Electric blue hoodies that read, "Last Year Was Weird," are hot Tkay Maidza merch items with many seen slung over bags this evening.
The moment triple j Unearthed winner Arno Faraji and his DJ hit the stage they teach us eager-beaver early arrivals how to bounce (our arms). Faraji wears an over-the-shoulder manbag that looks like it stores CDs for his Discman and we're immediately hooked. "I’m on a level,” he praises, feeling our love, particularly those assembled to his left who receive high-fives and are declared "lit”. The twosome get the crowd involved and their bouncy enthusiasm is welcomed. They close with Bless (What It's Like) - the recorded version of which features REMI (no wonder it kicks arse) - and we're pumped. Faraji sure says "lit” a lot and we can't wait to catch him live again.
We're still Googling to find out more about Faraji and liking his Facey page when Kwame’s DJ gets started with some buzzing bass beats that make your bits feel funny if you’re sitting down. Then Kwame bounds out on stage wearing a white hoodie (hood up). Kwame's name's up on the back screen, dropping in and out, in case we don’t remember it. He obviously loves early Kanye and dashes frenetically across the front of that stage. The DJ deals skittish beats and bleeps. Kwame might be suffering by comparison to tonight’s preceding act, but he comes over as a tad contrived. Guest MC Phil Fresh hits the stage for Who Dat and definitely pulls focus. Fresh has got some fizzy flow and it all comes so naturally; he just does his thing. Kwame could probably rein it in a tad. They close with After Party as the crowd shout along ("Where da after party?") and it's gangsta AF.
Kwame
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
At 10.30pm on the dot (our headliner's advertised start time), punters chant, “T-KAY! T-KAY!” Moments later there's a recorded intro/skit about someone stealing a bag, being busted emptying it out in the parking lot and then trying to pretend they were returning it. The audience chuckles. This pre-recorded story concludes, "Last year was weird," and then Big Things cranks in as our opener. Four blinding, forward-facing blue lights on stands spread evenly across the back of the stage and are so bright we can barely make out the visuals on the screen behind them. Drummer Tim Commandeur (Pnau, Operator Please) is positioned far stage right and Annabel Hartlett (Godlands) pogos behind the console, far stage left, leaving Tkay Maidza with plenty of room to jump around. "I’m gonna take these earrings off, 'cause I just wanted to get a cool photo,” Maidza confesses after this first number.
Maidza then teaches us how she'd like us to respond each time she asks us how we're doing: "Bro, you should already know I’m good!” (Later changing her mind and instructing us to replace this response with, "Bitch, I’m good!”) She’s a ray of sunshine up there in her yellow prisoner-style jumpsuit and her giggly presence is contagious. DKLA, the Troye Sivan song Maidza features on, is a surprise inclusion.
There’s loads of strobes and Commandeur's galloping drumbeats and cymbal smashes command our hips (geddit?) during MOB (Money Over Bitches). Performing her Martin Solveig feature, Do It Right, Maidza is cuteness overload and mixing these songs for which she supplies guest vocals in with her own material gives the set dynamic interest. Girlfriend also doesn't only rap like a boss bitch, she also sings like an angel (Glide). White roses and vines wind around mic stand and DJ booth, which suddenly makes sense when White Rose is delivered.
During the catchy-as-hell, cartoonish Switch Lanes ("la-la-lanes"), Hartlett chants, "Go Tkay! Go Tkay," as Maidza dances. Can twerking ever be classy? Maidza makes it so. When Simulation starts, Hartlett points at specific crowd members who know the words and sing along and engages with us as much as Maidza throughout. After telling us she responds to her friends' texts and messages straight away, wherever she is in the world, because she's "always awake", Maidza teaches us how to holler the, "Prolly awake!" response and then we score a song she introduces as Awake. But there's a false start, 'cause Maidza ain't satisfied we're "hella lit" enough. She then scales the stage-right scaffolding to fully show off her yellow jumpsuit and SHE’S hella lit! There are so many dimensions to Maidza's sonic universe and Flexin’ (after which this tour is named) demonstrates yet another. Kwame and Faraji return to the stage for this one, flexing their chops as well as their biceps. Then all leave the stage.
"One more song! One more song!" After Maidza and co return to the stage, she claims, “So we actually don’t have any more songs". (Um what about Brontosaurus, Tennies - the list goes on!) "We can play Flexin’ again if you like!” she suggests (as if we have a choice). But what a grand finale! Far from just a repeat of the closer, Maidza climbs the stage-right scaffolding once more, stage dives and then crowd-surfs back to the stage. An effortless superstar.
Kwame
