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Midway through his set, Kano yells “Well, did you see David Banner?” and everyone screams an affirmative yes, it occurs that this wouldn’t have been difficult seeing as how the man in question was of a similar stature to the green tinted side of his namesake. Banner, not surprisingly, offers few songs of love and flowers and instead sets about kicking ass across the entire room. And we do mean the entire room - he’s all over the bloody place and spends a lot of time on the crowd’s shoulders. The music is fine- hard, fast hip-hop, nothing revolutionary and the sound muddies the vocals so that it’s hard to make out just what he’s saying. Giving the cd a quick spin later, that might have been for the better. Whacking in the riff of a certain ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ lacks panache though- a bit clichéd really and far too pandering / shit (delete to taste). The crowd are well up for it, and him and judging from the mosh, Banner’s obviously going to be here a lot more in the future. He brings a small child on to the stage at the end to bring us all together. Don’t ever do that again. Ever.
So, Kano and grime and breaking out of the underground. He gets a heroes welcome and whilst it might be possible to understand how Dizzee never broke the scene (his albums are hardly making concessions to non grime headz), it’s a bit less understandable in Kano’s case. ‘Home Sweet Home’ has smoothed out the sound and stretched it every which way but that mainstream super-hit continues to elude him. And, if a tune like ‘Ghetto Child’, an early highlight tonight, can’t dent the public, then its hard to see how grime (if this indeed can even be classed as such) can make out of the underground whilst retaining any of its real flava.
Still, to the matter at hand. This bass hits HARD. It’s hard to tell if people are dancing or just being thrown off their feet. No two ways about, Kano rocks the house with style and class. Its relentless- both Miami Sound Machine and Black Sabbath put in appearances in the mash-up, the formers drop the pressure riff, sounding like an invasion of alien squirrels. The genre-flouting album is reconfigured to suit the stage and though that slightly flattens some of the innovations, it does work better as an overall mix. It’s a total party, Kano’s delivery fast, fragile and funny.
Finally - MASSIVE props to the crowd. Ecstatic dancers, every one of them, teaching the indie kids just what gigs are about. Kano, we DO know. Marvellous.
Photos by: Shirlaine Forrest
