Live Review: The Pharcyde, Computerjay, Funkola, Kings Tongue Elite

Comedians have bottled water. Rockers have a beer. Hip hoppers always, without exception, have white towels, and when tonight's towel man ghosted across the stage to deposit his fluffy cargo, we knew The Pharcyde were almost here.

The slightly under capacity crowd had been warmed up by three decent support acts. Kings Tongue Elite thronged the stage shortly after doors opened. For those who don't know, they're “Just (some) other motherfucker(s) from the Rockingham streets”. The set was tight, and the young blokes were confident spitting into the void that was the 8pm dancefloor – despite, or perhaps thanks to the embryonic crowd.

Our second act for the evening was Funkola. They deal in good time rhymes and worked hard against the headwinds of adhesive carpet and an early time slot to get people from the bar to the stage. The anticipation and party vibes continued when Computerjay got behind the decks/laptop. Lung-shaking electro bass and some tech scratching were the soundtrack to a bank of monitors, providing an optical/visual assault.

You could call them 'The Partcyde', missing as they were original members Fat Lip and Slimkid3 – not a problem for Bootie Brown and Imani though, and from the get-go the remaining original members from The Pharcyde did the job of ten men. Their stage presence, zeal and dedication to showing Capitol a good time were nothing short of astonishing – it really was the kind of set where glasses remained empty and bladders remained full, rather than take your eyes off the stage or feet off the dancefloor. When they said “Oh”, we said “Shit!”, when they said “Hip”, we said “Hop!” and when the classics were interrupted for a solo effort each from Bootie and Imani we said 'that's fine!'. The fans in the audience were blessed with the chance to experience genuine treasures from the golden age's vintage vault. Pack The Pipe and Passin' Me By turned the crowd into one massive echo chamber and Dirty Harry, Bootie Brown's 2005 collaboration with Gorillaz, pricked the ears of the very few at the back who weren't already fans.

The J Dilla produced anthem Runnin' finished a dynamite set and reminded the boozy crowd about City 2 Surf commitments tomorrow. A good note to reluctantly leave on, but run away before the end? I'd sooner piss my pants.