31 October 2011 (gig)
03 November 2011
Scroobius Pip excited audiences this Halloween in Stoke on Trent amidst his Distraction Pieces tour.
Real name David Meads, he introduces himself simply as “Pip” as he begins to explain his choice of Halloween attire for the Midlands crowd:
“Skeleton pajamas- so I’ll be able to do the gig and then go back to my hotel to bed without any of that getting changed lark” he explains with all the personable wit that he expresses track after track in Distraction Pieces, his first solo album since No Commercial Breaks (2007).
Let ‘em come isn’t just one of the highlights of the album but also an injection of electricity into the crowd as they pulsate with the vigor that Pip himself throws into the audience-quite literally at one point where a perfect stage dive saw Pip surf all the way to the back of the venue to personally run his merchandise stall; a chance for a chat, a vinyl and a very fetching Rasputin-esque tee.
The venue is appropriate- small enough to be personal but large enough to have a few bodies thrown around.
“Broken Promise” as one of the much more atmospheric tracks of the bunch, kept audiences attentive. Indeed the power behind the rhythm that Pip utilizes makes even such a unique act just as thrilling as the much more fast paced pieces.
Pip grabs a chair and takes a minute for a rendition of one of his previous tracks with YILA (who has worked with Pip on the new album)-“Astronaut”. The intimacy between Pip and the crowd is deep and everyone from a man dressed as a baby to the classic Halloween vampire is engaged. Facing forward and intense. The highly anticipated track “The Struggle” riled up the crowd as Pip delivered with clarity and the band behind tied together the words to a superb effect.
To see a spoken word artist with the political and conscious clout such as Pip rouse a diverse audience to a frenetic mass is not worth missing. His tour continues through Birmingham, Bristol, London, Nottingham Reading and much more, look up ScroobiusPip,co.uk for more.
