Anyone who says that white men can't funk has obviously never seen TZU live in concert. The fivesome that hail from the city down south brought together the best breaks, beats, samples and flowing prose to a small but eager crowd at Sydney's Metro Theatre.
While the city was filled to the brim with some million-odd people lining the streets to view Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, inside the Metro an intimate and dedicated crowd of hip-hop fans waited for Melbourne's own TZU to take the stage.
The politically minded boys chose slam poet Geoff Lemon to take the reigns as their intro act. If you haven't seen this man flow then put it on your to-do list. If we were anywhere else in the world Lemon would be a phenomenal commercial success, but for now we will have to wait for Sydney's appreciation of spoken word to catch up to the rest of civilisation before we see this man really come into his own.
Next up were TZU. As the MCs swaggered onto stage with quiet confidence the crowd erupted into a rapturous applause and surged to the front of the barricades. With each audience member primed and ready to jive the boys launched into their first track of the night, which was simply met with joyous mayhem.
The concert was a retrospective journey, a tribute to their past catalogue. They focused on songs from their first album, Position Correction and their latest studio venture, Computer Love with a few offerings from Smiling at Strangers in the middle. Tracks such as 'Summer Days' and 'She Gets Up' proved to be crowd pleasers, but it was TZU's signature freestyling that really got the crowd going.
'Computer Love' and 'Take it Easy' from the boy's last album were among my personal favourites - delivered with utter perfection.
Apart from the flawless delivery, one of the best elements of a TZU show is their obvious love for what they do. The pure joy of their art simply oozes out of them and infects everyone that comes into contact with them and, simply put, makes them one of the best live acts in this country to date.
Alex Hahn
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