Live review: Das Racist, Sydney

30 January 2012

by Shannon Connellan

January 25, 2012
Oxford Art Factory

Wednesday night Oxford Street wanderers may have had to check their dosage last week when a large tongue protruded from the cheek of the Oxford Art Factory. Brooklyn’s Das Racist were ready to break out the chaos at the inner-Sydney venue, notably located in walking distance from George Street’s Pizza Hut.

If you’re going to watch Das Racist in action, you’d better come equipped with a solid sense of humour; a trio described by the Big Day Out crew as “weed-edge/Hare Krishna hardcore/art-rap/freak/folk.” There ain’t no pigeon hole for these guys, they’re bang up fun-meets-academic referential provocation. The threesome have clocked up followers worldwide, with two mixtapes, YouTube hits aplenty for their 2008 breakthrough hit Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and a swag of praise following their debut album release Relax last year.

:: READ TMN'S REVIEW OF RELAX

With punters filling up on $5 Sex Punch specials at the bar, the Oxford Art Factory was abuzz with anticipation as the supports struck the mood. The Brooklyn-based threesome were foreshadowed by Sydney’s notorious Simo Soo and loveable trio True Vibenation who kicked things off with a solid set from their debut album The Sunshower Phenomenon. The twin-brothers-and-friend combo proved as adorable as expected, with personal jokes, live horns and onstage antics aplenty. True Vibenation exude a certain in-joke confidence onstage, one that can only be described as the level of comfort gained from many hours spent jamming in the rumpus room while the grown ups are out to tea. Fronting crowd-pleasing Jay-Z-heavy mashups and nerd-ref rhymes including “we were so scared we felt like we were in Helm’s Deep,” the set was nothing short of a teenage dream.

Now limbered up on many a Sex Punch, the audience was ready to motor for the main event. Gearing the crowd up for provocative rhymes and announced as a “brand new signee” to the DR crew, the leather jacket-clad, curly-ponytailed Lakutis sweatily sauntered onstage to scattered squees and hollers of “KUUUUTTIIISS!!” DR’s New York buddy appeared on their early mixtape Sit Down, Man and hitched a ride to Australia with the crew for the Big Day Out tour. For many this would be an initial introduction to the catalogue of Lakutis, as a result tunes including I’m Better Than Everybody and Death Shark triggered many a puzzled but mesmerised expression across the room. Lakutis surprised even himself when he managed to nab a bottle of wine from a frontrow fan and whip the OAF crowd into a round of elated chanting “I’m Dennis Quaid bitch, Dennis, Dennis Quaid bitch.” Not one to waste a moment in the sun, Lakutis burped, farted and swung rhymes into the mic before being joined by his Das Racist buddies onstage. Taking an upstage spot on laptop beats for his friends, Lakutis would groggily sway his way through the DR set, casually spitting up wine under the decks and not missing a beat until their final indulgent walkoff to Tina Turner’s ‘Simply The Best’.

With MCs Heems, Kool A.D. and hypeman Dapwell finally onstage through staggered, announced entrances, Das Racist delivered their riotously enjoyable set. The trio immediately snagged the crowd through an age old, never-fail tool: the call and response, with a packed out OAF blindly rinsing and repeating with the Brooklyn threesome.

For a group that have only been together for about two years, these guys were tight, finishing each others rap sentences and never missing a cue. Das Racist fronted a short and sweet set, even jamming occasionally with acapella breakdowns, often pulled to a halt by Lakutis’ Tarzan screams. The explosive and ridiculous single Michael Jackson gained quite the roar, as the trio questioned if the OAF indeed did feel them in front of spinning 3D dollar sign projections. Notably, these self-made projections proved useful in keeping audience minds in the bemused realm, with rippling, distorted images of Beyonce, Ghostbusters, The Mask, X-Men and Law and Order: SVU transforming the snug OAF stage into a warped teenage bedroom.

With no encore, and disappointingly no Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, the crowd left somewhat miffed. Perhaps this was a nod to the closure of the last Taco Bell in Australia in 2005, perhaps this was a strategic move to urge listeners to venture further into their extensive back catalogue. Perhaps they just couldn’t be fucked. Regardless, Das Racist tore a new shambolic hole in the Oxford Art Factory, filled it with jokes, rhymes and references to corporate greed and intolerance and left us to sing their biggest hit all the way home.