On his first tour since leaving the Haunted Mound collective, the Irish rapper puts on a short but sweet show with great openers, writes Tom Cameron
When Buckshot first announced he was going on tour this year, many fans immediately wondered what he’d even perform. For the last four years when performing, he’d perform his only album, ‘Burning Barn’. And apart from a sprinkle of singles, he’s not been up to much, musically.
Buck is an artist I like a lot, but I never felt a solo set from him would be long enough to justify the hours-long coach ride to Manchester. That was until I saw who was opening.
In total, five different artists opened for Buck. And they were all different to one another, and were clearly determined to make good impressions.
The first of which was Snoa, a rapper from my home turf, Leicester, and whom I actually met and spoke to that morning while waiting for a coach. He told me it was his first time performing at a venue as big as Manchester’s Academy 3 and was sort of nervous. But on that stage, that didn’t come through at all. He rapped every word (a rarity these days) and was clearly having fun. The crowd didn’t seem to know the songs he was performing (probably because the guy averages about three new songs released per week,) but they were into it.
Next was a skinny blonde kid, who wasn’t on for long, but the crowd seemed to dig his heavy beat drops. I later found out his name was Jaxzun, and while his time on stage felt really quick, it was still very fun.
Then came a tall and frail looking man, his face about 90% covered by his long dark hair. He rocked a raincoat and began singing his heart out.
He spent half of his set bent forward at a 90-degree angle, swinging his hair back and forth with his arm in his stomach. You really got the feeling he was spilling his guts out. I later found out his name is Asa Nisi Masa, and if you’re a fan of emo rap, or witch-house, I’d recommend him for sure.
Then next, came a man who refused to sit still, and he made sure the crowd didn’t either. ShaiWarrior made an amazing first impression, he was just a little ball of energy that made the most of his 20-ish minutes on stage. The crowd loved it too.
Next up was the reason I bought a ticket, Deathtoricky. The Irish rapper’s been on my radar for a while, and seeing him live was just so fun.
Much of Ricky’s music feels liberated and upbeat, and this reflects in his stage presence.
He too couldn’t sit still as he crooned with an auto-tuned mic. Honestly, he sounded even better live than he does in the studio. He churned out all his big numbers, ‘polo’ and ‘motives’ inparticular had the crowd nuts. Ricky was clearly having the time of his life on that stage, and the crowd crowd fed off his energy. In fact one guy I spoke to in the crowd told me he was only there for him. Can’t say I blame him. Ricky’s set actually felt longer than Buck’s.
Then finally after Ricky was Buck himself, rocking a grey hoodie and looking dreary as ever. His performance felt short, as expected, but the crowd knew basically every word to every song, even the deepcuts of his EP released about a week prior, ‘Indigo Child’. A short but sweet project.
I yelled the lyrics to ‘In The Morning’ and felt pure joy as I heard one of my favourite songs live. As a longtime Buckshot fan, I’m glad I made the effort to see him live finally. Buck leaving the spooky and edgy Haunted Mound does make sense in fairness, as shown with the cuts he sang off Indigo Child, they feel much pop-ier than anything the Mound’s ever put out. Overall, it was a fun set and was exactly what I expected from him, and the openers made it an even better experience.
