Why it took me half a month and a full day to finally fork out €19 to watch J5 is beyond me now. Having not heard their most recent album and the fact that a 9am morning awaited me the following day fuelled my hesitation to take the trip to Paradiso Amsterdam. However, when I remembered the last concert I attended was to watch the Infadels 6 months previously, I finally came to my senses. It turned out to be one of my better gambles.
From The Arcade Fire to Simon and Garfunkel, I don’t recall leaving a gig feeling quite this pleased. I also don’t recall seeing Paradiso as packed as last night. The crowd played their part though as J5 were the most interactive group I’ve seen live and played with the mob superbly. As they went through their repertoire of past albums and their latest release, Feedback, they never lost control of the crowd as we were entertained to everything from old skool rapping to Afrika Bambataaesque electronica to turntablism
Being my first hip-hop concert, I’m left agog on how flexible the genre actually is. Almost all the numbers were medley with all 4 MC’s mixing the standard lyrics from their albums with freestyle references to
