Review of Scroobious Pip at Whelans – November 16th 2011
Review By: Craig McDonnell
Photos and Videos By: Molly Hally
Walking into an already jam-packed Whelans, the ever-increasing popularity of Scroobius Pip was clear from the start. Having played both Forbidden Fruit and Indiependence festivals over the summer, more and more people are getting to grips with the talented Essex-born rapper.
Being quite a big fan already, I headed towards the merch stand only to find the man himself selling his own merchandise and happily signing tee-shirts, posters and posing for photographs. Why don’t more acts do this? I have no problem forking up twenty euro for a tee-shirt if it means meeting the person I’m there to see and getting it signed as well.
His latest album, ‘Distraction Pieces’, was released two months ago and features collaborations from the likes of Travis Barker, Zane Lowe, Steve Mason and B Dolan. To reflect this difference in sound from his usual work, a guitarist and drummer accompanied him on stage. As expected the set was almost completely dedicated to this new album with every song from the album bar one being played by my count. Kicking off with the opening track of the album ‘Introdiction’ , it is instantly clear to see that Pip is in his usual good form and a good night is ahead of us.
In between songs, he is funnier than the majority of comedians I have seen live. Topics include his debut solo album ‘No Commerical Breaks’, which he plays a few songs from and explains that the only way to get it today is to illegally download it. He asks the crowd to give him money for it anyway which results in showers of coins (and surprisingly some notes) being thrown onto the stage while he walks around the stage telling people to stop throwing money while simultaneously picking it up and putting it in his pocket. He also tells the crowd about a Travelodge hotel manager who gave his room away and got him stuck in a lift. He then asks the crowd to shout obscenities about said manager to get it out of his system.
Highlights of the set come from the slow and beautifully written ‘Broken Promise’ as well ‘Let ‘Em Come’ and ‘The Struggle’ which had the crowd jumping around and “getting rowdy” as requested. The last song of the night was ‘Astronaut’, a song he wrote alongside YILA and has never had a chance to do live.
Finally, Pip explains to the crowd that when a crowd is rowdy enough, he likes to crowd surf back to merch stand at the end of a show. However, the merch stand in Whelans is almost right beside the stage so he decides to crowdsurf all the way back to the soundman to give him a hi-five then make his way back towards the merch table. This was carried out with great efficiency by the packed crowd and Scroobius Pip instantly returned to selling his merchandise and posing for pictures for his fans.
Videos
Scroobius Pip vs Hotel Manager **CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE**
Scroobius Pip Crowdsurfing