Utreg Centraal Vier
Tivoli, U-town
19 October 2007
Utreg Centraal was the fourth annual celebration of the Utrecht hip hop scene, hosted by Boemklatsch, and on this evidence it’s in rude health. We kicked off with the Arts the Beatdoctor Experiment. Regular readers of this site will know how much we love them here, so I’ll just say they were really good. The band seem to have become more confident, even in the fortnight since I saw them last – it’s important to remember this is their debut tour – but whether it’s in the confidence they’ve gained through playing more shows or from playing in front of their home crowd, it was a much a more energetic, confident and rocking performance.
It built things up nicely for Pax and Pry, who went on to steal the show. Pax is one of the most compulsive MCs I’ve seen. He doesn’t let up for a second, as he cajoles the crowd into participating in the show. Not that they really needed much help, given the kick ass beats of tracks like Recognise, Day at the Office and Atchoo. It all made for one of the most entertaining shows I’ve seen for a while. Even better, their debut album, A Day at the Office is available to download free from their website www.paxandpry.com Check it out, it’s really rather good.
Next up was the Kyteman Circus. Led by Kyteman on trumpet and what I’m going to wildly guess was a flugelhorn, they played a riotous set, combining straight up hip hop with some more laidback jazzy numbers. The show climaxed when seemingly every MC or vocalist in Utrecht came on stage to lay down some lines over an irresistible beat. It was really refreshing to see the clear camaraderie and mutual respect between all the performers, and to see them having so much fun. So often you here about scenes or artists collaborating because of their ‘shared interests’ and it just turns out to be marketing bullshit. What’s going on in Utrecht seems to be the real deal. Everyone might focus on what’s coming out of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but people are going to have to sit up and take notice of what’s going on in Utrecht right now.