It may well have taken nine years for The Stereo MC’s to get their shit together and produce a new album and tour. But those who were lucky enough to be at City Live on Friday 12th October, will tell you it was all well worth the wait.
Unlike most bands you may see these days the Mc’s did not keep us waiting to come on stage. 11:00pm is when they were due, and 11:00pm prompt they emerged from behind the curtain.
All eyes were of course waiting for the zombie like figure of lead singer Rob Birch to appear.
Anyone who has seen the front cover of the MC’s new album "Deep Down and Dirty" will probably tell you the following about the lead singer.
"He looks FUCKED!!" And they may well be right. But once on stage in front of an audience who are ready to party their weekend away, he certainly comes to life, in a manner that not too many lead vocalists can do.
Kicking off with Fade Away, you get the feeling that the MC’s are making a point of saying "Hey, it may be 9 years but we're still here"
This is closely followed by Trafficoff the new album,with Birch belting out the lyric "Where you’re at, is where I’ve been".
We are then back to the Connected album with the title track followed by Ground Level.
This entire time Birch has not made eye contact with anyone in the crowd, he seems focused 100% on the music it’s not until Running that he bounds onto the speaker stack to finally make contact with us all.
Birch is nothing but skin and bone, in very baggy clothing.
At times you can see every vein in his arms as they travel down to the roughest pair of hands you have ever seen, each finger of which sporting a silver ring.
His gaunt, pinched features look very unhealthy, but despite this he keeps the pace going with his rap/singing style, and boundless energy across the stage.
his was a very clinical performance by a band that many must have thought were just one hit wonders.
But tracks like Deep Down and Dirty, We Belong In This World Together, Breeze, and the aforementioned Traffic, prove that there is still a lot more in this band...
While the rest of the band, are obviously major contributors to the music for the night it is Birch who really keeps the crowd pumping.
"Faster or slower your choice?" he asks the audience during the second encore before launching into Step It Up and thenCreation.( I think answers that question!)
The night seems to finish all too quickly as they begin to walk off stage after waving to the crowd after their last encore.
You can see they are pleased with their nights work, there was even a rare smile from the usually poker face of Birch.
Nine years ago I couldn’t even begin to tell you where I was or what I was doing.
Ask me again nine years form now and I don’t think I will have any trouble telling you.
Lets hope we don’t have to wait as long as that again to hear the next installment from The Stereo MC’s.
Michael Sommers - redbackrock.com
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