Noelle Scaggs at the Trinity Rooms Sat Aug 9.
(Apologies for late publication of this review- lost the disc. Plenty of photos from gig up on cheebah myspace. Was also at Melodica Deathship gig on saturday, doobs gives some feedback here, which proved once again that the soundsystem in the courtyard of Trinity Rooms is excellent- Shane)
Tonight the swirling clouds above the courtyard were met with a reactionary hot front of teenage hormones as the weather and the pre leaving cert results crowd met to create a type of audience energy for this evenings Hiphop fun. The Los Angles singer from the group The Rebirth was certainly not known to 99% of the people present at the beginning of the night but those that saw the act will certainly remember her when she returns. Dublins Dj Scope was her on stage beat provider as well as the promoter who put this mini Irish tour together at very short notice so this show literally fell out of the sky.
There's a successful RnB room in the Trinity room focusing on the commercial end of HipHop so visually and aurally the teens hanging in the courtyard who lap this end of things up are not generally primed for a charismatic songstress rap-singing over tuff beats.The lack of advance publicity amongst other factors ment many fans of this type of edgy hip soul missed out the action so it’s a straight crowd. Having no conventional comfort zone Nicoles work was cut out for her as she took to the new stage in the Courtyard. Grabbing peoples attention with banter about how no guy had offered to buy her a drink before the show and how cool it was to have a tree for tonights on stage, she then let loose.
Shouting out to all the ladies and bouncing strident vocals to the crowd, she abandoned the confines of the stage to get playfully up in the grill of some often terrified young lad by swaggering with a mic through the yard. Responding to the call the party girls cheered on her energetic intentions as the lads then began to loosen up. She struck a creative balance with a strong vocal line in female empowerment combined with an evangelical mission to get the males in the house loose. There were no barriers between performer and audience as the call for peace and love in her nusoul tracks was reinforced by her not acting out some perscribed stage role thus transforming the performance by being both the audience and the artist. Properly on the floor then as circles of people glowed around her trips back and forth.
The warmth of all this fun was infectious and the word aura would not be out of place as she has the chrisma to match her voice. A 30 min set was way too short but as a introduction to what Noelle Scaggs is about it was properly intense. A stomping upbeat houseslung skank finished up after a note perfect revamp of Lyn Collins's breakbeat classic ‘Think’ and with a grin she shouts that shes ready to go dancing. Later as Webb had ‘Show me Love’ throbbing towards the end of night, an elegant L.A hand held her camera above the bobbing heads, fully merged with a crowd of Limerick fans and always on the floor.
Paul Tarpey
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