Fans have dubbed a De La Soul concert in Sydney on Friday November 18 the “shoddiest gig ever” after it was ended after only two songs.
The trio arrived on stage at the Greenwood Hotel in North Sydney at around 11:50pm and had barely begun the show before the plug was pulled on the sound system at midnight.
The night ended with ugly scenes, as a number of crowd members were forcibly removed by security guards and police officers.
Disappointed fans of the legendary hip hop act turned to social media to vent their frustration. Twitter user @dromeo_5 called the show “a joke” while @gabriel_chapman said, “North Sydney has lost the plot; De La Soul have lost the plot. WTF is going on?! Shoddiest gig ever.”
The show appeared to be doomed before it had begun. Before he was eventually joined onstage by bandmates Posdnuos and Dave, DJ Maseo had launched a five-minute rant blaming the gig’s promoters, the sound system and venue for the delay.
@DeLaSoulsDugout Dramas. This man not happy #delasoul #sydney pic.twitter.com/zU3PwXlvNl
— Hannah Davis (@HannahSouthOz) November 18, 2016
“Be a little patient with us. We’re want to try and get this sound right, we want to give you the best performance that we can give you considering all the hiccups we’ve been having with the people we’ve been doing business with,” he said.
“We don’t want this to be a reflection on us or a reflection on y’all. But we need the people to actually do the business; the promoters and the club owners and sound people and this just happens to be one of those days that’s just fucked up.”
He added that the microphones they had been provided were “Tonka toys”.
After the sound was cut off at midnight a visibly livid Maseo went toe-to-toe onstage with a man packing down sound equipment and had to be moved away by security guards.
Later that night, Red Bull Music Academy and PSV Touring, who are managing De La Soul’s Australian tour, issued a statement on Facebook that tickets, which sold for $60, would be refunded.
The Greenwood Hotel issued a statement that blamed promoters for the delay.
Sydney events company Funkdafied, which had only been responsible for selling an allocation of tickets, issued an apology on Facebook this morning.
“In light of the events that happened everyone will receive a full refund,” said Funkdafied director John Cawley. “I fully understand that as paying customers a lot of people are extremely upset and rightly so, if I was one of you I would feel exactly the same. I am a loyal De La Soul fan myself from back in the day and it was very disappointing to witness these events on Friday.”
De La Soul – who released their critically acclaimed album and the Anonymous Nobody… in September – are not having the best of times in Australia this year. Earlier in the week they rescheduled a gig in Byron Bay blaming “adverse weather conditions, plane delays and the unavailability of private planes”.
Many fans expressed dismay at the state of Sydney’s nightlife. Twitter user @marlilopezhope said, “Sydney turned off the lights for #DeLaSoul. Sydney is officially dead in the modern era”.
De La Soul have not made any statement regarding Friday’s events.
