Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde @ Epic

It's like a beautiful reunion.

Some albums just become a part of you. A part of your heart, a part of your soul, like your junior school, or your first boyfriend. You’ve listened to them so many times you know every sound, every beat and almost every word. But more than that, you know how it makes you feel. You look forward to the next track while you’re still listening to the current one, but miss the previous one at the same time. It’s in your blood.

It’s like that for me with Bizarre Ride To The Pharcyde. When that little beauty first came out back in ’92 I had a bleach blonde crop, corduroy flares and a nice line in tight 70’s Adidas tracksuit tops. And alongside De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising and The Goats’ Tricks Of The Shade, it made me laugh AND dance. What a combo.

So now you know how excited I was to go see Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde performed in full at Epic on Sunday night. DJ Chrome started us off with some nice hip hop classics that had people going before the main act appeared. Unfortunately, Fatlip was unable to make it and so onstage we had just one original member of the Pharcyde, Slimkid3, plus J-Swift and K-Natural filling out the space and L.A Jay on the ones and two’s. And although it wasn’t The Pharcyde, it felt like it was. They gave it their absolute all, capering about, interacting with the audience, and clearly having a wicked time. As were we. The audience were fully into it (well, the front section anyway), rapping along and going nuts for the choruses. The sound was good, and it was a real treat to hear all those well loved tunes, beats and verses live and loud. Stand out tracks for me were Passin’ Me By, Otha Fish, Ya Mama, Soulflower and a sweet bonus in Runnin’ from Labcabincalifornia. The only slight waver was when Slimkid did a couple tracks from his new collaboration with Chali 2na from Jurassic 5 halfway through their set. They were good…but they took me out of the zone and fast forwarded me 23 years in about 2 seconds. A bit discombobulating. We did however, enjoy some great visuals onstage throughout the set, from black and white animations to some hilarious footage of stand up comedian and all round crazy guy Katt Williams chatting about weed. A total winner.

It's a funny thing when you go see a group perform an album in full that you have loved for many years. You kind of forget that other people might love this album too, perhaps even as much as you do. And so coming together to celebrate your love for those tunes and all that that involves, is more than just a gig. It's like a beautiful reunion.