Date: 17th June 2005

Venue: King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut

“Tonights concert will be brought to you by the left side” announced Canada’s Buck about half way through his set. He has had trouble with the turntable from the very start of the gig, the sound has only been coming out of the left side of the PA. Now most artists would throw a tantrum or something, but not our Buck, no no, he improvises. “I have an idea, it sounds crazy, but it might just work” he says enthusiastically and we then got the gig in mono.

I saw Buck at T in the Park last year and was was not fussed about his performance, I think it because I did not get it last year. Most gigs I go to have a minimum of 3 people on stage, DJs and Vocalists, Buck does both, but I was quite far away for the stage and was unaware of his actual stage performance. Last night I got to witness it. Buck is an all round entertainer. His tunes are creative, his lyrics are clever and fast and he has a slacker mentallity but a professional attitude and he is very funny as he tells us stories about his father drawing pictures of flaming skeletons on motorcyles and rednecks in vests telling him that he is a “Piss Poor Rapper”.

This could not be further from the truth, Buck has a real good voice and his rhymes are both fast and articulate, far better than most of the chart shit doing the rounds at the moment. His record scratching skills are amazing as well, he is one of those DJs that can cut up records effortlessly and makes it look natural and make it sound good.

I don’t know alot of Bucks songs, but everything I heard I really like and of course he played the hits “Wicked and Weird” and “463″ with “wicked and weird” being remixed into a redneck stomp!!!

This was a gig that both me and Ross had no expectations for, but both really enjoyed. To say Buck was just Hip Hop would be an injustice. He has hip hop styles but uses it with country, rock, electro, blues and a vartiey of different other styles and influences to gave quite a unique genre of music.

The support act “Brakes” had a rather unique style. One minute they sound like Beck, the next they covered “Sometimes Always” by Jesus and the Marychain (always a plus in my book) then playing punk songs so short and fast that they would make the Ramones blush before turning into the Pixies then Ryan Adams. I liked some songs but not all.

As the sun sets on my Morcheeba gig going, it has definatley started to rise on going to Buck 65 gigs. Despite “A son of a Whore” gig full of technical glitchies, Buck played for 1 hour and 40 minutes, kept the crowd entertained the whole time and made it on to my CD must buy list.

I shall finish off by quoting Ross “Wicked and Weird man”

GI