Live Review: Peking Duk w/ Mallrat & Ivan Ooze @ The Tivoli – 13/05/2017
If you, like me, are but a casual Peking Duk fan you too might be surprised to discover that the boys have yet to release a full length album or even an EP. The DJ’s survive off the sustenance provided by a steady stream of singles that always have the knack of reaching number one on the charts. This absence of material was none more evident than at the Brisbane leg of the duo’s Clowntown tour.
Brisbane golden girl Mallrat kicked off the evening’s procession in a subdued but enjoyable fashion. Often written off as just a rapper, Mallrat tested her delicately wonderful set of pipes on the already huge audience. An obviously delighted Mallrat revelled in the attention lavished on her by the crowd, beaming as they shouted the chorus of the title track of her recent EP, Unvited, back at her.
Ivan Ooze popped unexpectedly onto the stage next, injecting the crowd with the overzealous enthusiasm that they so desperately craved. Ooze definitely has the rapping chops to back up his outlandish persona, his super fast spits disappearing before you could even have a chance to register what had been said. The MC would make a welcome appearance in Peking Duk’s later set, making him the only live feature artist that the band has included this tour.
After some hearty chanting the main men of the night appeared, as if conjured by the crowd’s excitement. The pair wasted no time getting into the groove of things layering snippets of mega hit High, Take Me Over and Stranger over larger than life bass drops and frequent blasts from a smoke cannon. We got a sneak peak at their yet-to-be released single that features Alunageorge and is sure to be hitting an ARIA chart near you shortly.
The question about how Peking Duk beef up an hour headlining set with only a handful of singles to their name was answered with a resounding; they don’t. The whole set followed the same pattern of generic build up, tickering climax and earshattering bass drop. Rinse and repeat for required time period. Occasionally they would mix in a universally beloved pop song (e.g. Mr. Brightside, Flume’s Say it Like That) to elicit those sweet, sweet recognition points from the crowd. It was at the point they literally pulled a, “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall,” that the evening began to warp into something that more resembled a soft core Hot Dub Time Machine set.
Whatever Peking Duk’s mish-mashed Frankenstein of a set was, the crowd absolutely loved it. People’s enthusiasm did not waver one iota the entire time, even increasing when shout outs to, “The best crowd in Australia,” were thrown about.
In the end, one is not going to a Peking Duk concert to enjoy a night of thoughtfully constructed, nuanced music. If Peking Duk’s goal is to make as many people, dance as vibrantly as possible, for as long as possible then their Brisbane show was a resounding success.
