Wu-Tang Clan @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, UK
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Artist:
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Album:Legend Of The Wu-Tang: Wu-Tang Clan's Greatest Hits [PA]
Apologies for the belated review, this needed a bit more thinking-through before I could post.)
As some of you may know, my health and strength still aren't great, so for any gig that I now wish to attend I will usually need two days holiday; the day of the gig itself (to conserve energy beforehand) and the day after (to recuperate), but usually the psychological boost a gig gives me is worth the inconvenience. This time I don't know if it was worth it.
The Hammermith Apollo is a great venue, small, a converted cinema, and when for gigs like these they take out the downstairs stalls' seating, you're left with a plain floor sloping down towards the stage, so whoever is standing in front of you stands lower than you and regardlesss of your spot in the crowd you'll always be able to somehow get a good view of the act on stage, even when like me you're not very tall. (Saying that, the English are on average quite a bit shorter than the Dutch, so ever since moving from Holland to England I've been able to see a hell of a lot more at gigs than ever before.) On top of that, I know it may sound weird, but the (very diverse!) crowd at this particular Wu-Tang Clan gig appeared rather short; the average height seemed below 5'5".
Going perhaps a bit off-topic here, this was one of the first events at the Apollo since the introduction of the all-out smoking ban in England, and the place was plastered with placards warning everyone with the intention to flout the ban that they would be instantly ejected from the venue (which staff very much adhered to on the night). As much as I may be in favour of this smoking ban, it was a rather weird experience witnessing security staff having no qualms throwing out smoker after smoker after smoker after smoker, yet also witnessing their colleagues in the toilets passively overseeing the rather abundant drug use and dealing that were prevalent there, while no minor appeared to have any trouble purchasing alcoholic drinks from the bars courtesy of the venue's main sponsor Carling.
Back on-topic. To start with, I won't knock the Wu Tang Clan completely, they know how to put up a show. They turned up late, the atmosphere in the crowd had already turned somewhat hostile, but the moment they started playing, they managed to instantly turn the crowd, in their favour, into one big bouncing mass.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself, even though the sound quality was atrocious. Seriously, if I thought the poor sound at Chili Peppers' second night at Earl's Court last year was was the worst I'd ever heard, I now stand corrected: the sound at this Wu-Tang Clan gig was the most abysmal I have ever witnessed. All I could hear besides the rapping, hollering and swearing was the muffled bass and beat, it was hard to distinguish one song from another, for all I know the RZA could have been playing Barry Manilow records all night, I wouldn't have known, I couldn't hear a thing of it anyway.
But again, so far so good, I was enjoying myself regardless. Almost an hour in, and a tribute was made to Ol' Dirty Bastard. I was still enjoying myself. But then that changed, by what followed next.
After the ODB tribute, Method Man expressed 'he wanted some p###y'. That remark, in itself, did not make me feel uncomfortable yet. I thought it was nice when they started pulling all these girls out of the crowd onto the stage, for them it must have felt like a dream coming true, to get on stage with their idols. They started the music and asked the girls to dance, and they vehemently did, making every move like the scantily clad ladies dancing in the average hip hop video, as if they were auditioning to be in one themselves.
Still, no discomfort on my part yet, neither did the Clan members hollering s### like 'Yo! Shake yaw booty! Show yo p###y!' cause any discomfort just yet, but Method Man looked unhappy about what he saw and called for the music to be halted. He said wanted 'more black p###y' (most of the girls on stage were white) so a few more (black) girls were pulled onstage to 'redress' the balance. OK, that remark made me feel slightly uneasy, but little did I know there was even worse to come. The music resumed, as did the dancing and hollering, until the song finished.
That over and done with, rather then simply respectfully and gently guiding these very young (impressionable?) girls off the stage, Method Man felt the need to 'address' them first. So he started a lingually colourful rant aimed at them, telling them they were 'dirty p###ies' and 'dirty h#s', and before telling them to 'get the f### off the stage' he hollered the crowd in to loudly booing them and told them that if they didn't like it they should not have come on stage. Now THAT's what I got VERY uncomfortable with!
Did I perhaps overreact? Did I perhaps misunderstand anything? Am I perhaps completely 'out of touch' with the hip hop generation? I have been letting these questions run through my head ever since this gig, and have been discussing things with various people (men and women) who know me. I have come to the conclusion that if indeed I did overreact, misunderstand, or lost touch, then so be it.
I have also come to the conclusion that what I saw gave me a stark reminder that we as people perhaps need to focus on our younger generations, help them become equipped with some REAL self-confidence (not the superficial type to do with what clothing to wear, what brands to embrace and what type of language and behaviour are 'street') and REAL assertiveness (the type that does incorporate politeness and non-violence yet also allows for an appropriate perhaps-not-very-polite and not-so-non-violent response to any disrespectful treatment).
Feel free to disagree with me, but NO ONE should EVER be allowed to treat another human being as disrespectfully as Method Man treated those girls. I don't care how much one wishes to state that "Method Man is not really like that" and "it was all just harmless fun" and/or "part of the act" yada yada yada, I DON'T THINK IT'S OK, EVER.
Anyway, back to the gig itself, after that the fun was gone for me, my body could not take any more any longer anyway, so I had a good reason to leave, and as the drug-infused members of the crowd turned hostile again spurred on by the actions on stage, I was happy to leave early as I really did not want for any encore.....
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