To some this pairing of Talkin' Loud acts makes perfect sense - both being variations on label boss Gilles Peterson's favourite theme of taking underground heroes and turning them into mature album producers - but this crowd doesn't seem quite so sure.
MJ Cole gets a fairly tepid response as he trots out his now familiar lounge-core take on UK Garage, supported by a worryingly undisciplined band. Maybe it's because it's the last night of the tour, maybe it's because Garage and live instrumentation make ill-fitting bed fellows, but the vital spark just isn't there. Clearly a little lacking in confidence, even the band's closing rendition of the classic 'Sincere' sounds like over-polite, watered-down pastiche.
If there's a contingent amongst the drum and bass hardcore assembled here to worship at the alter of Bristolian innovation that have embraced UK Garage's merging of the sound with house and R&B, then Matt Cole's Acid Jazz inspired productions aren't the sort of thing they're looking for. As the final track gives way to introductions, the crowd only really erupts when Elizabeth Troy shouts, "respect to Roni Size."
So, it's up to the afro-futurists from Bristol to milk tonight's full house for all it's worth. Arriving beneath huge hooded jackets and planting themselves behind four dramatic pods of musical technology - Suv and Roni to the front, Krust and Die to the rear as green beams search through the audience, Repzrazent look impressively like the Jawas from Star Wars.
Good start. Even better is the lashing breakbeat assault of 'Horns' in its original Full Cycle incarnation, the rolling bass dive-bombing the audience and slapping them around the face, commanding their attention as MC Dynamite dashes out from stage right to fire them into 'Railing 2' and 'System Check'. A new Dynamite has emerged with Reprazent's second album, one claiming as much attention as the breakbeat technicians themselves. Oozing charisma, he's the stage foil that this kind of show is so desperately in need of, a kind of 'authentic' Craig David if you like.
'Brown Paper Bag' is predictably massive, though marred by Dynamite and Ornalee's insistence on warbling on about "rhythms made out of brown paper" when everyone really just wants to concentrate on that fantastic bassline. 'Out Of The Game', for one, confirms that with 'In The Mode' Reprazent have found the means with which to inject their live drum and bass project with the bass-heavy attitude of the best Full Cycle releases.
It's a little messy, of course, but that's part of the fun. Ironically, bearing in mind the scepticism they faced upon first announcing their intention to reproduce drum and bass live, Reprazent probably now sound better live than they do on record. Like Asian Dub Foundation, the sheer energy and punky adrenaline of their sound works best in a sweat.
Tonight's triumph is clear when the crew eventually appear at Gilles Peterson's long-running club night, That's How It Is, where the after show party is unofficially taking place and a massive Monday night queue awaits their promised tag-team performance behind the boss' decks. Peterson's blend of old and new jazz and funk gives way to Die's amen breaks and Suv's rolling basslines and the crowd show their appreciation by staying out way past bedtime on a school night. Roni Size's ten year plan, then, is still looking pretty good.
