P.O.S. [Live]

Stefon Stuns Once Again in Glasgow

After my somewhat revelatory experience of seeing P.O.S. the last time he was in Glasgow back in June supporting the Bouncing Souls, I’ve been eagerly awaiting his return to our fair city. When I heard he was playing Glasgow’s legendary King Tuts with the King Blues, well, let’s just say excited was an understatement.

Tonight is fraught with difficulties, with me not being on the guest list and having to resort to making demands of the rather inhospitable bouncers I managed to secure entry to the venue just as the first band Imperial Leisure were ending. I really, really liked what I heard and I shall be checking them out. I’m pretty gutted I missed them to be honest as they managed to get the place very riled up.

After Imperial Leisure left the stage the crowd thinned substantially before P.O.S. Unlike the semi-hostile crowd of Bouncing Souls fans he was confronted with the last time he played in Glasgow, it takes mere minutes for P.O.S. to get the crowd on his side and in his usual fashion gives a stand up performance. High on the crowd interaction, he responds warmly to the crowds’ cheers, which get louder as the set goes on and those in attendance give it their all back by hanging onto his every word. From the moment he asks them to join in on “Let it Rattle” to having them scream along “Yeah, yeah” during “Optimist (We are Not for Them)” the Minneapolis rapper shows the crowd how to have a real good time listening to the kind of music 90% of them didn’t expect, and that the other 10% probably didn’t like to begin with. The crowd swells as the set goes on and as he rolls out the big guns in “Purexed” and “P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life”, the thronging crowd are clearly impressed by this rappers delights.

Backed with some exceptional skills on the decks by Paper Tiger (who P.O.S. is quick to remind us is his first time out side of the U.S. and he looks like he’s loving every minute of it) the extraordinarily talented Stefon Alexander shows us merely one of the many strings on his bow, and everyone is left with smiles on his face as he wraps up his set to the crowd chanting P.O.S. like a religious mantra because for him, the audition in Glasgow over and hopefully the next time he appears in this fair city on his own, he’ll show us some more of his near legendary skills. Never better indeed.