As shops on Kensington Gardens were beginning to close, one store remained open. Queues spiralled back across the North Laine all in wait for Northampton, Northamptonshire’s very own slowthai.
If you knew the nature of slowthai’s shows moshpits, crowd surfing, bare backs, the smell of sweat mixed with spilt beer. You wouldn’t think a record store tour would be the place to get the full experience, nevertheless, Resident hosted the sold-out show creating a more intimate space than that of his earlier tour at Concorde 2 in March.
Coinciding with the European Parliamentary Elections, slowthai opened the show with ‘Nothing Great About Britain’ walking in behind the shop kiosk he exclaimed “These speakers are tiny!” The track bursting and distorting through the them but that didn’t hold back from the charisma and elated spirits in the room. People clambered over vinyls, peering around pillars, closing in face-to-face with the Northampton rapper.
Unlike other record store tours, slowthai didn’t perform using the album as a setlist but showcased some of his most popular tracks due to his DJ Kwes ‘misplacing the USB.’ The crowd surfing started in the second track ‘Doorman’ riding the waves of hands, CDs and vinyls.
slowthai expressed both the uneasiness and love with being in such a small space, as he took his sandals off and climbed on to the kiosk for another song.
Making a rather controversial take due to current affairs around director Quentin Tarantino, he asked the crowd, “Do you guys know Tarantino?” which was followed by yells of agreement. Grinning he replied “Of course, you do you hipsters!” Kicking off his latest single featuring Skepta, ‘Inglorious’ bought more vibrancy to the room. slowthai looked bewildered and overwhelmed by how many people came into this small space on the South Coast just to see him.
The love slowthai has for his fans is unique as he hugged and asked the name of every person he met engaging in wild snapshot discussions, giving each fan his full attention. Resident also showed that they are all for the music keeping doors open till late as people queued for hours to meet him.
Catch slowthai's debut album here or via your local music store or streaming service.