He’s from the city in the Mid-West, best city in the whole wide wide world!
Who: Lupe Fiasco & Friends
Where: Enmore Theatre, Sydney.
When: 20/01/09
Last night at the rather quaint and alternate stylings of the Enmore Theatre, an almost full house revelled in the dynamic brilliance that is Lupe Fiasco. With the innocence of a first time performer and the charm of a seasoned entertainer, Lupe kept the crowd alive throughout his hour and fifteen minutes on stage. With his incredibly talented 6 piece band, 1500 or Nothing, Lupe unassumingly reproduced his unique sound and lyricism giving his much adored songs new character. Opening the show with the superb Kick, Push, (from his 2006 album Food & Liquor, pictured) Lupe unleashed his inner beast upon the audience with what can only be described as the fury of a thousand Suns. Kicking and pushing his way through the first half hour with crowd favourites such as Go,Go Gadget Flow and Paris, Tokyo Lupe showcased his ability to spit out lyrics and proved why he cannot be pigeon-holed into any one specific genre. Hip-hop is the base of his music but the skater punk brought with him a little bit of Southern jazz, a little bit of grunge guitar and soulful poetry as he intermittently recited random lyrics from various songs.
Refreshingly intelligent, Lupe overwhelmed the audiences’ senses both visually and acoustically. The stage was relatively bare and the lighting was far from spectacular making it hard to get past the sheer entertainment value of the Lupe Fiasco performance. With partial choreography and synchronized movements on stage, Lupe and his band members all provided a great energy and sense of humour. Disarmingly relaxed, the ambiance persuaded the audience that Lupe was there as a friend rather than a star. Increasingly rare in many successful performers, Lupe and the 1500s were there because of the music rather than the spectacle. That’s not to say that glimpses of confidence and power weren’t apparent as the baby faced performer smiled knowingly at his nose bleed section; however it was a brief arrogance which can be forgiven to someone who is otherwise entirely grounded and indescribably talented.
To try to articulate exactly how excited the man himself was to be on stage in front of his equally excited fans would be worthy of a thesis of its own. The enjoyment of performing and creating music for adoring followers was evident in every lyric and movement. The delivery of every line was precise; a rehearsed precision which was entirely genuine in its ambition to create a moment between the cool and his adorers.
The highlights and show stopping numbers of the evening would have to be Superstar and Daydreamin’. Seducing the crowd with a slow and lingering introduction of Superstar, Lupe exuded master control over his audience. Initially it was difficult to decipher which direction he might take as he sang the opening verse, but as sure as the beat itself, he sprang into action and gave a better rendition of the song live than the recorded version featuring Matthew Santos. The latter of the two didn’t have such an intimate set up but was performed with as much energy and passion as the Chicago native could muster. Prefacing the performance by dedicating the final song to President Obama, the often politically vocal Fiasco insinuated that his daydreaming was indeed over. It was a mellow way to end an otherwise hyper set, but once again proving his unpredictability Lupe changed direction and left the crowd buzzing. Expecting a second encore, the hall reverberated with Lupe Lupe Lupe! Unfortunately, to the disappointment of many it was indeed time to call it a night. Effervescent, humble and shirtless, Lupe took a bow, threw his towel into the frantic crowd (personally handing what is assumed to be an autographed CD to a lucky follower!) and exited the stage through the front of the house rather than the back with nothing more than a backpack.
It’s hard to even consider comparing the support acts, Pez and Muph N Plutonic. Though these Aussie acts were indeed good and displayed their aptitude for their genre, Lupe is a force unto himself. It would be hard to imagine Lupe as anything other than a musician. There is a brilliance which outshines any of his mainstream counterparts, one which hopefully does not get lost in any of the larger successes which are certain to come his way.
Cover image by NRK P3 on Flickr
