Nas live at the Palace, Melbourne 2009 - Music





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Nas live at the Palace, Melbourne 2009

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Live review and photos

Nov 04, 2009 at 12:01

Just days after Akon performed an arena spectacular punctuated by brawls, an actual hip hop icon had a half-filled Palace (formerly the Metro) torn. Audience reviews were entirely polarised – from "top five live experiences ever" to "that was the fucking Bon Jovi of hip hop"*.

Nas did have most of the crowd in the palm of his hand from the first dulcet tones of 'Hip Hop is Dead' though. He bounced onto the stage sporting a button-up, his trademark pharaoh bling and that jaunty beanie. His voice is as velvety live as it is on recording, and the seven-piece band was borderline metal (was the guitarist wearing a gimp mask?) making the whole concert a departure from your regular hip hop gig. However, Mr Jones' frenetic pace meant that there was little room for between song banter – the man managed to perform close to 20 tracks throughout the show with 'Nas Is Like', 'Made You Look' and 'Got Yourself a Gun' all crowd favourites.

The offstage highlight was the fact that Nas attracted an amazing audience – they were respectful, lacking attitude and excited to see the East Coast legend in action. There were no fights and despite the differing responses the audience remained positive, even if only for nastalgic* reasons. It was a crowd that accurately reflected hip hop culture. (Take that, Herald Sun.)

WORST: Cheesy as it may be, just one verse of 'I Can' wasn't quite enough.
BEST: The girl who said "Yeah, and I love how after he raps he says something really beautiful and deep".

Photos by Josh Robenstone. *Thanks to Stacey and Josh for the witty quotes that were unashamedly thieved.

Posted By: Katie Olsen

Tags: Music, 90s

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'5' comment(s) have been made

Senior Member

jinx87

so wanted to go to this!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:23:43 PM

New Lounger

Kingston

If Jayz is king, Nas is the prince...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:40:22 PM

Advanced Member

Mikolai

Show was really good - crowd was really diverse. Wu Tang, meanwhile, was like a crystal meth enthusiasts convention.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:51:39 PM

Advanced Member

M_tothe_ IRO

really? that's no good. I went to Red and Method when they were touring together. The crowd was a little bit on bogan side. But the vibe was awesome, not a fight in the joint. Tell me you put your "WU" up. and that they did an ODB tribute.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:57:43 PM

Advanced Member

Mikolai

I resisted to urge to put my 'WU' up - but I'm old and jaded like that. The rest of the crowd had no such qualms and yes, there was a ODB tribute. Don't get me wrong, the show was dope, the crowd was just super dodgy.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:06:12 PM