JPEGMAFIA - Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, Australia - July 19, 2022
The Northcote Theatre is unquestionably the nicest
looking venue I've been in - it was apparently the first building in Melbourne to have electricity, it holds about 1500, and it was only recently rebuilt for live music (although, by the state of the stairs and the toilets, it looks like it's still being built). Unfortunately it's a half-hour tram journey out of the city centre, and it's got a deal with Moshtix so I had to go through their ticketing bullshit to get in, but it was nice to see. Ended up on the balcony this time!
The opening act was
Buzzy Lee, the latest entry in the long lasting trend of nepotism in entertainment (don't look up who her dad is). It was a short six-song set, fairly generic indie pop with airy keyboards and guitar accompaniment. She seemed to be having fun though, and tried an Australian accent on (much to the displeasure of her guitarist, who speaks the real thing).
The man commonly known as Peggy arrived on stage to chants of his name, lights blaring and laptop ready to provide backings. And for his first show on this 'tour' of Australia, the man came prepared. He was incredibly energetic, jumping about on stage like an animal in front of the delirious pit, trading lines with the audience - and they're extremely bizarre lines, JPEGMAFIA is a man who writes his music for terminally online zoomers and the crowd was full of as many of them as there could be (18+ show, probably 95% under 30). Most of the setlist came from
LP! and
Veteran, the two standout albums of his career, and he'd alternate with a run of songs from one and then the other.
There was lots of banter with the crowd - demanding that they open up a pit, which they were happy to do (often the show seemed to have more in common with a punk or industrial show than a rap set, JPEGMAFIA's production is very aggressive); throwing water all over the crowd and then the bottles back at them; and asking "where the bald motherfuckers at?!". Plus, of course, one of the highlights - leading an audience singalong of 'Call Me Maybe' with only autotune.
The set finished up within an hour, and some of the crowd was disappointed. That set length was about what I'd expected, and there was nothing more to really wish for...no more energy to be spent.