Jurassic 5 - T On The Fringe

Just got back from this gig about 20 minutes ago. A one word synopsis of the night would be 'outstanding'.

The night got off to a good start with the warm up being provided by some skillful hip-hop mixing from the support acts DJ. The support act, All Time High, then played about four songs. Not the best of support acts, the best way I can describe them is as a scottish version of eminem cross-bred with the beastie boys.
Next up it was DJ Nu-Mark's turn to show his skills on the turntables, having never seen him perform solo I was seriously impressed. With the end of his half-hour solo set a suprise arrived in the form of Iris Science one of the MC's for hip-hop act Dilated Peoples, showing his allegiance for the crowd by wearing a Scotland sweat top and announcing that he had hitched a ride with Jurassic 5 just to introduce them. With that the familiar Jurassic 5 beats started up from DJs Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist and each of the 4 remaining MCs was introduced to the stage. The crowd whipping into a greater frenzy as each member came on stage until the whole crew was assembled. What followed was an hour and a half of top class entertainment and music. Performed by artists who genuinely looked like they were enjoying the performance and understood that the crowd was there to see a show.
Highlights of the night were a solo section performed by Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark which involved not only demonstrating their skills behind the decks but also up front as they left their main decks and came forward with Nu-Mark sporting a sampler on a strap round his neck and Cut Chemist with a small turntable strapped to his chest and a crossfader by his side. The sight of one of the eminent turntabilists pulling off scrathes on what looked like a fisher price record deck slung round his neck was priceless and impressive for what he achieved. Equally impressive was Nu-Mark's performance on the on-stage drum kit backed up by Cut Chemist's scratching, demonstraing that not only can he cut and scratch beats on turntables but can turn them out on real drums. The rest of the night followed an equally brillaint vein with excellent vocal performances by the four MC's as they performed a mixture of all the classic Jurassic 5 tracks alongside crowd participation and interludes. And for the final track of the night each MC, including Iris Science, joined in a brilliant freestyle with some good examples of wordplay and rhyming.
Having been a long time fan of their collaborative and solo recordings I'm really glad I got the chance to see Jurassic 5 perform live. And I'd thourghly recommend that fans and anyone into hip-hop with an old school twist and genuinely inventive and intelligent lyrics should make an effort to see them perform live.

 

Sounds like a great gig!

Doesn't look like they're touring though. Just one London night

Always makes the gig better