Review at Whelans on February 6th 2012
There’s been no shortage of hype since Azealia Banks released ‘212’ last year and having amassed almost 4 million views on Youtube, setting Twitter and the internet alight in the process, it was no surprise that she sold out her first Irish appearance.
There was barely room to move in Whelans and a great buzz around the venue for a Monday night. Dj Cosmo appeared on stage first and began playing a mish-mash of tunes to warm the crowd up (not that they needed it), throwing some Prodigy into the mix and when Banks appeared on stage a few minutes later she didn’t waste any time with introductions, getting stuck straight into the heavy beats of ‘Grand Scam’.
She didn’t have to say much to interact with the crowd as they were lapping her up and she seemed almost shocked that they were able to sing along to a lot of her material, as the place erupted when ‘Runnin’, ‘L8R’ and ‘The Chill$’ were dropped.
However, one element of the performance where she let herself down was when Dj Cosmo asked the crowd if they wanted to hear her sing. She then sang an accapella of ‘Tell Me’ by Groove Theory, which seemed like it was just crammed in for no reason, leaving the crowd somewhat perplexed as to how out of place it was with the rest of her set.
This was only a small blip on an intensely energetic showing though, with Banks purposely finishing off with ‘212’, and DJ Cosmo mixing it into the Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ to keep the crowd jumping for an extra minute or two. The abrupt finish after half an hour seemed to catch most by surprise, but seemed to leave very few feeling they hadn’t got value for their money.
To sum up, it was basically the shortest gig I’ve ever been to, but the length didn’t reflect how much quality it contained. Azealia Banks is sassy, in your face and has plenty of pazazz. It’ll be enough to carry her on the crest of the wave she’s riding at the minute to much bigger things. You can be sure that the next time she’s on Irish soil, she’ll be selling out a much larger venue, but hopefully with more material to entertain for even longer.