Ok, nobody will be able to convince you that the urban scene isn’t dead but in the last few years some promoters in terms of live performance have been able to get the genre on some cheap life support. Whether it is the big name Supafest or the tiny but taste-tingling Winterbeatz, the genre’s live reputation proves as exciting as ever.
Heatwave however, if it weren’t for the tiny turnout, could have proven disastrous to the genre’s live audience. First and foremost the tiny turnout was a complete surprise, sure the event was just one hit wonders, indie unknowns and washed up nobodies, you’re telling me not more people wanted to see if Crazy Town still existed? Or seeing the tragedy that is D12 minus Eminem? Speaking of D12’s minus’ it seems the band wanted to withdraw themselves from the Brisbane show as well (the band was also absent from the opening S.A show (which was performed over three days). Well, at least I was assured if it was terrible it would be shorter, hell, even shortened it wasn’t short enough.
So once inside the arena there was some band whom looked like a bunch of drunk boys from the Gold Coast grabbed some microphones and announced “D12 aren’t here tonight we’re gonna give you a free show to make up for it”. Oh, were off to a great start (I think they were Bombs Away?). Anyhow, these clowns kept going at it for maybe another 15 minutes before the M.C. came out who was kind of funny but also really annoying, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor bastard, Heatwaves atmosphere was not that of Supafest.
Then Crazy Town stepped onstage, they were cool and barely changed since 2001 except for the increase of muscle mass and the refreshing fact that they knew nobody cared about anything but…Butterfly. Literally, the band knew it so much they even started to say “O.K. two more songs and then we’ll sing Butterfly”, point being they sang Butterfly, it sounded fine, who cares about anything else.
Then a little group of girls came on stage from Adrenaline, a club on the Gold Coast, and of course, one of them thinks she’s Beyonce and begins singing her songs and trying to dance along with her skanky back-up dancers. Extensions and NADS hair removal aside it was kind of cute and let me fantasize for a second that I wish I had been sent to a Beyonce concert with some current raw talent than this wankathon.
Obie Trice, honestly, heard the name but didn’t know any songs, however one girl expressed to me “He worked with Eminem and some others”, did a good job of hyping up the crowd by paying tribute to all the right people, Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. no less. The energy and hilarity of all was classic when a girl (who was clearly an Adrenaline dancer, so relax) was brought onstage and dry humped. That and the energy of the Obie were the best things about his set, not the music (apart from the covers) which left little to be desired.
Now comes Chamillionaire, O.K. at this point we realise that they all sounding the same up until this point and the attention were giving them is really shutting down at this point, Chamillionaire sang everything he had in his bee’s dick sized repertoire including ”Ridin’”. Chamillionaire did have personality but majority of the cheers seemed to be for the anticipation surrounding Tech N9ne and Chamillionaire was left to be forgotten.
Tech N9ne yet again, didn’t know who they were but I have to say the most refreshing thing about the whole nights free preview of hell was to see a rapper with a bit of character face paint and all Tech lived up to his name of being as fast as the gun itself when it came to his rapping. Jumping all over the place and livening up the crowd the rapper (whom is the biggest selling independent rapper in history) was clearly the highlight.
After the Nine and his friend (who looked a lot like Cedric the Entertainer) departed it was all about Cudi whom also refreshed me, for a guy who releases the rap/pop/dance crap he does he was extremely humble and didn’t seem to B.S. the audience as he went on to perform Memories & Day ‘n’ Night. Cudi however didn’t have the passive aggressive style and energy that Tech N9ne was able to share but Cudi did get the cameras flashing either way people liked the two headlining moguls.
The minimal potential and talent displayed deserved better, maybe being billed lower on a Winterbeatz poster at least they would have gotten some good publicity, but fortunately the disaster is solely the fault of bad promotion and recklessness. 25 minute set changes, a missing headliner, no official schedule and a 90% empty arena. Karma is a bitch and clearly this festival is quite the embarrassment, why rent out Brisbane Entertainment Centre if you’re just going to cover most of it up? Riverstage, anyone? It’s also quite sad when people are walking out three songs in and waiting for the next act because the lack of diversity was chronically cumbersome. If I were in charge of this thing, I would give back all the money and head for the hills because being compared to the Blueprint festival IS NOT A GOOD THING.
Dylan Anderson - AAA Backstage
