OFWGKTA
The Studio – Vivid Live
Thursday 2nd June 2011
It’s only after seeing Odd Future in the flesh that you really get an idea of where they fit in the cultural spectrum. With hundreds of sweaty, smelly dudes devotedly decked out in what is possibly the ugliest streetwear label since SMP (moreover, one that isn’t even sold in Australia) and literally fighting to get through the doors of the Studio, you really do get the feeling that everything is spiralling out of control. If this show screams anything, it’s not dedication but hysteria. Make no mistake; this is Bieber Fever for 21 year old white kids. You get the same unabated, desperate madness that happens when a whole lot of tweens see the pop star, except the focus this time around is on the fucked-up, darker end of the sound spectrum. But it’s one and the same type of phenomenon, and honestly, it makes just as little sense.
Odd Future’s music is not easily digested, which is precisely their point. While fetishised by fans within an inch of their lives, these boys on stage are just living out the same kind of weird dreams that they have when they write records in their bedrooms. In reality, only three of the rotating cast have any chance of longevity; Tyler, Hodgy and Mike G; the latter of whom manages the unique feat of getting through two whole songs without breaking down into the kind of spastic ‘Wolf Gang/Golf Wang/Swag’ barking that mars most of the other tracks. Every rapper has hype men, but is it necessary to have half a dozen of them, especially when they’re obscuring the lyrics by sprouting inane bullshit? Even when that doesn’t happen, the crew shoot themselves in the foot by ending tracks abruptly, before they're able to make an impact. ‘Yonkers’ and ‘French’ are the few that see themselves through to the actual finish line, and you get a glimpse of what these guys could be if they cared enough. But they don’t, and as a crew of Black Biebers, you can’t really blame them. Only Tyler has released anything commercially, and they have as many songs as days in the year—the audience know every single one.
Where they fall down sonically, the crew more than make up for it in theatricality. Taking cues from the glory days of Eminem, where acting like an escaped mental patient had at least some kind of impact, they throw themselves across the stage, roar into their microphones and make all kinds of twisted faces that are genuinely frightening. And the fans respond in kind, opening up circle pits during ‘Sandwitches’, crowdsurfing and smashing into each other like they’re at Limp Bizkit and finally putting all that excess testosterone to good use.
In a way, it’s kind of great that Odd Future are all yelling over each other, it becomes more about the spectacle and less about the lyrical content; which, when you do catch snippets of it, is absolutely disgusting. This is the area where Tyler excels and it’s the reason why all these fully-grown men dress like him and have adopted his vernacular. He’s a passionate performer, engaging MC, has an amazing flow and is probably the most likeable of the lot even though he’s got some of the most twisted ideas. Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it right; Sydney hasn’t seen a crowd this active and wantonly homophobic (‘Faggot’ is the buzzword of the evening) in years.
Bob Dylan was right when he said that something is happening here and we don’t know what it is. Somewhere down the line, hopefully they’ll be able to articulate that for us.
Jonno Seidler
(Pic: Prudence Upton for Vivid LIVE)