Tinie Tempah at The Academy, Dublin on November 1st 2010
Review by Dee Lennon
What started off as amusement at the lyric “I’ve got so many clothes I keep some in my aunt’s house” led to me attending Tinie Tempah’s gig in the Academy, which also marked the beginning of his UK tour. Little did I know that it was posited as an underage event; this became clear once I noted that the crowd was almost entirely made up of younger teenagers and was also reinforced when I was told by a bemused bartender: “we’re not serving any alcohol at all. None.”
I decided to keep an open mind having read very favourable reviews of Tinie’s new album Disc-overy (released at the beginning of October), and hearing that he had bagged two prestigious MOBO awards a few weeks ago.
The crowd was warmed up by two acts, a DJ and an artist by the name of G-Fresh. The DJ played snippets of multiple floor fillers from the past decade, some of which I was surprised the younger crowd knew. The remixes proved to be very popular, though at times I felt like I was chaperoning a teenage disco. The crowd was roused by the MC performing call-backs – “I say Tinie, you say Tempah.”
Tinie and his band made their entrance in the midst of a barrage of the noisiest screams I have ever witnessed at a concert. Sporting his trademark sunglasses for almost the entire show, he encouraged all present to really get into the swing of things.
In addition to material from the new album, such as Invincible, Let Go, Obsession, and one of his most popular tracks Written in the Stars, he treated the audience to a rendition of Coldplay’s Viva la Vida and a version of Bad Romance, which he dedicated to Lady Gaga following her Dublin appearances. Inevitably, during Frisky, he threw several chocolate biscuits into the crowd. Songs such as Wonderland and Just a Little were accompanied by background videos which added to the atmosphere of his show.
One of the more favourable things about the gig was the charm of Tinie Tempah himself, who proved to be an engaging showman by displaying his cheeky south London attitude. His relatively recent appearance on the commercial music scene made him come across as genuinely appreciative that his debut album reached number 1 in the charts, and credited the Dublin crowd for helping make this possible. During one of his older pre-fame numbers he picked out several audience members who were “the real Tinie Tempah fans in the house”.
An amusing incident to include was when Tinie autographed a “Feeling Frisky” t-shirt and threw it into the crowd. A fight then broke out and two tough looking bouncers turfed the youngsters out. Tinie took it in his stride and between chuckles, told the lads to be cool and respect each other.
The penultimate track, Miami 2 Ibiza was a particular favourite with the crowd, and although it’s a collaboration with the Swedish House Mafia, the band produced a cracking version live and the performance was preceded by a video message “from SHM HQ”.
The final number and encore – Pass Out – was preceded by several blasts of the lyric “where’s my f***ing clap, where’s my encore?” This performance lasted quite a while, during which Tinie and his band members sprayed those standing directly in front of the stage with champagne. He appeased the crowd by rapping “I’ve been to Dublin but I’ve never been to Scunthorpe.” Despite the fact that I felt absolutely ancient, the gig was a riot. Has Tinie Tempah become my guilty pleasure? Undoubtedly.