Live Review: Vince Staples, Kucka

Remember that futuristic, orgiastic party scene in The Matrix Reloaded? If that were remade today it might be soundtracked by Kucka. Her oblique industrial beats contrast exhilaratingly with her ethereal voice. Little of the songwriting truly stands out, but Kucka sure can create a vibe.

After the brief, downbeat Ramona Park Is Yankee Stadium verse, Vince Staples bursts on stage with the urgent and thrilling Homage. The crowd is immediately thrown into chaos. Half-empty beer cans fly through the air. Circle pits form. Staples front-loads his set with absolute bangers like BagBak and Party People plus his parts of the Gorillaz song Ascension. There are no hype men, no dancers, no onstage DJ. It's just Staples alone, silhouetted by an enormous orange screen. In this hugely effective, minimalist setting, even minor changes carry an inordinate amount of weight. The introduction of a microphone stand before 745 feels momentous. A goldfish swimming around the orange screen during Big Fish is revelatory. These aren't deficiencies, but clearly deliberate choices. It's a real production.

Staples is a dynamic and commanding live rapper, maintaining expert control of his vocal tone, cadence and flow. He uses yelling, like everything else, sparingly, which makes it genuinely exciting when he does raise his voice. He moves slowly around the stage, taking in the throng in front of him. The lighting makes it difficult to see his face or tell what he's thinking as he looks out, but this only adds to the enigma that is Staples. There is a minute-or-so-long break every half-dozen songs (maybe for Staples, a well-known asthmatic, to draw from his inhaler?). These pauses establish a three-act structure, apt for the classical storyteller we all know Staples to be.

At times it feels like the floor of this historic, 90-year-old theatre might cave in. Some rappers and their hype men work so hard to create excitement in the live setting. Repeated calls to put your hands up and make noise become tedious and exhausting. This crowd is its own self-perpetuating hype machine. We are all his hype men (and women). Lift Me Up and Rain Come Down are downright glorious. Yeah Right inspires a spirited chant-along. Norf Norf is a stupendously good closer, after which Staples flashes a peace sign and is gone. There is no encore, because of course there isn't; Staples just does what he's there to do, does it very well, and gets out of there. "BOY YEAH RIGHT YEAH RIGHT YEAH RIGHT!"