Live Review: Mantra, L Fresh The Lion

There's a solid crowd assembled for L Fresh The LION's warm-up set at Evelyn Hotel on Friday night. The up-and-coming MC and support act du jour (seriously, he's everywhere) is putting on a good show, but an unusually husky quality in his voice and a little less energy than normal suggest that he may have fallen prey to one of the many Melbourne bugs going around. It doesn't stop him rocking out to his radio earworm One though. 

DJ Flagrant steps up to keep the crowd entertained with a mini-set of Aussie hip hop classics. The crowd lap it up, but they really find their voice when Mantra jumps up on stage. Backed by Flagrant and percussionist Neda Rahmani, he launches into Learn Your Language, a track from his new album Telling Scenes. The early part of the set balances new material with older classics such as Who The Fuck Is Mantra and I Hereby Stand. 

Then, it's stunt time! Earlier in the day, Mantra put a request on Facebook for fans to bring paper planes with a word written on them to the gig, together with the promise that he'd freestyle about the words during his set. So, naturally, during Paper Planes, he requests that the plant-derived projectiles be thrown in the direction of DJ Flagrant's face – with interesting results. “Someone doesn't know how to spell 'clitoris',” says Mantra, peering at an early arrival with concern. The freestyle set, once it gets going, is an absolute hit – topics covered in verse include Heisenberg, unicorns, Australian hip hop and RIP Hunter. (Jousting, tonsils and fart were all unlucky and didn't make the cut.) 

The second part of the set features a few special guest appearances but, rather than inviting other MCs on stage to join him, Mantra performs alongside a few vocalists featured on his new record. Soul songstress Kylie Auldist joins him to perform Baby Girl, while Simone Page Jones dazzles when she lets her voice fly on the down-tempo track Quicksilver. Hits like Loudmouth and Voodoo Music keep the crowd bouncing before the set ostensibly closes with As The Sun Goes Down. The audience demands an encore though, shouting “MAN-TRA! *clap clap clap*” like they're at a footy match. Mantra obliges with a finale performance of his showstopper The Freak Show, which leaves the punters satisfied, if not entirely sated – they really can't get enough.