Gig review: Gym Class Heroes @ Manchester Academy - Feb 9 2007
UK Gig
Myspace friendly, alternative hip hop act Gym Class Heroes decided to take on the raucous Manchester crowds of a Friday night and were almost matched by sheer enthusiasm and energy. I’ve never seen an audience engage quite so completely with a gig before, the whole scene was almost seamless – there was no clear distinction where the audience stopped and the band began. This worked very much in their favour, there were people of all creeds and backgrounds here dancing and chilling out in turn to the twists in song style, but always managed to look totally lost in the music. Their music is pretty chameleonic within its own rap sphere, ranging from sounds that border on a mirror image of Eminem songs, like the opening few bars to ‘Shoot Down the Stars’ slowly sliding further along into Jurrasic 5 and borderline De La Soul style chilled out hip hop.
I had entered the gig without any kind of warning as to what kind of sound that this group produced, and in many ways, this was a great introduction as the result was much like being abruptly picked up by your ankles and swung repeatedly around somebody’s head. Or maybe that was just the beer… Whatever. The effect was that of a band that was totally comfortable in its live habitat. This is clearly where this group does well, their music is predominantly aimed at the younger set though, with their new album being called ‘Cruel As School Children’, and the fact that on their website they are touting opportunities for the Gym Class Heroes to play live at high schools ( – although you should note that this competition is taking place only in their native America). Despite the obvious intended audience the lyrics of the band can get pretty risqué at times to say the least, with such lines as “She’s not much of a girlfriend, I never seem to get a lot”, although they bring it back onto their target demographic with songs like ‘New Friend Request’, a blatant homage to myspace stalking... That’s not to say that there’s nothing to be found here for older listeners, they are in no way too kidified for a casual feelgood listen. In this way they take after Outkast in some of their upbeat new take on an otherwise flooded genre.
Their latest single, ‘Cupid’s Chokehold’ is out now from February 12th.
