Ugly Duckling
Wednesday 25th May 2007
Moles Club, Bath
We sent Daniel Manning to watch the gig...
Ugly Duckling
It's the intimacy of the Moles venue that makes it such an alluring night out. The stage descends onto the dance floor, the underground gloom glows with neon strip-lights and the tables hold bottles of Jack Daniel's as candleholders. This state of groove and warmth is not the atmosphere hip-hop's renowned for, but thankfully, tonight's artists don't use conventional methods.
The crowd soon gathered, until a maelstrom of anticipating fans were bopping around the stage and milling between the bars. Halfway House Emcees started the evening with an energetic and rehearsed performance that, in parts, screamed originality. Their short hip-hop set certainly woke the fans, and hushed talk of Ugly Duckling's imminent appearance rippled through the crowded dance floor. Then, with the smoothest intro I've seen, Dizzy Dustin and Andy Cooper stormed the stage and took their roles as Masters of Ceremonies.
An instantly responsive audience chanted along to Clap Your Hands To The Beat Like This, and danced furiously to blended jazz crescendos and break-beat trip-hop. The band's DJ, Young Einstein, is one of the most talented scratch artists of the genre, and although he was tucked into the corner and hidden by the bulk of Dizzy Dustin, it was obvious he was loving every moment.
They're here tonight to promote their third album; Bang For The Buck, and Young Einstein's side project; Swissprecise. Fat Beat's friends and colleagues handed out flyers, interacted at the sellers' stall and mingled on-stage with open calm. It was clear that Ugly Duckling's old school hip-hop was influenced by artists such as Zulu nation and Native Tongue Posse, but with their controlled rapping, brass sections and funky baselines they've carved themselves a niche. Call it...Comedic-Jazz-Hop?
I moved through the crowd, staring in awe as the MCs tossed the microphones between them and jumped around the stage. They shifted swiftly into an effective, but cliched, cap-over-face tension, and repeated a whisper of 'pass it on' that stimulated a roar from an appreciative audience. Whilst Dizzy paraded his Giants and Gods jacket, Andy Cooper changed into a fast food costume and pulled a girl up on-stage to flirt with. The audience howled and revelled in the theatrical banter, until Dizzy declared that 'it's good to get some oestrogen onstage, but now we need some testosterone' and Shoot Your Shot exploded onto the set. The hysterical dancing intensified with Let It Out and by the pounding horns of End Of Time everyone was embracing the band's groove.
I never thought I'd enjoy heavily tattooed men sweating to hip-hop, but by the end of their set I'd joined in with the shouts for a well deserved encore. They played the last song with un-ending energy and disappeared into the electricity of the crowd. When I asked Andy Cooper to sum up the gig in one phrase, he looked at me with an affectionate grin and said between laughs; 'Quality mate. Packed in like a tin of sardines.'
It's obvious Ugly Duckling have matured since their debut in 1993, and with the success of their new album, and Shoestring's promise for Moles, I'm sure this won't be their only visit from Long Beach, California, to the not-so quiet city of Bath.
For more information on Ugly Duckling, including tour dates, see their page here on Ents24.
This review was submitted as part of Ents24's Student Writing Competition at Bath Spa University, designed to provide Creative Writing students with experience of writing reviews and valuable help in getting their work published.
