Watch & Listen: The Streets and Lady Sovereign

Dubbs and I took in a double billing of The Streets and Lady Sovereign at Webster Hall last night. I’m a hardcore grime devotee so I had high hopes for both acts. Lady Sovereign, plagued by a malfunctioning PA, an audience that’d never heard her handful of songs which’ve only dropped as an overseas EP and her own discomfort with live performance, fell flat. A shame.

Mike Skinner salvaged the night with living, breathing musicians and the deft hand of a master of crowd control. Admittedly, his unrhythmic, lyrical geezer style gets lost at a live show. But the hooks were still catchy as fuck and managed to sway the hipsters, slappers and brit gals standing around me. When they launched into “Don’t Mug Yourself”, Skinner loosed the bottles of vodka and brandy that were on tap, welded to the drum kit, and watered the open mouths of the front row, bobbing in place like guppies.

I’m sad to say that the show ended a little too soon for me. If I had my way, The Streets wouldn’t have peppered in as many slow tempo tracks. I’m a sucker for sentimentality, but I felt that it slowed the pace. I can also understand the desire to play newer music, but The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living isn’t half as good as previous efforts, especially when you fail to play “Can’t Con an Honest Jon”. All grievances were forgotten when Skinner stormed back onstage for an encore performance of “Fit But You Know It”. Dubbs and I got our mouths and chins doused in booze, I got punched in the face and when all was said and done, I dove over the barrier in front of the stage to snag the set list. Chuffed? You can’t imagine. (flickr)

Lady Sovereign - "Random" (mp3)
The Streets - "Too Much Brandy" (mp3)
The Streets - "It Was Supposed To Be So Easy" (mp3)
The Streets - "Blinded By The Light" (mp3)
The Streets - "Prangin' Out" (mp3)
The Streets - "The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living" (mp3)
The Streets - "Can't Con An Honest Jon" (mp3)