Live Review: RL Grime, Tommy Kruise

Montreal producer Tommy Kruise jumped on stage after 9pm, signature chipped tooth, straggly hair, frontwards cap, gangster slouch and all to warm up the very young, inebriated and zealous crowd, playing mostly trap and hip hop beats during his support set.

When 10.30pm rolled around, it was very clear how LA producer RL Grime had managed to sell out two back-to-back Sydney shows. By the number of smart phones waving about in the air, it was also obvious that pubescent teenagers and eager, unripened early 20-somethings make up his very loyal, very dedicated fan base.

The laser-shooting light show was absolutely insane, and RL Grime (real name Henry Steinway) drove straight into a set that was jam-packed with attitude and unapologetic bass-heavy trap beats. Grime also dabbled with a bit of deep tech house and bigroom house, as well as classic old-school rap and hip hop, playing Lil Wayne’s A Milli and Snoop Dogg’s Drop It Like It’s Hot, which had the crowd completely up in arms. The two main highlights of the set were his remixes of Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction and Kanye West’s Mercy, which completely blew the roof off and had the bun-wearing dude in front of me bending and arching ecstatically, while the walls (and everyone inside them) dripped heavily with sweat.

Towards the end of his set Grime threw in a couple of tracks by Sydney’s trap/bass producer What So Not (now Emoh Instead), including Jaguar and Tell Me, a track that was a collaboration between the two producers. Grime knew exactly what buttons to push with his audience and delivered a very strong, well-prepared and thought-out set, reaffirming his position as one of the key figures in the trap music scene.