Pete Philly & Perquisite
Van Nelle Fabriek, Rotterdam
You’ve got to be pretty sure of a Dutch audience’s affections to tell them that the German crowds you’ve been playing for recently were better. When Pete Philly does exactly this, there are no boos or catcalls but the fully enthusiastic response he expected. It’s this wit and charm allied with a well-oiled band that make Pete Philly and Perquisite a guaranteed success live. This is presumably why a well known ladies’ magazine got them to play as the highlight of their event. However, the level of conversation during Gabriel Rios’ set beforehand, which almost succeeded in drowning out the man himself, didn’t augur well for our two heroes. But as soon as Pete and Perq bounced on stage for Clap Kick Flow they captured the crowd’s full attention. I suppose that’s the difference between a one-hit wonder who got his break through a TV commercial and an act with genuine talent.
Whether it was the recent challenge of playing to foreign crowds on their tour of Germany or the joy of being back on their home turf, everybody on stage was full of the joys of spring – cracking grins at every opportunity as they competed to back Pete up on the mic. This camaraderie shone through when Pete brought the band on individually for the encore so everyone could get their piece of the spotlight. It also allowed the newest member of the band, a keyboard player blessed with a white soul voice eerily reminiscent of Jamie Lidell, to slide seamlessly into the mix and have the confidence to vibe out on his own. It's what happens when you’ve got a band at the top of their game.
But that’s not to say that Pete and Perq have slipped into a routine. Tracks from Mindstate like Lazy and Paranoid were given a new lease of life when they took off into looser, funkier reincarnations – and when the crowd were offered a choice between a straight track and a freestyle, there was no doubt which they wanted, even if the unfortunate person who was first asked for a topic didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on.
The freestyle was the only overt reminder of Pete and Perq’s hip hop roots, something that all too often gets lost when talking about them. Their willingness to embrace new musical directions and the strength of their live formation sometimes make us forget that although Pete and Perq might have become more familiar due to their deserved success, they’re far from ordinary. The Netherlands is lucky enough to have 'hip hop' artists on the cusp of the mainstream like Pete and Perq and C-mon & Kypski who embrace live instrumentation and the opportunities this offers to bust genres, but they're the exception, not the rule. We should be grateful that there are groups of that calibre who can make music that's popular but intelligent and who we can enjoy live on a regular basis. As Pete Philly says himself on Q&A - 'We sell out shows without sell-out flows.' Long may it continue. Pete Philly and Perquisite, that’s it yo.