Public enemy tonight at the Dome.

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Did any old hip hop heads go tonight? If not you missed a corker, PUBLIC ENEMY f***ing SMASHED IT.
They ran through 25 years of material and seem as fresh today as yo bush the show all those years back. On a personal level it was massive as I got right up the front and hugged flavor flav and ruffled his hair, shook Chuck D's hand and caught Flavor's towel.
The best gig I ever did see

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Nice one fella. Gutted I couldn't go, although not convinced by the SW1s moving around sans imitation Uzis and making hand movements instead - looked a bit silly n'est ce pas?

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

No imitation uzi's these days. Just 2 of them doing the military dancing and as well as D.J lord on the wheels if steel (shame it's not terminator x) they have a drummer and guitarists on stage. Even flavor flav play the bass and had a pop at the drums.

 

[red star portslade]

Me and a mate went to see Public Enemy at Brixton Academy in 91, memorable for fact that we got out of the gig in one piece.

I doubt that The Dome was quite that full on.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I doubt that The Dome was quite that full on.

Chuck D's gut (which can't be seen in that pic) probably was though!

 

[Varndean VI Form College]

Saw them in 1989 and a couple of other times around that era and last night's gig was the best of the lot. Surprising but true; amazing show. Respect to PE!

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

YES, the rhythm the rebel!

 

[Pevenseagull]

it was indeed a f***ing superb gig

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Yeeeeerrrrr booooooooyyy

 

[Smithy]

They surpassed my expectations. One of the best gigs I've been to in a while.

 

[Buzzer]

It was indeed a great gig. Probably the best I've been to this year. I'll say this for Brighton, whenever we get a proper heavyweight hip-hop act the crowd always rises to the occasion - and last night the crowd were brilliant despite most of them being old enough to know better. What made it all the more special was that there were a few moments where it could have gone a bit Spinal Tap. Honestly, the following isn't a pop at Public Enemy, just things that tickled me

• The 99% white middle-class crowd returning the black power salute to Chuck and the boys
• FF coming across as a bit needy with the request for Twitter followers
• His hilariously bad guitar playing. Fair play for giving it a go. He's pretty good on the drums though. I'll give him that.
• Mentioning being nominated for the Rock n Roll hall of fame so presumably they'll be joining the ranks of all those white racists that don't mean shit to Chuck. That Elvis rant and Griff's anti-semitism are the only things that have really peed me off with PE over the years
• S1W being downsized to a 2 man Dad's Army - and their choreography.
• Chuck's comment that black American musical acts aren't known for their longevity. I can think of a fair few just from song's PE have sampled.
• The very, very weak Harry Allen riposte from that other bloke on stage who did a very short but pretty cool solo piece later on
• And Chuck's girth

Flavor was the main man without doubt and at the risk of sounding like a wanky muso it was like Chuck D was Noel Redding to FF's Hendrix. Flavor would go off on all sorts of tangents, pushing the boundaries, continually surprising us with his onstage theatrics whilst Chuck kept his tempo constant all night. The comparison is completely wrong because Chuck D was centre stage as well for large parts of the night but I hope you can see where I'm going with the crap analogy. And you might disagree with their politics but PE have always had integrity and genuine musical, lyrical genius and Chuck D still has that fire in his belly. It all came thorugh crystal clear last night. If it wasn't for FF's shenanigans earlier this week you'd almost say he was more mature, less flaky. He certainly came across like this from when I saw them all those years ago.

It was unrelenting and I loved the DJ Lord interlude. (I was wondering for ages what happened with Terminator X and apparently he now runs an ostrich farm. It's a strange world). It would have been great to get a camera on the decks as he was mixing and scratching, projected on the back wall - even if it was just for the benefit of us DMC-loving nerds. I was really glad they stuck mainly to their classics, if only for selfish reasons. To my shame, I've not really given any of their albums much of a listen since probably He Got Game, my absolute favourite and I was expecting 3 or 4 from the new album. I was right at the back, well away from the sweaty geezers up front and I thought the volume could have been a little bit louder. I reckon a few more decibels on Bring the Noise would have been perfect.

And the Dome as a venue was magnificent. If only the gig 25 years ago had also been there instead of the crappy Brighton Centre.



(apologies for the very long post but it's for a gig I'll remember for a long, long time)

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

A bit gutted I missed this now, presumed they would be a bit long in the tooth to put on a good show now, I think a bit Spinal Tap was exactly what I had in mind.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

I agree with some of your posts buzzer, some of it could of turned a bit "spinal tap" but I've been waiting a very long time to see them and I though the whole thing was superb. What made it for me, I was one of those "sweaty geezers" at the front and shaking hands with chuck and tousling flav's hair at the end will live long in my memory as they were one my teenage hero's, and yes I was throwing up the black power fist (In my teenage years I saw Malcolm X at the cinema and fancied myself as a bit of a White, black radical) Flav was in excellent form but for me its always about chuck D, in my opinion he will always be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Flav is the extroverted hype man mesmerising you with his antics then Chuck steps forward and knocks you out with a killer blow of his vocals. I thought your description of the S1w's was a little unfair, thought they were pretty spritely on their toes. And as for Chucks girth? I didn't think he was that chunky, not in comparison to the guy in the warm up act "sublime wizardry" now that was a gut

 

[Buzzer]

Apologies if it seemed I was being rude. The sweaty geezers comment wasn't making any judgement on you. You guys were brilliant.

I think with S1W, they've just looked a bit unnecessary now. Back in the day they were all reminiscent of the black Olympic athletes who gave the black power salutes with their stature and presence but it just looked a bit odd now and they really weren't in time with each other.

 

[User removed 4]

Me and a mate went to see Public Enemy at Brixton Academy in 91, memorable for fact that we got out of the gig in one piece.I doubt that The Dome was quite that full on.

why , what happened ??

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Apologies if it seemed I was being rude. The sweaty geezers comment wasn't making any judgement on you. You guys were brilliant.

I think with S1W, they've just looked a bit unnecessary now. Back in the day they were all reminiscent of the black Olympic athletes who gave the black power salutes with their stature and presence but it just looked a bit odd now and they really weren't in time with each other.

There was absolutely no offence taken fella, so no need to apologise. It was pretty clammy down the front, I wanted to get as close possible and stood there right from the support act, but when public enemy came on it went mental and i got pushed around and bullied out of where I was standing which is a bit crap on my part because I'm 6ft 3 and 17 stone. Managed to jossle my way back to front barrier but i largely spent my time holding the nutters behind me away from 2 girls getting crushed. Bloody great night though.

 

[red star portslade]

why , what happened ??

The crowd was 95% black of which 50% seemed to take strong objection against the white faces being there. Lots of pushing and shoving "what are you doing here white boy" comments. My mate got punched in the face and we were saved from a kicking when some guy saw us surrounded and stepped in. This went on all night, very intimidating.

It was like Rorke's drift.

Were Public Enemy any good that night? I wouldn't have a clue.

 

[Mr Banana]

There was absolutely no offence taken fella, so no need to apologise. It was pretty clammy down the front, I wanted to get as close possible and stood there right from the support act, but when public enemy came on it went mental and i got pushed around and bullied out of where I was standing which is a bit crap on my part because I'm 6ft 3 and 17 stone. Managed to jossle my way back to front barrier but i largely spent my time holding the nutters behind me away from 2 girls getting crushed. Bloody great night though.

Made a nice change to see some sort of atmosphere. Of the hip-hop gigs I was really looking forward to this year, De La Soul played for half an hour with awful sound, Skitz was empty and no-one even knows whether Doom turned up. A few vids already up here

 

[User removed 4]

The crowd was 95% black of which 50% seemed to take strong objection against the white faces being there. Lots of pushing and shoving "what are you doing here white boy" comments. My mate got punched in the face and we were saved from a kicking when some guy saw us surrounded and stepped in. This went on all night, very intimidating.

It was like Rorke's drift.

Were Public Enemy any good that night? I wouldn't have a clue.

Dont be ridiculous , I dont believe a word , this sort of thing just doesnt go on , assaults and bullying on racial grounds are the exclusive preserve of "knuckle dragging white trash neanderthals" who have failed to embrace diversity and all the benefits it has brought, you only need to ask [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] who has spent time living in camden and hillingdon, or [MENTION=5707]Nibble[/MENTION] , or [MENTION=256]DTES[/MENTION] to find out that stories like these are pure fantasy.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Dont be ridiculous , I dont believe a word , this sort of thing just doesnt go on , assaults and bullying on racial grounds are the exclusive preserve of "knuckle dragging white trash neanderthals" who have failed to embrace diversity and all the benefits it has brought, you only need to ask [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] who has spent time living in camden and hillingdon, or [MENTION=5707]Nibble[/MENTION] , or [MENTION=256]DTES[/MENTION] to find out that stories like these are pure fantasy.

Of course it happens and I was subject to such treatment many years ago, but it's not about black and White, it's about bigoted bellends ruining peoples enjoyment of life whatever colour. Now please kindly take your political views off this thread which originally was meant to be about a legendary hip hop group and a cracking night out.