Kerser at the Hifi 8/2/14 - Live Review
- genevavalek
- Feb 24, 2014
- 3 min read
Lads? Check. Ladettes? Check. South Sydney? Check. Police? Check. Security? Check. Toilets smelling less of urine and more of “other substances”? Check.
There was no mistaking the very heavy police and security presence at Sydney’s The Hi-Fi on Saturday February 2nd for anything other than a Kerser gig. Headlined by the self-proclaimed ‘Sickest’ along with fellow rappers Willis, Tycotic, and Fortay on support, the venue was overflowing with keen under 18-year-olds who packed out The Hi-Fi’s upper level. However for anyone over the age of 18, it was an entirely different story with the bottom ground level feeling very empty, with less than half of the dance floor taken up by punters.
Granted, the ‘sickest c*** out there’ wasn’t due to start until 11pm, but the sheer emptiness of the room felt a little odd and off-putting – especially considering the overflowing U18’s upstairs area. However more off-putting was the fact that it seemed that everyone had dressed up for a game of tennis or were here to see a tennis instructor. The majority of people in the audience were proudly wearing nautical polo shirts with the collars popped (of course), wearing matching white Nike or Adidas running shoes, and snapback hats, and not to mention the amount of bum bags in circulation at the gig…and number of rat-tails. Did everyone get a memo or something, or did everyone just happen to come dressed in the same thing? We may never know for sure. Dress code aside the music was what we were there for, right? The crowd was gagging to see their over-lord, Kerser.
So forget about any of the other acts, no offence to them, but the crowd’s enthusiasm for the Campbelltown lad out weighed almost all efforts by the supports to gain some recognition. Fair enough, Tycotic followed by Fortay did warmed up the crowd, but to be honest the DJ/iPod playing hip-hop classics and remixes inbetween their sets got a far better reaction from the crowd than their supporter sets did.
On several occasions the crowd broke out into a spontaneous chant, yelling out “KERSER, KERSER, KERSER” well and truly before his set was even due to begin. With the supports finished and Kerser due to come out in a few minutes, the venue’s half empty dance floor soon filled up to about a generous half full crowd with the numbers beefed up by people finally leaving the bar areas. Kerser graced the stage to a sheer frenzy of people who had been eagerly waiting to see the man himself and opened with plenty of banter and back and forth with the crowd. “Don’t fuck with Kerser!”, “You’re all sick c***s”, and “When I say [insert word]…you say [insert word]” were a plenty. It’s safe to say that the entire Kerser set can be recreated in your own bedroom. Just invite a whole bunch of random polo wearing people over, play very loud and bass heavy music, and get everyone to jump, kick, and yell as loud as they can while some guy raps over the top off the all the commotion. That is essentially the Kerser gig in a nutshell. But to be fair, fans of Kerser and his specific genre of underground Australian rap will have absolutely lapped that set up, with Kerser effortlessly switching up between a mellow freestyle to a up-beat dancer number; and all the while the entire crowd is singing along word for word back to him. Although many in the audience were more concentrated on filming the gig on their phones rather than dancing or singing or doing anything other than staring at their phones recording the set. There were a number of technical issues towards the end and 2nd encore of the set. Which gave Kerser time to rant out Kayne West style “how much of a sick c*** everyone is for coming out tonight” and so on and so forth. And on a final note, on the way out not more than four police cars and a dozen police officers greeted punters as they left the venue.
Get tickets to Kerser in all his glory at Good Life in March here
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