One of the main events taking place at this years CREATE festival is a music showcase called Re:Definition, which happened at the legendary Hackney Empire and hosted by east London rapper KANO (of GORILLAZ fame) on 7 July. Create Festival ends 25th May.

Swinging confidently from the vine of Youtube fame directly onto the stage like a somewhat ganglier Tarzan, Bo Burnham’s latest show consists of songs and stand-up from his newest album ‘words words words’. I myself am a huge fan of his videos in which your standard teenage boy sits at a keyboard/guitar in his room and manipulates words and phrases through melodies and raps into hilarious, dirty and almost always inappropriate gags.

So upon seeing that he was doing a show in Brighton I was over the moon, especially as his Edinburgh Fringe show had gotten such fantastic reviews (resulting in him being nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award.)

The show started with monumental gusto and excitement as Burnham (clad in ‘Gangster’ attire) clattered around the stage to a soundtrack of his own voice humorously describing how inadequate he is. Cue well timed miming and dancing that was visually spot on and a near-death experience on my part when the microphone came out of it’s stand during a particularly fierce thrash from Burnham, resulting in the object hurtling at high speed towards my face. But the thrill of escaping without bodily harm can surely only be an upside to any experience, right?

After this down-right invigorating begging, Burnham (having retrieved the mic) started his stand-up. It began punchy and laugh-heavy, possibly from pure excitement from a mesmorised and dazzled audience. After the first song, a calmer pace was put together in which sections of thought-provoking, complicated or sometimes simply silly pieces of dialogue would be punctuated by songs that, as a fan, were well known. Something that was obvious was Burnham’s delight in the newer material, moving quickly through songs that, to him at least, seemed too familiar and so slightly tedious.

The second act started with a less energetic, if still entrancing, beginning. With this came a more contemplative theme to the show in which Burnham sang his famous ‘Art Is Dead’ and mimed again to an edited track remixing self-proclaimed slanders into a song which might have been the most impressive part of the evening. Whilst lacking in belly laughs, this part of the show was clearly important to the young comic as a kind of self-cleansing method in which Burnham on stage claims ‘helps me sleep at night’.

Something that would no doubt be seen as a negative element to the show by some, I myself was all the more entertained by the concept of seeing just how Burnham’s psyche works in relation to viewing himself as ‘an artist’.

That ‘self deprecating’ element to the performance was quite unexpected due to Burnham’s engineered persona on stage which paraded around arrogantly the rest of the time, shouting at the audience to ‘shut up, it’s not funny’ and at the beginning of one song ‘if you know the words… keep f***ing quiet.’ For me, this hostility meant great things.

Not only did it remind me of the sneers and remarks made by the late, great Bill Hicks but it also gave Burnham an edge and style to his comedy, ironing out the forgiveness-seeking ways of his former, Youtube self. Whether or not this works with the soul-searching material can be questioned but in my opinion, it rounds Burnham’s character off well, adding meat to a show that on one level is pure fun, but on another is questioning, fierce comedy.

4/5 and as an admirer, I can’t wait to see how this young entertainer’s comedy develops.

By Julia Robertson

It’s the end of term. You’ve just finished your last piece of work, either forever or just for the next few months. What better way to celebrate than with a huge rave. Hospitality answered Portsmouth’s prays with a huge line-up in the shape of Danny Byrd, Netsky and Brookes Brothers.

Queues tonight were out the door like I’d never seen, this was clearly a night people had been planning for a while.

The crowd at Portsmouth are always up for a laugh, and it’s great to see a mix of hardcore DnB fans and kids just up for a party, making for a very friendly atmosphere. Massive tracks like Sub Focus – Stomp were always going to please the crowd, but they didn’t just stick with this side of things. Ranging from deep jungle-esq sound to jump up tracks that most radio listeners would recognise, each DJ made sure not to alienate each crowd too much.

Halfway through the night and the place is heaving. Green lasers dance across sweaty faces, and just as you least suspect it, the Brookes Brothers drop the one and only Bob Marley ‘Jammin”, which went down an absolute storm. This then swung straight into a huge DnB track, before launching into dire straight’s ‘money for nothing’ and even a little bit of Snoop Dogg. By this point, the cheese factor was through the roof in my books, but this went into overload with the likes of House of Pain being played to huge cheers.

Amongst all these classics, the one and only ‘Chopper’ was dropped, which lit up the faces of a few dance aficionados in the crowd. A personal highlight was a remix of the James Blake cover, with low bass and rolling highs.

Overall, Hospitality put on a great show, catering for all fans and newbie’s alike. The cheese section was a bit of a shock though, and quickly lost its appeal for me and many others. Recent releases like Rusko’s ‘Everyday’ got dropped two or three times, which started to get annoying, especially when there are some much better tracks out recently.

By Mark Allen

The walls of the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen are literally melting. It’s not even been that hot today, but even standing still, the sweat is dripping off every person in the room. The Glaswegian sextet have never failed to impress me with their live shows in the past, and I expected this to be nothing less. I could, however, see the heat being a bit of a problem.

They were back in London promoting their new album, There Is A Way, a follow up to the brilliant Hey Everyone.

The usual crazy antics kick off when they walk on stage. Nothing plays off a crowd better than two singers who jump around and give it their all. They open with a new number that’s fairly unfamiliar,and it’s clear they’re just warming up. Literally. They bring it right back with ‘Watch This!’, which starts with the infamous chanting of their name. Following this, everyone is made to squat down before flying straight back into things. Huge riffs and shout-a-long vocals led rocketing into ‘The Greater Than Symbol & The Hash’, which got everyone bobbing and dancing along.

By this point the heat was at boiling point, prompting guitarist David to exclaim ‘can someone open a window??’. They carry on, regardless, and it’s tracks like ‘E Numbers’ which sound better live than they do on record. With more vocal harmonies and singing from the two, this is a new twist but with a very danana feel. Old classics like ‘Black Wax’ are a massive hit, getting the crowd jumping, but the latest single ‘muscle memory’ is superb live, but it’s the finisher that really tops things off.

Ripping into ‘Infinity Milk’, they give it a final push in the intense heat, but it’s clearly taken it’s toll on everyone involved. Crates of water have been consumed, T-shirts have been abandoned, and during the encore, the bassist takes a few moments out to…throw up on stage. Now if that isn’t dedication, I don’t know what is.

By Mark Allen