Much-loved Australian hip hop group, The Herd, set off on a national tour in February to celebrate 20 years of their era-defining third record, The Sun Never Sets.
Formed in Sydney in 2001, The Herd is made up of MCs Ozi Batla (Shannon Kennedy), Urthboy (Tim Levinson) and Berzerkatron (Simon Fellows), along with producer Unkle Ho (Kaho Cheung), multi-instrumentalist Traksewt (Kenny Sabir), guitarists Sulo (Richard Tamplenizza) and Toe-Fu (Byron Williams), bassist Rok Poshtya (Dale Harrison) and singer Jane Tyrrell.
The tour kicked off in Thirroul on the New South Wales south coast, then Sydney, Magan-djin/Brisbane, Boorloo/Perth, Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide, Naarm/Melbourne and nipaluna/Hobart, finishing up in Muloobinba/Newcastle. Audiences were treated to tracks from the iconic album, alongside fan favourites from across their discography.
The Herd performed at the Rising Tide protest/festival in Muloobinba/Newcastle in November last year. They were awesome, even with a short set and minus the incredible Jane Tyrrell. So, it was inevitable that I would go and see them in Naarm/Melbourne — with Tyrrell back on stage.
A 20th anniversary is always a good excuse to tour, and The Sun Never Sets is arguably their breakthrough record, as Urthboy said on the night. He shared lots of anecdotes about the record and touring over the years, which added to the shared experience on the night.
The venue was medium sized, which meant the crowd was never too far from the stage and the action.
It was one of those nights where everyone knew all the words to all the songs and there were plenty of opportunities for the pumped-up crowd to shout them back to the band and sing along.
The night was a great reminder of the power of music to unite people and show how we can all get together around some relevant and important lyrics and issues.
Music is a tool we can use to highlight what is wrong but also how to fix it and a way to go forward.
The Herd have never shied away from pointing out what needs fixing and it seems there are plenty of people who like them for exactly this reason.
As Tyrrell said at the end of The Sun Never Sets set list: “Now for the bangers”, and the night got even bigger.
“The King is Dead”, “I Was Only 19”, “77%”, “Emergency” and “2020” raised the roof and finished the night on a huge high.
Urthboy, Tyrrell and Ozi Batla came out after the show and chatted with fans about anything and everything and signed autographs (I got one on my Rising Tide t-shirt) before security chased us out of the venue.