Oxegen 2011 - OFWGKTA
Green Spheres, Sunday, 6.10pm
Describe in a Tweet: It kicked off. Not always a good thing.
What happened: Within literally five seconds of leaping onstage, Frank Ocean is half way up the scaffolding, kickstarting the chaos. Tyler The Creator (a frontman of sorts) is last onstage, hobbling towards a stool having broken his foot. He'll occasionally make it to front of stage but is generally curtailed, unlike every other manic member of the controversy-courting hip hop collective. The music is relentlessly dark, with barely any colour or deviation. Transylvania and Sandwitches are nasty and aggressive, such is their M.O.
But let's not get carried away. It's exciting, yes, but it's nothing new. This is proper old-skool hip hop, they just do it very well and with distinction. The hype, however, has been a little much.
Crazy in Love: Tyler remains strangely likeable - we think it's the shorts and sports socks combo. And if we're not getting variation, Yonkers sums up what's great about them up perfectly.
Why Don't You Love Me: The aggression. Onstage intensity is one thing, but the atmosphere among the front ten rows of the crowd is horrible. At one point we've a load of topless, pasty idiots battering each other, throwing as many punches as they can before security get involved. Mosh pits became brawls with OFWGKTA (unintentionally?) stoking things with their every move. Small pockets of trouble, but it took away from what was an interesting, if slightly flawed performance.
Oxegen rating: 6/10
***
As an aside, ATL would like to point out that security during this show and the resulting trouble were absolutely remarkable. Trouble-makers were dealt with incredible restraint and in a way that minimised any interfere with the masses' enjoyment of the show. As far as we could see, they didn't put a foot wrong. Easy to criticise these folk at times, but massive credit and kudos when it's due.
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