Reviewed on Saturday July 25
Arriving at Moore Park venue Max Watt’s (née The Hi-Fi) for Earl Sweatshirt’s Splendour In The Grass sideshow on Saturday night, there is a notably heavy police and sniffer dog presence outside. It feels like a bitter reflection of the tight grip on New South Wales’ live music scene, similarly highlighted by a large police contingent at Splendour. “They must be searching for anti-depressants,” laughs the guy behind me, as my chaperone returns from needlessly being frisked after catching a pooch’s attention.
Warming the crowd is Sydney producer Nick Luke AKA Moonbase Commander. His tightly crafted heavy trap beats compel those entering the room to move instantly. He loves his time onstage, despite not receiving the amount of energy and movement from the crowd he deserves.
After letting his own DJ try and hype the crowd for 15 trap-heavy minutes of the hour-total set – who gets a similar response to that of the Commander – Earl Sweatshirt appears to a screaming crowd. The fans have indeed saved their energy for him, and it doesn’t die for the rest of the night. He leads with ‘Burgundy’, and by second song ‘Pre’, joints have been sparked, the room is jumping and every lyric is being sung along to – thankfully mitigating the too-quiet vocals.
Mainly playing songs from Doris and I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, Sweatshirt dedicates his final few minutes to some unreleased tracks that have been doing the rounds on YouTube over the past few months – ‘Quest/Power’ and an unnamed song performed over A$AP Rocky’s ‘Brand New Guy’ instrumental (which is aired a second time as the encore).
The undying love from the audience seems to have an effect on Sweatshirt – a large segment of the young, hipster-meets-hip-hop crowd is also decked out in Supreme gear – and his initial lack of chatter has, by the night’s conclusion, transformed into wild dancing and a beaming smile… the exception being Sweatshirt punching a guy who tries to hug him from behind. Good grief.
