Walking up Kessels Road to Brisbane's QSAC, it’s already chaos. People are jumping out of cars wherever they get the chance (“Cheers for the lift Mum!”), security guards are flailing their batons around trying to control the onslaught, downed roadies are strewn on the ground left, right and centre; Midori Illusions, UDLs and Wild Turkey mixers seem to be the drink of choice tonight. Pick up your fucking rubbish people, jeez.
Our entry into the venue is soundtracked by Boogie’s set, who, spoiler alert, crops up again later in the evening. Royce da 5’9” was only in the country in December for a run of headline shows and we’re kicking ourselves for missing them, as he impresses on stage. It’s a wholesome set as Royce aka Ryan Montgomery gets the early-arrivals’ hands in the air, we recognise seven years of sobriety and he urges us to take care of one another.
The venue follows suit as, “Enjoy the show and watch out for your mates. Police and medical staff are here to help," flashes on the screens between sets.
The horns begin and Aussie hip hop heavyweights Hilltop Hoods hit us with the ones and twos sans hoods - it’s far too hot for that shit. We’re straight into chasing ‘that’ feeling and vape clouds form over an ever-swelling crowd, all wooing the classic pyrotechnics shtick. “Brisbane, how the fuck you feel?!” Better than Eminem fans in Adelaide it seems, as we learn the boys’ flight from Adelaide this morning was jam-packed with punters making the pilgrimage. Love for their hometown is dished out in spades, as recent collaborator Adrian Eagle joins them on stage for Clark Griswold and hoo wee - those pipes. Of course Nosebleed Section gets the response you would expect, and we don't really know how but think technically now all 50,000 of us are married? Don’t worry Suffa, we won’t tell your wife.
At one point we’re asked whether we want to play a game, only to find out it’s just to take off one item of clothing. Dude - you’ve just given an excuse for every muscle-shirt wearing bro in the crowd to take their shirts off. Lucky sweaters are on the cards shortly after as they close with the albeit, poorly named Cosby Sweater, but it goes down a treat.
As the clock strikes 8.45pm, people decide to abandon ship and forego drink lines because the one and only Eminem is about to take the stage. Alright, it wouldn’t be very hip hop of him to be right on time. But it’s 8.48pm and the house lights go down; he’s 46 and it’s a school night after all. The white sheet drops. The applause is deafening. Giant Marshall Mathers is onscreen, wreaking havoc King Kong-style on a cityscape (probably Detroit) and he’s pissed.
Mathers bursts out of the gates to Greatest, because of course he does. He and his partner-in-crime Mr Porter are out in front of a full live band and string section. Their performance backing the legendary rapper through a mammoth 32-track, career-spanning setlist is an absolute masterclass.
We shit ourselves when the shotgun sound effect goes off at the end of Kill You and every time after that - you’d think we would see it coming. We question, “What the fuck happened to hip hop?” on Kamikaze’s Lucky You. Skylar Grey impresses playing the roles of Dido and Rihanna, and there are to-be-expected onstage collabs with support acts Royce da 5’9” for Caterpillar and Bad Meets Evil track Fast Lane, and Boogie who had tweeted earlier asking for a weed hookup.
Mathers and Mr Porter on the other hand are sober tonight but that doesn’t stop them praising this “fucked up family” of a crowd and reminiscing on a time when they themselves used to get fucked up. Cue a bulletproof medley of My Name Is, The Real Slim Shady and Without Me. A sombre moment of reflection from Mathers leads to the dedication of set closer Not Afraid to “anybody who has been fucked up in their lives and not the good type of fucked up”, and the crowd lets loose in cathartic release.
Sure, whether Eminem is still defending his legacy to critics, or has contested to settling as a legacy act is up for debate. And yes there are some tired cliches - a 'which side of the crowd is louder' contest, a, “Light up the sky with your phones,” routine during Like Toy Soldiers - and that’s not even referencing his slew of controversial lyrics.
But with quite frankly jaw-dropping flow - most evident on 2013’s Rap God, the Guinness World Record-holder for number of words in its lyrics (1,560 in six minutes, 40 seconds), and the timeless The Way I Am - Mathers is all charismatic swagger and energy on stage tonight. The show is pure entertainment as he brings his beloved on-record character to the live arena.
“Brisbane, thank you for making this feel like family,” Mathers ends after the crowd lose themselves one last time. And if we ever questioned whether the trademark little hellion was still feeling rebellious, “Make some noise for your-fucking-selves and make nothing for MGK.”
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