who we are, so this is dedicated to the dickhead I used to be.” Unfortunately, a lot of the crowd continued to be dickheads. After the band had finished, someone jumped on stage and tried to sing into the microphone that was thankfully turned off. After the gig I stood around looking to get a shirt (they sold out) and a man clearly off his chops said “Nice mullet bro” and proceeded to stroke and play with my hair. When you are in a crowd of other people it is easy to take important stances but it appears harder to reflect these values in isolation. Tom Scott has seemed to grow up in the past two decades, I hope that his audience does too.