'I fucking hate Sean Bean, I'll knock him out.'Location: Plug, Sheffield.
I think it's fair to say that a gig in Sheffield has taken a rather strange turn when esteemed local actor and celebrity Sheffield United fan, Sean Bean is derided for a solid two minutes by a performer - and the crowd cheer enthusiastically. Such is the scene in a small room in Plug on a cold Wednesday night. The hip hop/spoken word duo Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip well and truly have the crowd under control, they can seemingly do no wrong. Excellent support from ‘Kid A’ and ‘Misty’s Big Adventure’ hyped into a fervour before the main act arrived on stage and when they did, things only got better.
The two piece released their first album Angles in May 2008 to broadly positive critical reception and it charted at #31 in the UK album chart. This is the second leg of the tour for their second album, The Logic of Chance, released in March 2010. This part of the tour is lengthy and precedes a trip to mainland Europe. However, the band show no signs of weariness, commencing with the album opener Sick Tonight and moving through a set which comprises a variety of tracks from the new album as well as staple fan favourites from their debut, they’re even good enough to take a request of the fan favourite, but rarely played Tommy C, a song about Tommy Cooper from their first album. Dan Le Sac stands powerfully behind his array of ‘new noises’, hyping the crowd up as Scroobius Pip refreshes him self from a bottle of wine between songs.
The band do not deal with ‘stereotypical’ contemporary hip hop subject matter, many of their songs focussing on themes such as: teen suicide; class divide; the UK music industry; religion; unemployment and poverty. Indeed, they reference this themselves, Pip noting, ‘that was a song about suicide, I’m glad it really got you jumping’. Despite this tough subject matter the mood never drops, both Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip are humourous and charismatic, they never come across as self-important or preachy, perhaps in a way therefore making their lyrics all the more profound.
The two interact very well and their music works brilliantly live, Scroobius Pip never misses a word nor Dan Le Sac a beat, their set is about an hour and twenty minutes, frenetic and even with an encore leaves the crowd, which is of a surprisingly diverse age range, wanting more - just as they should do. In short, the performance was excellent, the style of their music requires great audience interaction which they were able to generate and this definitely added to the show. I was initially ambivalent at paying £14.50 for a band I’d seen only a few months before, however as soon as I saw the support I released how erroneous my concerns were, let alone the headline act. This was a great night out and definite value for money, something which is a painfully pressing concern for any students.
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