Reprazent: Thekla

Friday 4th April 2008

This is a Crackerjack review of Reprazent. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 10 / 10.

You had to feel a little for support act Inner City Dwellers. Warming up in Bristol for one of the best bands the city has ever produced, playing their first live show here in years – stealing any of Reprazent’s thunder was always going to be nigh-on impossible.

The fresh-faced six-piece stuck to their task well though, limbering up the crowd with a rabble-rousing mix of rock, dub and hip-hop.

“We’re not drum & bass,” claimed frontman MC Rage, but the genre’s influence was obvious in more than just his vocal delivery.

There’s plenty to investigate here for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine fans, although sound issues and the small stage didn’t help their cause on the night.

The sound quality had, thankfully, improved spectacularly by the time Reprazent took the stage in a blur of blue lights and dry ice.

Although a jazzy instrumental made for a strange choice of opener, things didn’t stay low-key for long.

Dynamite MC bounded on stage and straight into the irresistible one-two of Railing and Brown Paper Bag, the opening tracks of New Forms.

His energy levels never dipped throughout but the real star was Onalee, whose virtuoso vocal performance on Snapshot and Share The Fall in particular was matched with an effortless command of the stage.

All this despite repeatedly stopping singing to say hello to familiar faces in the crowd, explaining “I ain’t been here for ages” in the broadest Bristol accent.

The musicianship in general was faultless as the band ripped though tracks from both Reprazent albums, several Roni Size solo efforts and even a rapturously received old skool jungle medley.

Si John’s bass has lost none of its potency, Full Cycle mainstay D-Product has filled the space left by Krust, Die and Suv’s absence with quiet assurance, and new drummer Yuval Gabay is a 100mph whirling dervish.

As for the main man himself – the broad smile on Roni Size’s face as Dynamite announced “Reprazent are back” suggests his disillusionment with drum & bass is a thing of the past.

Back they empathetically are: the line-up may be new, but you wouldn’t find any of this sell-out Thekla crowd suggesting the old magic wasn’t intact.

Steve Wright

This is a Crackerjack review of Reprazent. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.