Being such a big fan of Hip Hop, I am genuinely gutted I haven’t seen this band sooner. With DJ Jazz T coming to stage first to open the gig, showing off his impeccable DJ skills to a pumped crowd who immediately surged to the front of the stage as soon as the music started. Soon after he was joined by the masked men to open, and the fun began at Clwb Ifor Bach.
Starting off the gig with their iconic owl masks on, made it difficult at first to see who they were but one voice sounded so familiar to me but couldn’t for the life of me think where from. For the first couple of tracks while the masks were on, I made it a game to try and think of who it could be like a solo version of the Masked Singer. It must have been my confused look on my face which my friend picked up and shouted, “You know that’s Verb T right?”.
It was not just Verb T that I was impressed by though, but with the talented MC Leaf Dog, FlipTrix and BVA, they demonstrated how important it is to know not only their own lyrics but their fellow MC’s too because their timing was impeccable, and they didn’t miss a beat all night.
Wetting the whistle with a swig of beer between verses the group pushed it and got better and better as the night went on, so good in fact that about halfway through they had some of the crowd up on stage to enjoy it on a completely new level.
As the night drew on, the classics started to come but not before a brilliant scratching interlude reminding everyone how talented Jazz T is. It was now time for the last two tracks of the night, and they saved the best for last ending with Assassination which made the crowd ignite followed by my favourite track of the night Think Twice.
After the gig and as we took a quick browse at the merch on the way out, as is tradition, the Owls were quick to swoop in signing vinyls and t-shirts. A very nice touch after a very impressive performance.
Jonathan Woolway