I’ve been riding the rock-revival wave of late, but not wanting to ride the wave too far and get dumped headfirst on the shores of narrow-minded musicality, I was looking forward to seeing a bit of hip hop in one of my favourite venues in Edinburgh, the Cabaret Voltaire. Headlining was Roots Manuva, arguably South London’s finest hip hop MC and leading British Hip Hop with the likes of Dizee Rascal and the Streets. Mr Manuva was being supported (or lead, depending upon where you read the promo) by Eddy Temple-Morris, who hosts a club show on Scotland’s Xfm. I had never heard of this guy before, but apparently his show is very successful; so successful in fact that he’s taking it on the road and inviting all his friends. Go get ’em tiger.
I was dissapointed. I was very dissapointed. The place was packed; the beer was flowing; the night seemed destined to be a great success, but I can only stand 30 minutes of mediocre pop tunes and teenagers making gang signals in the air before I know it’s time to hit the next party. I think it was Roots Manuva playing, but instead of his usual unique blend of dub squeaks, fat beats and quirky rhymes, it was a no frills sound track that did little to hype the crowd. I would have been better to spend my £10 quid on a curry and a sixer and sit at home listening to the radio. To cut a long (and whingey) story short, I left by 12. Maybe I missed the boat. Maybe it was really good later on. I don’t know. I was sleeping. Can anyone tell me if it did indeed get better later on? And inwhat order were the acts playing?
Ahem…don’t you love the critics who don’t even know who was playing…
On a good note, the venue is worth experiencing in itself. Located beneath the city in subterranean caves come basement space, the venue is easy to navigate and the two rooms are well isolated by a solid wall of rock. So the sound from two simultaneous DJ sets doesn’t mix together. That’s a good thing. See CV’s website for an upcoming list of gigs.
It may appear that I’m in a bad mood today, giving everything bad reviews and all. Hostel: grumpy staff, Roots manuva: boring; when I actually did get out of bed on the right side of bed and I did eat my happy pills. The fact of the matter is…well…they sucked and here in logue-land, we tell it like it is 😛