Live Review: A.B. Original, Birdz, DJ Marze

It's a big night in the conscious hip hop movement. The stage is draped with two massive Australian Aboriginal flags, one perfectly aligned with the back stage wall and another one hanging from the DJ desk.   

DJ Marze sets the mood for the night, spinning some old school hip hop records interwoven with some fresh new beats. He has a finely tuned ear and works the turntables with ease. The crowd bops along to some familiar tunes.

Birdz takes the stage, front and centre, wearing a Bad Apples Music T-shirt (Briggs' record label), jeans and a flat cap. DJ Marze joins him for this set, dropping tracks and rocking a Birdz T-shirt.

Birdz has great flow and his fierce passion is captivating. DJ Marze adds to the strength of the performance with back-up vocals and the occasional scratch. Birdz rips the mic from the stand and spits rhymes at the crowd, but leaves the mic stand in the focal point at centre-stage, forcing him to perform either side of it, until he moves it out of the way later in the set. Birdz announces he released a new single today, Black Lives Matter. "A lot of people are scared to say the truth, but that's what Bad Apples is about," he says. He delivers scathing verses railing against police brutality and for lives lost to this injustice. We quickly learn the catchy chorus and sing it back to him.

It's a sold out show and the room is packed to the brim as anticipation rises for the main act. But first, satirist Clancy Hanson (Five Flag General) delivers a stand-up routine that has the room in fits of laughter as he ridicules Aussie patriots.

DJ Total Eclipse gets behind the decks and has us dancing along to a mix of classic, old school samples. He has impressive skills, exploding into incredibly fast scratching while turning around on the spot, not missing a beat - a true showman. The crowd is completely psyched now and erupts as A.B. Original bursts onto the stage.

The duo, Briggs and Trials, set the room on fire with hard-hitting rhymes and truth bombs. "The only rightful owner of the motherfucker [land]," says Briggs, pointing to the Australian Aboriginal flag. The crowd chants back, "No justice! No peace!" All hands are up and everyone is bouncing to the grooves of 2 Black 2 Strong. DJ Total Eclipse flexes his rapid scratching techniques before launching into Dead In A Minute. Briggs drops two of his popular solo tracks Bad Apples and The Hunt and the crowd throws his rhymes back to him, trying to keep up. Fists are all in the air before braking into a unified bounce for last song Take Me Home.

The crowd demands an encore and the duo strut back on stage to hit us with their latest, bouncy, hook-laden single 26 January calling Dan Sultan to the stage to expertly sing his chorus. The room is ecstatic.