SBTRKT Live Review

Monday night. The night you go to the gym. Led on by the guilt of another excessive weekend. Or… you can prolong the weekend’s revelries by going to the 100 Club to finger shoot and skank the night away to South London's garage revivalists SBTRKT.

SBTRKT enticed an already excited audience into an evening of two-stepping and much sweating. Not for a long time have the pair played somewhere so small, well not since their brand of UK-garage parked itself in popular radio stations’ playlists.

Support for the sweat soaked evening came from Rudimental who upped the temperature and BPM by indulging the ever so young crowd with some jungle breakdowns. It was like the old-skool 90s all over again, kind of.

When SBTRKT did enter the stage they were greeted like victorious warriors who had returned after conquering the festival circuit in their signature tribal headdresses.

Playing out to such intimate environs as the 100 Club will surely be a rare event for the future-garage act. And in accordance with such rare occasions the crowd responded with sheer abandon as the post-dubstep pair dropped the warped beats and snare stabs of Pharaohs and Heatwave.

Hold On was supported by Sampha’s hushed vocals that infused the song with a nu-soul edge but on a grime tip.

On their eponymous album, SBTRKT boasted many an impressive collaboration. It was a shame then that the evening didn’t feature any cameos, but the stage wouldn’t have been big enough, literally.

The crowd danced and broiled in their own heat as SBTRKT brought a swagger that was missing from the 00’s vacuous garage scene.

It was Wildfire though which had the audience bouncing most energetically.

Who needs a gym when you’ve got alt-two-step-UK-Funky anyway?

Michael Currell