Kano played a headline show at The Drumsheds in London on Friday 7th February 2020. The gig was part of his Hoodies All Summer UK tour, in support of his latest album of the same name. The Drumsheds is a new venue and opened in summer 2019 with Field Day Festival. The venue is made up of four interlinked warehouses aswell as an outdoor space. I was grateful that Kano performed in one of the warehouses rather than on the outside stage though as it was freezing that night! The warehouses have a similar look and feel to Printworks so it’s not surprising to learn that the venues have the same owner, Broadwick Venues..The East London MC performed with a live band who were amazing. Live instrumentation with Grime or Hip Hop can sometimes change the feel and sound of the music (negatively) but in this case it enhanced it. They even performed “Ghetto Kyote”!
There were plenty of reloads throughout the night and the live band’s rendition of a record being wheeled was especially enjoyable. “3 Wheel-ups” was another big moment of the night. There were mosh pits throughout the night, none of which Kano co-ordinated which made them even better because they were organic. Borne entirely out of the crowd’s appreciation for a song rather than a performer prompting the crowd. “GarageSkankFREESTYLE” was probably the first songs to cause the crowd to mosh – the place was absolutely bouncing when the song dropped.
One of the highlights of the night was when the stage was cleared for D Double E to walk on and own it. His appearance was a signal, not only was another Grime legend in the building but “Class of Deja” was next. The trio’s performance of the song live was every bit as good as you would have hoped that it would be. Perhaps the only slight disappointment was that there weren’t any reloads during the song.
The Drumsheds is a cashless venue which should have made buying drinks quicker than it was. Drinks were expensive, around £5 for a 330ml can of lager and £2 for a small can of water. Everything was canned. The bar staff opened the cans before giving them to you which was a bit annoying.
There was a massive sheet behind the stage and before the gig started my friend said, “I hope that there’s a screen behind that so we can actually see Kano!.” The gig was a sellout and the view of the stage wasn’t the best where we were stood by the time everyone filled up the venue. We were just in the middle, in front of the mixing desk. There wasn’t a screen but the sheet was used to periodically project video samples from songs such as Darcus Howe on “Trouble”.
The set was mostly made up of Kano’s latest album Hoodies All Summer and was peppered with classics and crowd favourites from other albums such as an acoustic version of “Nite Nite”, “P’s and Q’s” and “My Sound”. The crowd was in good spirits and Kano was on top form, it was a good night all round.
By @OscarWrites
Previously: Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By (Album Review)
