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Rap Metal is a term that puts the fear of God in me, after all it spawned the likes of Limp Biscuit and basically the whole nu metal genre. It's also a term casually bounced around to describe our support band Team Fresh. It's a lazy description of a band that incorporate as much punk ethos and hip hop as they do savage metal riffs and driving guitars.

Normally the Mandela Hall punters roam around the merch table and the Bunatee until the main act appears, with a few brave souls taking the plunge into see the support band. Team Fresh turned this often act of familiarity on its head. The sheer impact and energy of tracks like 'Last Orders in Rovinj' and 'Attack on All Fronts' has the quarter filled room completely enamoured with the North Coast Hip Hop outfit. It's also positive to note that Team Fresh, a band with arguably one of the biggest followings in town, survived a gig and won over many new fans without a hint of any support from their own ever faithful following.

LDN's most acerbic pupil Jamie T takes to the stage with echoes of his name ringing out around the Mandela Hall. Opener 'The Man's Machine' samples old punk band Angelic Upstarts sermon to the crowd about a punk's run-in with a police officer. This fight against authority (mainly the bouncers trying to control the feverish crowd) aptly sets the tone for the evening.

Two tracks in and Mr Jamie Alexander Treays decides that things just aren't personal enough, deciding to wildly fling his carcass into the crowd and sing a full track in the underbelly of the audience. A noble gesture, loved by some and lost on others.

After this wild foray he treats us to the ska-punk rhythms of 'Man Not A Monster', a track he declares "we have never played live before". Its frantic beat has everyone pogo dancing, or attempting to pogo dance, the authenticity of the dance may be lost on the crowd, most of whom were only a twinkle in their daddys eye when ska-punk was in its hey-day.

Tracks such as 'Calm Down Dearest', 'Ike and Tina' and 'Salvador' are unrelenting and carried with a sort of controlled mayhem normally associated with a Beastie Boys concert. Their bass player and drummer 听solidly batten down the hatches, while their shaggy guitarist erratically plays guitar behind his head, with his teeth as their samplist/keyboard player bounces his head like a jibber jabber in a typhoon.

A brief rest bite is needed for a fatigued audience, this comes in the form of Jamie T's famous acoustic bass guitar. Just like the term "rap metal", hearing the phrase "acoustic bass" doesn't inspire confidence as I personally associate it with terrible rock bands doing equally terrible acoustic sessions. Not the way Jamie T plays it. He beats out 'Back in the Game' with the same vivid passion seen in the likes of his London comrades Billy Bragg and Joe Strummer.

After being treated to b-sides, tracks never played live before and songs from previous EPs, Mr T (Not to be confuse with B.A. Baracus) wheels out the hits to deliver a knock out punch to the sweaty Belfast chapter of his fan base. 'Sticks and Stones', 'Spiders Web' and 'Chaka Demus' are all included in the 'Kings and Queens' heavy encore. In round up, let's hope it's not another three years before we see this London street poet on our shores again.

Philip Taggart

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