Artist: Wildchild & The X-ecutioners
Album Title: Manning Bar, Sydney
Date: October 11th 2008
Reviewer: MrFuknSkaeWalking up into the Manning Bar to hear the smooth flows of Wildchild and nice clean sound was setting up for a great night. Once the main section was entered the vibe was good although the capacity of the bar could have held a lot more punters. The space provided made for a good night where you could easily make your way around and the atmosphere was relaxed. Not knowing much about
Wildchild, the first impression I got was nice clear smooth lyrics over some dope beats. He sounded really good live and got the crowd involved as he pumped out some of his classic tracks.
Before too long, on came the
X-ecutioners - Grand Master Roc Raida, Rob Swift, Boogie Blind, Total Eclipse and
Precision. Their unbelievable turntable skills of cutting, mixing, scratching and beat juggling amazed all. They then mixed this up with a few body tricks and rotating DJs around the decks. Precision showed us why he was crowned DMC Champion with a solo set of amazing battle tactics.
Roc Raida didn't seem to be getting involved until a short intermission and then he came out to impress. Roc Raida's skills were enough to amaze but when he performed his body tricks like using his chin, elbow etc to cross fade and numerous spins in between alternating records he had the crowd captivated.
They then moved onto the
Rock the Bells routine where the X-ecutioners all rotated around one set of decks alternating, cutting and juggling the Rock the Bells sample between the DJ crew. This was awesome to see five DJs using the one sample and their different styles of manipulating it nonstop one after another. Although Rob Swift had not impressed me during the early parts of the set, he took the sample and alternated/juggled it getting faster and faster until he was doing some of the quickest alternating I have even seen to finish the set.
The set was MC'd by Rob Swift and the stage was busy for over an hour. The big video screen behind the stage showed close ups of the decks, faders and trickery. The quality of the show and video was that of the DVDs I've seen of the X-ecutioners previously, which is top notch.
For such a good show it was a shame more punters didn't turn up for this performance. We need to support our live hip hop or it will disappear!
A big thank you goes out to the Basic equipment Crew and Joint Adventures for putting this show on
Skae