Gig Reivew: Wu Tang Clan @ The Trusts Arena, Auckland – 14/12/2018

The most iconic and arguably the best Hip-Hop group of all time graced West Auckland’s Trust Arena on Friday night to celebrate 25 years of the Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) album, which they performed in its entirety. 

The night started with DJ Sir-Vere and MC JB the War Villain followed by local Hip Hop group SWIDT who dropped tracks from their debut album including Ric Flair and No Emotion In The Wild. 

SWIDT were followed by Detroit rapper Lazarus, who besides being a rapper is a doctor. Yes, an actual physician.

The infamous yellow Wu-Tang symbol appeared on the big screen, creating an air of anticipation in the crowd. The room filled with the sweet smell of sensimilia as the crowd braced themselves for the ruckus to come from The Wu-Tang Clan.

Wu-Tang hit the stage for the first time since their last visit at 2016’s Ragamuffin, the crowd cheering as Rza, Gza, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa presented for duty. Ready and willing to perform 36 Chambers in its entirety. With DJ Mathematics on the decks and Young Dirty Bastard, the oldest child of Old Dirty Bastards 13 children filling in for his late father. They opened with the powerful Bring The Ruckus with two members of the Wu-Tang, U God and Cappadonna appearing a couple of tracks into the set. 

In typical Hip-Hop style, the Clan played the crowd off against each other to create energy with one side of the room trying to out yell the other side of the room all the while being compared to the Australian crowds further egging on the display of audience participation.

The big screen played snippets of out of sync Wu-Tang Clan videos which filled in for the fact that from where I was standing all I could see was tiny little figurine sized group members.

The room shook at times from massive sounding 808 bass drums and the overwhelming urge to dance hit when Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit, C.R.E.A.M, Protect Ya Neck and Gravel Pit came on. 

I found myself tripping over masses of cups from the large amount of alcohol consumed at the venue and at one stage stopped to admire the sound guy who was also doing the light show with his other hand. Then just like that almost 2 hours of music had finished in what seemed like a very short space of time.

The light show was continued outside in the stormy weather, with a lightning display in the West Auckland skies further adding to the exciting feel of the event.

I hailed my $92 Uber, lamenting at the out of the way choice of venues for the event, but happy I could tick the infamous Wu-Tang clan off of my bucket list.