G.Love & Special Sauce - Metro, Sydney (19th Nov, 2009)

21 November 2009 by Max Easton

Supporting their latest Australian only release, ‘Long Way Down,’ local favourites G.Love & Special Sauce made their way down the East Coast to spin their unique brand of roots. Stopping in at the Metro theatre in Sydney, Kim Rudner and Max Easton dropped in for photo’s and words.

G.Love & Special Sauce are fast becoming an Australian staple. Along with the Gomez’s of the world, Australian audiences seem to hold these guys in a special place in their hearts, flocking en masse to shows and generally just lavishing adoration on them each and every time they make it across the Pacific to our shores. The lads from Philly have accepted that love and returned it with an Australian only release titled ‘Long Way Down,’ the first to come out of their own label, Philadelphonic. This was followed up with a tour that stopped by Sydney’s Metro Theatre, a venue which has hosted G.Love & Special Sauce with open arms on almost every venture they’ve made out this way…and, as always, it was wicked.

Ten minutes into the show, with the appropriately chilled ‘Blues Music’ having filtered through the tightly packed masses, and the appeal of G.Love is immediate. This is a band that splices Hip-Hop with Blues, Jazz with Rock and somehow makes it fit into a genre that they’ve crafted as their own. Whilst guys like Jack Johnson - spawned off the back of the success of G.Love & Special Sauce – take this roots thing and immerse it in folk and Hawaiian influences, G.Love takes it into urban territory; they are most definitely a Hip-Hop outfit, but one which relies on tunes they’ve crafted themselves as opposed to taking samples and beats and jumping around in front of it. It does, and always has, walked new ground, and that’s what makes it so appealing; it draws in people from all corners of musicdom. For lack of a better description, it frees people up to enjoy something they’re not familiar with. It’s okay to go see a guy rap in front of a microphone if he has a harmonica hanging at his shoulders. But we digress.

G.Love covers the crux of his discography, from the Philadelphia public transport tribute, ‘I-76’ to ‘Can’t Go Back to Jersey’ from his hallmark 2006 record, ‘Lemonade.’ Throw in the fan-favourite ‘My Baby’s Got Sauce’ and you’ve got yourself a winner. The quality of their back catalogue really comes into its own live, where the number of highlights the band has crafted over the past 16 years makes their presence known. The strength of the live show lies in the diversity in tracks that they have to draw from for each night’s set-list, they can pluck a rap-centric track out of their catalogue one minute, and then turn around and throw down a cruisy roots track and the entire vibe of the set is altered. Indeed, one minute G.Love is sitting down, guitar in hand, travelling across his harmonica followed shortly by him strutting around, mike in hand, rapping freestyle. A few minutes after this and you’ve got a Jazz-gig aura going on, with keys solo following drum solo following bass solo. It’s a powerful place to be, and the Metro responds accordingly by having a flippin good time.

The encore comes across as unplanned – which is refreshing – and is absolutely earned by a raucous set of teeming chants and shrill whistles. The encore features some of the show’s highlights, including a dirty version of ‘Booty Call’ describing the need to stick it in the right side of the booty and the charismatic assertion that regardless of how warm it is in the Sydney air, it will never get as hot as it was inside that G.Love show. Finishing up with ‘Cold Beverages,’ G.Love & Special Sauce wrap up an incredible show, one which probably stands as one of the better shows I’ve seen this year and one that has me prematurely eager for their next tour.

The thing about G.Love is that he, and his band, is almost impossible not to like. There’s bound to be an element in the live show somewhere that gets you…whether it’s one of many clever rhymes or a Delta Blues inspired slide guitar solo, there’s an element that will touch on who you are musically. When you roll all these elements into the one live show, you’re exposed to a mix of shit that just comes across as truly and purely awesome.

At the time of this writing, G.Love will be playing The Zoo at Brisbane (Sat 21st November.) If you read this in time and have the coin, then you really gotta do yourself a favour and catch him while he’s in town. You won’t be disappointed.

(Photo’s by Kim Rudner coming soon.)

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