The Bird, The Herd (2SER FM Benefit Night) Sydney Roma Room 27th July 2002

2SER FM is a Sydney-based radio station that more people should know about. Run by volunteers and funded almost entirely by listener donations and events such as tonight's jumpin' shindig, the station provides a blissful, welcome relief from self-satisfied egomaniac DJs and tedious playlisting: You can tune your tranny to 107.3FM anytime (uhhh, if you're in the Sydney area, that is) and you'll hear anything from vintage Al Green to so-current-it-hurts DJ Shadow. Naturally they've got a live stream on their website as well - we here at SAH can't recommend it enough.

Since 2SER sets such high standards in its broadcasting, hopes are high for tonight's hip-hop and breaks-led show. As we arrive, dreadlocked 2SER DJ Mako is busy making a horrible mess out of Kylie's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", remoulding it as a prime slice of glitch-pop - ironic or no, you can't beat a top tune! After 5 minutes of faffing, the score is definitely Kylie 1 : DJ Mako 0...

Waiting in the wings is a man in a white boiler suit, prickling the interest of the SAH "massive": Is the long-awaited Devo revival finally upon us? Well, no. The fella turns out to be the bassist with The Herd, a four-strong hip-hop/drum'n'bass collective who bound onto the stage, cajole the sedentary crowd onto their feet and proceed to funk the living daylights out of Sydney for a generous hour.

Full-on Ockerboy rapping from the playfully duelling MCs collides with the laptop-created beats (and occasional Microsoft "error" noises, prompting the amusing shout of "I feel the spirit of Bill Gates in the place!") creating an eminently danceable if ramshackle mess of b-boy posturing, ascerbic political barracking and searing bass-heavy breaks.

Not afraid of flipping from slo-mo hip-hop to breakneck jungle rhythms within the space of one track, The Herd MCs never miss a beat. Proof, if it were needed, that Australia's homegrown hip-hop scene is every bit as vital and entertaining as the UK's - if the likes of Aspects, Fleapit and the Nextmen butter your muffin, check these guys out pronto. The eLefant Traks website is your first port of call...

After the full-on party of The Herd, we need a rest - luckily, 2SER DJ Lorna's here to lull us into an entirely false sense of woozy security with her prime slices of chunky funk. Tonight's big draw, however, is The Bird, and the crowd is starting to get a little restless. The Bird look quite innocent at first glance - just two blokes, a sequencer and a drum kit, so what? - but the noise they make is nigh on apocalyptic.

They've been described as "making The Prodigy sound like nursery rhyme artists" and it's not hard to see why: The Bird's breathtaking power comes from drummer Ben Walsh's astonishing skin-bashing expertise. From the drum'n'bass-heavy racket pouring off the stage, you'd assume Walsh had at least 11 arms, each brandishing a drumstick and bashing the shit out of his kit like it's slept with his sister and slagged off his mum.

Fair enough, button-pushing cohort Simon Durrington is triggering the odd drum sample on occasion (as evidenced when Walsh occasionally slips out of time - hardly surprising under the circumstances and doing little to lessen the awe-inspiring effect of his virtuosity), but really, tonight without doubt belongs to Walsh.

In fact, one might be forgiven for thinking Durrington might be a tad jealous of his bandmate's talent. Rather than concentrating on the lush dubscapes and bhangra rhythms that typify The Bird's recorded output - 2001's Music For Reset People mini-album is a must-have - he instead chooses to stick to too-tried, too-tested two-note 808 motifs for almost the entire set, while Walsh does his best to drill down to the floor below using sheer bloody-minded stickspower. The only drummer we've ever seen to come close to this level of polyrhythmic alchemy belongs to that other reknowned genre-blending beatmonger, Cornelius - praise does not come higher than this.

As the night draws to a sweaty, exhausted close, it's clear no amount of sadly unimaginative synth stabbing can hide the fantastic sonic spectacle laid out before us tonight: The Bird in your hand are worth an aviary in any bush you'd care to choose. 2SER, you've done it again.

Charlie Ivens