Hobo Johnson @Gorilla Manchester
We arrived covered in glitter and ready for the night ahead. The anticipation was building, can in hand and queuing down the road, people were very quickly feeling impatient.
To our disbelief the person we were waiting to enter the building for suddenly appeared running along the queue in chinos that I didn’t even realise you could still buy.
Frank Lopes lead singer of Hobo Johnson and the love makers was giving out high fives. He kept going outside the venue and his interaction with his fans was unreal.
So much so that when it was time to go inside the venue we felt somewhat dismayed as Frank was still outside chatting away.
He was a hot mess to be honest. He was so positive about playing Manchester and either he was intoxicated or quite clearly just high on life.
His enthusiasm definitely did transfer when it was time for his set. Unfortunately he faced several technical difficulties to start with. A rocky start where the majority of the band took several attempts of simply pressing play and “turning it off and on again.”
We still to this day do not know if it was intentional and an act to increase anticipation. Apologetically Frank put his head in his hands, then get a sudden rush of “F*ck it” and decided to just go straight in with the spoken word.
Now Hobo Johnson is certainly poetry/ spoken word inspired but it should really be categorised as alternative hip hop with a hint of screamo.
Once they got their technical difficulties ironed out the environment went from edgy, arty poetry to a heck of a scream.
A girl in front of me was determined to start a mosh pit, Frank clearly had an exceptional vocal range and the drummer was singing more than drumming but it worked.
We couldn’t help but notice that the majority of the band were in micro shorts/swimming micro shorts. Why?
The whole venue was like a sauna in minutes, no A.C to be seen. Luckily random people kept coming on stage and defying health and safety by throwing cold water bottles towards the crowd.
All in all an crazy, confusing yet highly humorous night. ‘So glad that Musik Magazine could attend their first U.K tour.
Words Emily Vass
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