Re-Connected
It's clear who the punters filling the Astoria tonight are here to see -- and it ain't EMF, whose name is splayed across the front of the venue.
You'd almost be forgiven for assuming there was more chance of seeing You're Unbelievable performed live tonight, than Connected. However, we are assured that Rob Birch will be hauling himself away from his dumb-bells to step firstly to the left, then, possibly, to the right, in musical sequence.
Mark B and Blade, the current toast of
It's a testament to the pulling power of
Stereo MCs that they can saunter back after nearly a decade, release an album
and sell out a major London
venue. Arrogant even, particularly when you brush off questions about your nine-year
absence from the music-making world with vague comments like "We needed to
figure out a few things... we kind of lost the plot a bit and we weren't sure
what we wanted to do"
However, tonight is their chance to demonstrate an important fact: the Stereo MCs live rock like a double-barreled-bastard.
It's
in the way vocalist Rob Birch jogs nonchalantly onstage and starts hopping on
the spot with nervous energy. He’s like a caged wild animal. The crowd greet
the band's entrance with an expectant roar, possibly half in disbelief that the
Stereos have actually managed to get it together long enough to make it
onstage.
The first beat drops, and it's 1992 all over
again - and it's a great place to be. While the band remains largely anonymous
in the background - programming guru and sample-meister Nick Hallam is a static
fixture behind a bank of keyboards - Birch and a sassy trio of soul-sisters
provide the focal point.
Bounding across the stage in bouncy, loping
strides, the wired, skeletal Birch is captivating. He looks more like a blitzed
cadaver than a caged tiger, but for the deadest-looking front man in music,
there's no denying his hypnotic stage presence. Wearing combats so baggy the
Clown Association would fine him for taking the piss, and a rope necklace, he
looks like Bez's energized long-lost Hurtling to each
side of the stage to throw manic pointy-finger gestures, imploring the crowd,
rather ironically, to "catch up with us," the message is clear:
(whether I'm) dead or alive, you're coming with us. 
twin, with better moves.
The voyage is groove-ridden, genre-straddling tour of hip-hop, funk, soul and electro-pop. Birch uses a vocoder on new tracks like Breeze, electronically distorting his voice into a robotic hum. While the old favourites (Connected, Step It Up) are guaranteed crowd-pleasers, the new material stands up well.
The MCs were lambasted for not having moved with the times when they emerged from hibernation; their beats seeming lumpen and under-produced on record. But whereas Birch's scally-mystic rants and rhymes might seem jaded blurting from the CD player, here they flow with drive and exuberance. The skuzzy vitality of new single Deep Down and Dirty and anthemic piano-led stomper We Belong In This World Together are revelatory.
In fact, as the gig progresses the
celebratory atmosphere intensifies. A brace of encores ends on a high with old
track Creation, a mighty
The re-connection is halfway there. The
Stereo MCs may have been living on a prayer for the last nine years but, if you
let them, they're gonna do it again. You know they're gonna do it again. If
only for tonight. -- Published by Netscape UK