EarlWolf (Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt) @ The Palace Theatre, Melbourne (07/06/2013)
Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt are the underground teen heartthrobs of their generation.
But unlike Harry Styles or Justin Beiber, they're not smiling for the camera and posing with adoring young girls (although I'm sure many of their female fans would love it if they would). They're young, awkward, bombastic, stupid, over the top, and painfully selfaware, a fact that is mirrored not only in their music, but in their live performances.
You'd think that after a two and a half hour wait for an act to come on, with nothing but a DJ to tie them over, the crowd that dutifully showed up for EarlWolf last Friday would be quickly running out of things to Instagram in the wonderfully retro Palace Theatre, and had slowly begun wondering when the hell Tyler and Earl were actually going to turn up on stage. Honestly, you'd be completely right. But it also says something about the sheer magnetism and explosive energy that takes over the room the moment that the two Odd Future luminaries explode out from behind the curtain, that from that very moment, the crowd is completely and utterly in the palm of EarlWolf's hand.
Little can be said about the music itself, with DJ Taco on hand to essentially hit play on a Macbook to get a backing track started. The stomping, crunchy, bass-to-make-yourinsides-bleed beats that Tyler and Earl spit along with are truly at their best coming over the impressive sound-system set up at the Palace, and the two rappers didn't miss a beat or a line with plenty of personality to keep the songs fresh, not to mention cutting most of the tracks in half in a bit to pack in as much music as possible, something I think actually worked quite well.
They blasted through plenty of the Odd Future catalogue, stand outs being Oldie, and Taco/Jasper Dolphin team up Bitch Suck Dick, which Earl described as "the most beautiful song in the set", but real highlights would be much of the material off the latest release from Tyler, 'Wolf', songs like Domo 23, IFHY (I Fucking Hate You), Jamba, and Tamale, all which got the crowd essentially to a point where they were tearing each other hair out and doing backflips in the middle of the circle pit (which literally happened, it was great).
Earl also took the opportunity to spruike his upcoming album 'Doris', which is slated for a July release, playing a few tracks off of it, which were well received and nice originality to them which managed to set them aside from the rest of the most Tyler-dominated setlist.
Something that can be spoken for however is that even when they're so tired and jet
lagged they literally have to request the crowd to bring them Red Bull after their second song, the absolute emotional and physical input that Tyler and Earl put into their live performances is something that I can truly respect.
Dancing, stomping about, even just simply punching about at the air just somehow perfectly fits the mood that the music sets, and it's nice to see the guys are actually having fun, even if it is at the expense of ridiculing the audience sometimes.
This would be worthless however if that energy was not reciprocated by the audience, and by hell, is it ever. Circle-pits, crowd surfing, punch-ons, and just generally throwing shit around are apparently the tricks of the trade when it comes to an Odd Future concert, and its nice to see Melbourne audiences doing something other than the 'Hipster Bop' at a live show.
All in all, if you get the chance to catch EarlWolf, Tyler The Creator, or Earl Sweatshirt, take it. They're a fantastically enjoyable group to watch live, and honestly, even if they're kind of obnoxious, when they entertain you as much as I got entertained last friday, it's well worth it.
Nick Kennedy
But unlike Harry Styles or Justin Beiber, they're not smiling for the camera and posing with adoring young girls (although I'm sure many of their female fans would love it if they would). They're young, awkward, bombastic, stupid, over the top, and painfully selfaware, a fact that is mirrored not only in their music, but in their live performances.
You'd think that after a two and a half hour wait for an act to come on, with nothing but a DJ to tie them over, the crowd that dutifully showed up for EarlWolf last Friday would be quickly running out of things to Instagram in the wonderfully retro Palace Theatre, and had slowly begun wondering when the hell Tyler and Earl were actually going to turn up on stage. Honestly, you'd be completely right. But it also says something about the sheer magnetism and explosive energy that takes over the room the moment that the two Odd Future luminaries explode out from behind the curtain, that from that very moment, the crowd is completely and utterly in the palm of EarlWolf's hand.
Little can be said about the music itself, with DJ Taco on hand to essentially hit play on a Macbook to get a backing track started. The stomping, crunchy, bass-to-make-yourinsides-bleed beats that Tyler and Earl spit along with are truly at their best coming over the impressive sound-system set up at the Palace, and the two rappers didn't miss a beat or a line with plenty of personality to keep the songs fresh, not to mention cutting most of the tracks in half in a bit to pack in as much music as possible, something I think actually worked quite well.
They blasted through plenty of the Odd Future catalogue, stand outs being Oldie, and Taco/Jasper Dolphin team up Bitch Suck Dick, which Earl described as "the most beautiful song in the set", but real highlights would be much of the material off the latest release from Tyler, 'Wolf', songs like Domo 23, IFHY (I Fucking Hate You), Jamba, and Tamale, all which got the crowd essentially to a point where they were tearing each other hair out and doing backflips in the middle of the circle pit (which literally happened, it was great).
Earl also took the opportunity to spruike his upcoming album 'Doris', which is slated for a July release, playing a few tracks off of it, which were well received and nice originality to them which managed to set them aside from the rest of the most Tyler-dominated setlist.
Something that can be spoken for however is that even when they're so tired and jet
lagged they literally have to request the crowd to bring them Red Bull after their second song, the absolute emotional and physical input that Tyler and Earl put into their live performances is something that I can truly respect.
Dancing, stomping about, even just simply punching about at the air just somehow perfectly fits the mood that the music sets, and it's nice to see the guys are actually having fun, even if it is at the expense of ridiculing the audience sometimes.
This would be worthless however if that energy was not reciprocated by the audience, and by hell, is it ever. Circle-pits, crowd surfing, punch-ons, and just generally throwing shit around are apparently the tricks of the trade when it comes to an Odd Future concert, and its nice to see Melbourne audiences doing something other than the 'Hipster Bop' at a live show.
All in all, if you get the chance to catch EarlWolf, Tyler The Creator, or Earl Sweatshirt, take it. They're a fantastically enjoyable group to watch live, and honestly, even if they're kind of obnoxious, when they entertain you as much as I got entertained last friday, it's well worth it.
Nick Kennedy