We Get Around... with Urthboy and Hermitude

There are two things that I miss about Melbourne town (besides my family and friends, of course): live music and cafe culture. There's really not much I can do about the sad lack of cafe culture here. Sigh...Here they consider the souless hallows of Starbucks the only cafes to go to.

But thankfully the live music scene has had its saving grace.

Last Saturday night, I sated my lust for live music at an Urthboy and Hermitude gig. I know, I did a double take when I first heard they were in Nagoya too. I couldn't believe that they were coming to Japan let alone in Nagoya.

I've heard of gigs being intimate but this was something else. As a prelude to the Elefant Traks crew I was treated to some Japanese hip hop. Unfortunately the first crew sounded too much like little boys who'd learnt their first swear words and were trying to use them as much as they could before their mothers heard them and spanked them for it. Luckily the rest were pretty fun to bounce to.

When Urthboy hit the stage I was there front and centre. Even though the place was tiny, the crowd was similarly tiny so I had plenty of room to bounce. There was this crazy Japanese girl, hair like Amy Winehouse, in a bikini and short overalls and enough bling around her neck to fund a political campaign. She was Sydney stomping and went berserk when I joined in. She was hilarious to dance with.

Urhtboy was amazing and because the gig was so intimate he interacted with the crowd a lot. You'll be pleased to hear that I am typing this blog with the hand that was personally high fived by Urthboy. No third hand high fives for me.

There was of course the requisite Aussie fans there. And where you get Aussies in a crowd situation you always have the Aussie hecklers. But Urthboy dealt with yells of 'Get your squid out' with aplomb. Lord, I do love my Aussie hip hop. At the end of his set, Elgusto smoothed in a remixed Mary Mary song and they came on down and had a boogie with us all.

We got a dance circle started. All the fly girls and b boys let rip. It was utterly hilarious. I couldn't dance I was laughing so much.

Then it was time for Hermitude to do their thing. I tore up that dancefloor during that set. I did a Dom and nearly took myself out with my own necklace. Luke Dubs set the keyboards on fire and Elgusto was the king of the MPC. They played a seamless mixture of old stuff and new. I never wanted it to end but of course their set flew by in a millisecond.

After they finished, the Elefant Trak boys just hung out in the crowd and grooved to the Japanese hiphoppers that followed them. I went up to say thanks for the show and ended up chatting to Tim for a while.

Yes that's right, I was on first name basis with Urthboy! It was his first time in Japan and he seemed slightly overwhelmed by it. They'd spent most of their time in Tokyo, had the one gig in Nagoya and were setting off for Osaka at 6am that morning before flying back to Australia. Nothing like a whirlwind tour of Japan surviving on absolutely no sleep, fly beats and beer. He was also really interested to hear about English teaching in japan. Um...yeah it's an amazingly sophisticated and glamourous job.

It was 4am when we finally stumbled out of the club and I was definitely the Nanna of Nanna gigging. But it was so good to feel the sweet ache of a live gig in my legs again. The only thing that would have made the night sweeter was having my Nanna gigging crew by my side.

Me and Tim (aka Urthboy...woo, first name basis)