Live Review: Earlwolf

13 June 2013 | 9:58 pm | Jazmine O’Sullivan

Tonight has been a night of laughs, dancing, raving and bruises; one that no audience member is going to forget any time soon.

Protests couldn't stop the highly controversial Earlwolf show from going ahead at Eatons Hill Hotel tonight, much to the delight of this all ages crowd. The warm up DJ has been doing a fine job of exciting punters, however, as Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, The Creator burst onto the scene, joined by their Odd Future pals Jasper Dolphin and Taco Bennett, spectators erupt in rapture. Earl takes the spotlight for opening song Blade, which instils an appropriate level of grandeur to set the tone for the evening. Tyler takes the opportunity to address the fact that his in-store appearance at Culture Kings was shut down, and apologises for only getting to see about 20 people there. Possibly in an effort to rectify any disappointment fans may have felt by this, everyone onstage brings a ridiculous amount of energy and swag to their performance; in fact, Tyler is busting moves so ferociously that he dislocates his shoulder during Yonkers. 

To get an idea of the level of admiration this crowd have for the guys up on stage, consider that Tyler is able to continually refer to us as arseholes and receive wild cheers for it, gets us to chant 'tampon' over and over again for his own amusement, and when an unruly spectator throws a cup of ice onto the stage, everyone boos and shames him for his disrespect – they absolutely worship these guys and it's not hard to see why. Earlwolf keep the crowd dancing for the entirety of their set, with the audience singing along to every word of most tracks, including Orange Juice, Drop, Chum, Oldie and Whoa. We also get a glimpse of one of Earl's new songs, 150 Molasses, which he teaches the crowd to singalong with, going a little something like, “I'll fuck the freckles off your face bitch! There's also an element of comedy to their style; it's fantastic to see Tyler reference Dave Chappelle's famous skit mocking Dean Howard's speech to conquer The White House, with “BYAH thrown into his performance several times. Towards the end of the set, they instruct the crowd on ground level to create a huge circle of clear space, which no one is allowed to break into until Tyler raises his hand. The anticipation of breaking into that circle is so great, the crowd virtually turns violent as soon his hand flies up, with everyone eager to thrash about. 

For a show that's been flagged as highly controversial and offensive, it's refreshing to see that these guys are just normal people who want to have a bit of fun and put on a good show. Tonight has been a night of laughs, dancing, raving and bruises; one that no audience member is going to forget any time soon.