Tom Olesen learns about the joys of daggering from Major Lazer at their Village Underground gig.
You know you're a big deal musically when you can easily sell out a Wednesday night. Major Lazer are just such a big deal. Village Underground is packed by the time I arrive and the bar is four or five people deep.
Maluca is the support act and it's easy to see why so much of the audience seem pretty non-nonplussed about her and are instead packing out the bar. She's a statuesque figure on stage, but her singing voice is a little too thin to compete with the banging backing tracks. Her stuff works best when she is doing more of a fast chat, baile funk style of vocal. Overall I'm left with the impression of a kind of gabba Grace Jones...which maybe makes it sound better than it actually was.
Major Lazer take to the stage to a massive roar from the gathered crowd of hipsters. Two dancing ladies do a zombie-esque stuttering pop ‘n’ lock from either side of the booth and end up front and centre busting out some bionic booty winding, following them on to stage is MC Skerrit Bwoy. He kicks it off with call and response; there are some definite hip hop sensibilities to the opening of this show. The energy the dancers and Skerrit bring to the stage is infectious and there isn't a person in the place without their hands in the air.
The massive pitched roof and bricked arches give the impression of being inside a giant lean-to at the base of aqueduct. The wall of 808's is made a little muddy by the large reverberant space but as boomy as it is, it's also warm and enveloping so it doesn't sound bad. Clearly Major Lazer can't just play the one album of material they have, so it's mixed up with some of their individual productions and remixes as well as tracks by other people. Ding Dong's 'Badman Forward Badman Pull Up’ gets a particularly big cheer, as does Barrington Levy's ‘Murderer’ which is remixed into something much dirtier.
The sound now is like four to the floor dubstep. The dancing ladies come back on stage after a quick costume change clutching massive inflatable laser guns. The anything goes aspect of Major Lazer's mixing is highlighted by a filthy remix of Rhianna, followed shortly afterwards by Ace of Base's 'All That She Wants'. It shouldn't work, it shouldn't, but it fits perfectly and the sing-along aspect is taken up with gusto by the crowd. Just when it couldn't get much more lively they drop ‘Pon de Floor’. It's the moment most of the crowd has paid their money for and it goes off. Water bottles fly everywhere and the front of the crowd looks like a mosh pit. There is no way they're getting through it without a rewind and, after being duly pulled up, the second time it drops is even more frantic. Towards the end of the set they go into some classic reggae bangers and right at the end Jammer and Mumdance jump up for the encore.
This wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as it was without the dancers and Skerrit Bwoy though. They make the night. Highlights included Skerrit Bwoy jumping off a ladder, trousers around his ankles, straight in to grinding a prostate audience member who he'd previously carried/dry humped around the stage, despite being a good foot shorter than his chosen victim. He also stage dived into the audience at the end, from the top of the same step ladder, to a rapturous reaction.
This, surely, must be one of the best DJ shows in the world right now. It doesn't have the lights and the sheen of something like Etienne De Crecy's cube or Deadmaus's weird mouse head but in terms of fun party vibes they're streets ahead. They've managed to capture the best of things like baile, soca, and kuduro and present it in an old school reggae soundsystem style. This broad range of influences is 'four to the floor' enough to bring in those that like house and techno, it's got enough nasty bassy elements to bring in those that like dubstep and drum and bass, and it takes a lot of its live show influence from reggae and hip hop so it appeals to fans of those too. Basically you'd better believe the hype, Major Lazer are superb.
Click here for all London DJ music.
Click here for things to do in London.
Click here for the Major Lazer v.s La Roux Mixtape
Add an event