Live Review: Vince Staples, Kucka

Perth's very own Kucka is an obvious choice to open for Vince Staples who's touring his second offering Big Fish Theory. Not only does she deal in the same glitchy textures and dreamy pastels that find their way into Staples' own production, but the two have also featured together on a number of tracks.

After her extremely well received set opened the evening, one would have imagined that Kucka would return to the stage throughout Staples' set to offer some of her vocals on any number of the tracks the two share credits on. But this was not the case.

Staples took the stage the same way that he would spend the entire set: as a silhouette in a black sweater, machine-gunning lyrics in front of a goldfish-orange backdrop. Obscuring his face from the audience made it clear that Staples wasn't there to flatter anyone (a vibe further encouraged by his almost complete lack of audience banter). In total, the show was a straight-to-the-brain-stem, deeply physical experience. His distance from the audience combined with his complete devotion to the performance made for a raw, unfiltered show for punters. 

Not only was Staples alarmingly flawless in his flow and character, but he also brought total command of the stage. Once this became apparent, it was also clear that he wasn't sharing his stage with anyone (not least Kucka). Accordingly, he left some of his biggest collaborations out and instead focused on Big Fish Theory (but also pulled out 2014's Blue Suede and two tracks from 2015's Summertime '06: Norf Norf and Senorita).