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EVENT REVIEW: Plan B
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 8th February 2013 | Polly
Plan B
A Whole New Gig Experience
2/3/13 – Nottingham Arena
*****
Watching Labrinth struggling to create atmosphere in the huge Nottingham Arena, I started to doubt Plan B’s ability to put on the gig I wanted to see from him. How wrong I was. The first half of the gig was an unexpected treat, a soul affair featuring songs from his second album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks. I was impressed by his tight vocals and the band but the short film playing in the background was the cherry on top of a delicious sundae. With Tarantino style opening credits, a nod to Ben’s performance in Adulthood and an overall Guy Ritchie feel, the film perfectly complimented the very contemporary and very British soul/ska/hip hop blend on stage. Splitting the screen 6 ways between footage of the film and a live feed, this was a whole new concept of gig production. Leaving the stage, I was longing for more like the obsessed girl in “She Said”, but the interlude was perfectly executed. Beatboxing legend, Faith SFX and his almighty vocal chords united the audience with a fresh wave of admiration and energy. Plan B returned and the gig did a 180 plunging into material from his most recent album Ill Manors. The unadulterated rage with which he performed the title track and we screamed it back at him, this was catharsis like I had not imagined I could feel. Plan B’s talent for me, lies in his fearlessness. Ill Manors written in response to the 2011 London Riots taps into the fire and anger felt by our generation whose lives look like a dystopian drama on the big screen. The ingenuity of the production and the intense musical force of his performance meant I was totally immersed throughout and will say this gig truly deserves the title, epic. There aren’t many mainstream artists out there today that I think future generations will be listening to. Plan B is one of those few, he actually seems to have something to say and a new way to say it, and that never gets old.
Polly Goss
@Polly_Goss
