Gig review: Public Enemy

ABC, GLASGOW* * * * *

PUBLIC ENEMY

ABC, GLASGOW

HHHHH

INTRODUCED on stage with a vowel-stretching yell that suggested they were taking to a boxing ring in Las Vegas as a lone siren whooped in our ears, Public Enemy have lost none of their sense of occasion.

This, we had been told, would be an in-order revisitation of their classic album Fear of a Black Planet on the occasion of its 21st anniversary, but on the night rap’s odd couple Chuck D and Flavor Flav were happy to go off-piste. “You’re gonna get the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle,” declared Chuck, and he wasn’t wrong.

In the event, Fear of a Black Planet was dealt with more as a tribute than a rerun at the start. Certain songs were dropped or only present as a hollered chorus line around centrepieces like Welcome to the Terrordome, while others, such as Power to the People and War at 33 1/3 were revisited later in the show, each bolstered by the noisy backing of DJ Lord and a full band alongside two members of faux-paramilitary dance troupe S1W (Security of the First World).

Around these fitted full-blooded versions of classic tracks including Bring the Noise, Don’t Believe the Hype, Shut ‘Em Down and By the Time I Get to Arizona.

There was also polemic from Chuck (aimed variously at governments, the rich and Rupert Murdoch) and clowning from Flav (when the sometime Celebrity Big Brother contestant took to the drums, Chuck referred to him as “Art Flakey – he of the TV fame, he of the long-ass pockets”).

Not only were these songs played with stunning energy by men now in their 50s, but their words retain a quite staggering intensity even today.