The Very Good Agency

The Unified Tour

The night started with a rather adventure-like ride across the city, courtesy of True Live manager, Penny. I say adventure-like, where it was more an epic tour of Melbourne’s outer suburbs, as we fumbled our way through the Melways and missed numerous turnoffs. This resulted in the classic fashionably late entrance, which no one really seemed to notice anyway. The Winnie Coopers were thrashing out their own brand of Aussie hiphop when we got to the gig, voices hoarse from the energy they obviously put into their live shows. They got a great response from the crowd of students, who were particularly boozed for a Tuesday night fairly close to exam-time.

The Winnie Coopers

Next to hit the stage were the Funkoars, who again were well received by everyone involved. Having listened to their album “Greatest Hits” prior to the gig, I was well aware of what they would bring to the stage, and enjoyed hearing live versions of standout tracks such as Blackout and The Greatest Hit. Next up was True Live; the real reason we were there. Don’t get me wrong, I love hip hop, and Aussie hip hop has some real talents (and as a Kiwi I actually enjoy most Aussie Hip hop more than NZ hip hop). But the style brought to the table by acts that simply incorporate MC’s and a DJ playing a beat, often leaves me unfulfilled; especially if the sound system isn’t up to the challenge. I knew this wouldn’t be the case with True Live, however. Consisting of MC Rhyno, Thomas Butt (double bass), Tamil Rogeon (violin), Jesse Martin (cello), Joel Mammone (drums) and Thai Matus (keys); they dominated the stage from the minute they arrived. Their opening tracks impressed with intense intros building and building until they dropped into funky riffs and banging hip hop beats. Led by the fast flowing, smooth rhyming MC RHyno; the band were amazingly tight. RHyNO interacted well with the crowd hyping them up and getting the room bouncing in no time. At one stage he even had everyone sitting on the ground!

True Live with audience sitting on the ground (excuse the poor quality image, but it’s worth seeing right?)

The Crowd were treated to an exhibition of older classic’s like TV, Question This, and Keep Myself Awake, as well as a selection of new material being released on their new album due this year. Each of the artists performed outstanding solo’s on numerous occasions, with newest member Tim on Cello having time on stage by himself to display his amazing talent on a classical instrument adapted to fit comfortably within the jazz hip hop culture. Seeing True Live really reminded me of why I love hip hop and how quality makes a difference. Quality for True Live comes in the form of all of the artists being classically trained in their respective instruments; something that really shines through in the way they perform and gel together on stage.

Bliss n Eso

By the time they had finished their set i was ready to head home, confident that Sydney hip hop group Bliss n Eso (a group i knew little about) had no chance of up-staging them. After watching their opening few tracks the crowd loved them and really got into it, however, indicating that perhaps i need to listen to a bit more of their material.

All up a great evening of artists, with special mention going out to True Live for adding to Australia’s list of artists to keep an eye on in coming months and years. So we hit the road again and managed to find our way back without missing any turnoffs for a change. A particularly enjoyable evening thanks to True Live, and i’m sure there will be many more as I will be lining up as soon as their next gig is announced. Many thanks to Penny for taking care of us for the night, for more information on True Live head to their myspace

… Crack

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