Live Review: Salt N Pepa, Merv Mac., DJ Def Rock

So the State Theatre isn't exactly ghetto, but tonight it was still shameless old-school hip hop hits and memories. Led by the Queens, Salt N Pepa (Cheryl James and Sandra Denton respectively), there was no pretending that we've all grown up a bit (or at least gotten older). But that's not to say that the girls are stuck in a time warp either.

Warmed up by locals DJ Def Rock and Merv Mac (only an Australian group would use the name 'Merv'), Salt N Pepa were introduced by a sample from Notorious B.I.G.'s Juicy, of course (name-checked nicely), before launching into their own Do You Want Me. With Salt in silver and Pepa in gold, as well a token boy dancer each, the duo played into the hands of the devoted screaming crowd. It was Salt N Pepa with added cheese (geddit?) as they got into a weird grown-up role play mid set (complete with bad pick-up lines and a karaoke version of I Will Survive), but no one was complaining. Instead, in between their own tunes the girls gave a 'best of' party mix of what's happened while they've been away, taking in everything from Guns N' Roses to Nirvana to Beyonce. There were some sidetracks we could have done without (Robin Thicke is not okay ladies, you can do better than that shit!), but all was forgiven with their own still awesome versions of Let's Talk About Sex, Shoop and of course, Whatta Man (complete with a punter onstage as proof of the goods). Pausing the latter mid song so that Salt could present Pepa with her own man (having secretly snuck her hubby into the building for a birthday surprise), even now, a couple of decades on, tunes like this stand strong. Missy Elliot, Beyonce, Lauren Hill, The Black Eyed Peas were just some of the newer acts sampled between originals, but clearly also acts that have benefited from such pioneering hip hop pop. Of course the encore was Push It (led in by a sample of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, just because they could), and it was real good.