live review: ofwgkta. electric ballroom, london. 6 july 2011.

i witnessed odd future take over camden’s electric ballroom last night from the balcony. the reasons for this were three fold. i’m old these days; i didn’t want to ruin myself for today’s beach boys gig; my glasses are fucking expensive. despite my aerial view, i am still able to confirm that tyler, the creator is a superstar in waiting. yeah, he’s got the whole thing about slightly unsuitable lyrics for heart fm holding him back, but he will be a superstar.

the entire collective performed a pretty impressive, if slightly disjointed, set with each and every one of them bringing something to the table. hodgy stood out for me, but i’ve spoken to others who have said domo genesis and mike g did the same job for them. that’s the beauty of odd future. there is something for everybody.

the highlights of the gig all centered around tyler though. tyler and his broken leg. whether he was calling the guy in the purple shirt who threw a shoe up to get a beating from hodgy beats (and then advising him not to actually come up) or sitting there deciding what song to do next as there was no playlist, tyler had the crowd in the palm of his hand. he even stage dived, broken leg and all. i’ll repeat. stage dived with a broken leg. he came across a lot more human than i imagined he would. he joked. he chatted. he is one enigmatic mother fucker. he also has a new fan in emma.

any negatives? a couple. there was no frank ocean (and therefore no ‘she’ or ‘novacane’). the shoe throwing incident happened in the middle of ‘splatter’ and that was therefore cut short. it also meant that my favourite line was missed completely – “somebody tell satan that i want my fucking swag back”. these were minor though and if everybody had been there i have no idea how the (particularity energetic) crowd would have fitted into the tight venue.

this review has gone all over the place so i’ll sum it up. tyler is going to be huge. talent and personality go a long way.

update: i meant to coin the phrase hipster hop at some point in this review but forgot