markeris introduced me to Akira the Don via ex-Boo Radleys guitarist Martin Carr's solo project, bravecaptain. Akira raps on Jerusalem from 2006's "Distractions", at the height of the second Iraq War. I've been a fan ever since - a white-boy Welsh rapper who mixes humour with wit, and scathing criticism of politicians, corporations and the media with a relentless, cheerful optimism in humanity. And comic book references a-plenty and rapping in Welsh.

(emergency shout-out to London people: he's got a launch party for his new album on Thursday near Old Street - check the details and go!)

Since then I've followed his career with interest, mostly through the regular mix tapes he makes available through is website. I picked up an album on eMusic, followed him on Twitter, pimped his stuff around the place, but never managed to make it to the gigs, guest appearances and so on that he put on in London.

On Thursday I finally go to see Akira live in Manchester. I was pretty knackered after a busy week, but meeting with friends for tasty black pudding sausages in the Bank beforehand perked me up significantly, and I knew by the time Akira took the stage that coming out to play was the right decision. German lager began to gently ease away the tensions of the week, and Akira's high-energy performance soon had the entire crowd bouncing. It was a good, interactive performance for a small crowd, lots of singing along. The occasional technical hitch with DJ Jack Nimble providing the tunes were smoothed over with good grace and humour, and Akira was joined onstage by Manc lady rapper Envy to duet "I Am Not A Robot", and later on by MC Lars on "Living In The Future". The focus was on more recent tracks from Akira's new album The Life Equation and the best-of compilation EP Living In The Future. And it was awesome, overall - a great performance, a great crowd (including about half a dozen people singing along to every word of every song - and I thought I was a fanboy!), great tunes and a great time.

I got to meet Mr Donovan later on at the merch stall, where I bought large numbers of CDs, an epic "Living In The Future" T-shirt, poster and badges. He's as lovely in person as he seems from his Internet presence, signed loads of stuff for me, took evident pride in his merch packing abilities. I asked him whether he'd made it to G&Ds in Oxford as I'd suggested on Twitter, and how he felt about strangers asking him questions like that out of the blue, and his reply really touched me - "We're not all strangers. We're all part of this shared experience." Yeah, I know, it can be trite, but of the artists out there using the internet to build a community of fans, Akira's one of the ones doing it most successfully. In fact, I'd popped to the merch stall before he came onstage, only to be told by one of the crew to come back afterwards so I could meet him.

The rest of the acts were great too - all American, all more consciously "nerdcore" than Akira, but again good entertainers who didn't have to work too hard to get the crowd moving and singing along. MC Chris is, of course, Internets famous for "Fette's 'Vette", a song about everybody's favorite Mandelorian bounty hunter and his pimped ride. His crowd banter was a bit more confrontational and antagonistic than the others', but he didn't alienate the crowd and clearly was one of the most popular acts, with more people in front of the stage than the other acts.

I'd heard a bit of Weerd Science before he took to the stage alongside MC Lars. He's a good rapper, and cute in a cubby emo way, but I don't like the misogynistic tone of the tracks I listened to. Fortunately, he was mostly rapping along with Lars to Lars' tracks, which include the Iggy Pop-sampling apparent Internet sensation Download This Song. The crowd thinned out a little after MC Chris, but what was left was jumping around and singing along and having a lovely time. Akira came onstage for one track, and became the third person during the set to stage-dive - with the crowd a bit thin, me and DJ Jack Nimble as two of the tallest in the crowd rushed forward to grab his Run DMC lounge pants and bear him to safety.

The tiredness kicked in when Lars and Weerd left stage; I sat around nursing a JD & Coke waiting for the merch stall to clear so I could get some Lars stuff, but it hadn't by the time I'd drunk up, so I headed off to get home before midnight. All in all it was a great evening, solidly entertaining, and I left feeling happy and more relaxed than I have done for a while.

markeris introduced me to Akira the Don via ex-Boo Radleys guitarist Martin Carr's solo project, bravecaptain. Akira raps on Jerusalem from 2006's "Distractions", at the height of the second Iraq War. I've been a fan ever since - a white-boy Welsh rapper who mixes humour with wit, and scathing criticism of politicians, corporations and the media with a relentless, cheerful optimism in humanity. And comic book references a-plenty and rapping in Welsh.

(emergency shout-out to London people: he's got a launch party for his new album on Thursday near Old Street - check the details and go!)

Since then I've followed his career with interest, mostly through the regular mix tapes he makes available through is website. I picked up an album on eMusic, followed him on Twitter, pimped his stuff around the place, but never managed to make it to the gigs, guest appearances and so on that he put on in London.

On Thursday I finally go to see Akira live in Manchester. I was pretty knackered after a busy week, but meeting with friends for tasty black pudding sausages in the Bank beforehand perked me up significantly, and I knew by the time Akira took the stage that coming out to play was the right decision. German lager began to gently ease away the tensions of the week, and Akira's high-energy performance soon had the entire crowd bouncing. It was a good, interactive performance for a small crowd, lots of singing along. The occasional technical hitch with DJ Jack Nimble providing the tunes were smoothed over with good grace and humour, and Akira was joined onstage by Manc lady rapper Envy to duet "I Am Not A Robot", and later on by MC Lars on "Living In The Future". The focus was on more recent tracks from Akira's new album The Life Equation and the best-of compilation EP Living In The Future. And it was awesome, overall - a great performance, a great crowd (including about half a dozen people singing along to every word of every song - and I thought I was a fanboy!), great tunes and a great time.

I got to meet Mr Donovan later on at the merch stall, where I bought large numbers of CDs, an epic "Living In The Future" T-shirt, poster and badges. He's as lovely in person as he seems from his Internet presence, signed loads of stuff for me, took evident pride in his merch packing abilities. I asked him whether he'd made it to G&Ds in Oxford as I'd suggested on Twitter, and how he felt about strangers asking him questions like that out of the blue, and his reply really touched me - "We're not all strangers. We're all part of this shared experience." Yeah, I know, it can be trite, but of the artists out there using the internet to build a community of fans, Akira's one of the ones doing it most successfully. In fact, I'd popped to the merch stall before he came onstage, only to be told by one of the crew to come back afterwards so I could meet him.

The rest of the acts were great too - all American, all more consciously "nerdcore" than Akira, but again good entertainers who didn't have to work too hard to get the crowd moving and singing along. MC Chris is, of course, Internets famous for "Fette's 'Vette", a song about everybody's favorite Mandelorian bounty hunter and his pimped ride. His crowd banter was a bit more confrontational and antagonistic than the others', but he didn't alienate the crowd and clearly was one of the most popular acts, with more people in front of the stage than the other acts.

I'd heard a bit of Weerd Science before he took to the stage alongside MC Lars. He's a good rapper, and cute in a cubby emo way, but I don't like the misogynistic tone of the tracks I listened to. Fortunately, he was mostly rapping along with Lars to Lars' tracks, which include the Iggy Pop-sampling apparent Internet sensation Download This Song. The crowd thinned out a little after MC Chris, but what was left was jumping around and singing along and having a lovely time. Akira came onstage for one track, and became the third person during the set to stage-dive - with the crowd a bit thin, me and DJ Jack Nimble as two of the tallest in the crowd rushed forward to grab his Run DMC lounge pants and bear him to safety.

The tiredness kicked in when Lars and Weerd left stage; I sat around nursing a JD & Coke waiting for the merch stall to clear so I could get some Lars stuff, but it hadn't by the time I'd drunk up, so I headed off to get home before midnight. All in all it was a great evening, solidly entertaining, and I left feeling happy and more relaxed than I have done for a while.

markeris introduced me to Akira the Don via ex-Boo Radleys guitarist Martin Carr's solo project, bravecaptain. Akira raps on Jerusalem from 2006's "Distractions", at the height of the second Iraq War. I've been a fan ever since - a white-boy Welsh rapper who mixes humour with wit, and scathing criticism of politicians, corporations and the media with a relentless, cheerful optimism in humanity. And comic book references a-plenty and rapping in Welsh.

(emergency shout-out to London people: he's got a launch party for his new album on Thursday near Old Street - check the details and go!)

Since then I've followed his career with interest, mostly through the regular mix tapes he makes available through is website. I picked up an album on eMusic, followed him on Twitter, pimped his stuff around the place, but never managed to make it to the gigs, guest appearances and so on that he put on in London.

On Thursday I finally go to see Akira live in Manchester. I was pretty knackered after a busy week, but meeting with friends for tasty black pudding sausages in the Bank beforehand perked me up significantly, and I knew by the time Akira took the stage that coming out to play was the right decision. German lager began to gently ease away the tensions of the week, and Akira's high-energy performance soon had the entire crowd bouncing. It was a good, interactive performance for a small crowd, lots of singing along. The occasional technical hitch with DJ Jack Nimble providing the tunes were smoothed over with good grace and humour, and Akira was joined onstage by Manc lady rapper Envy to duet "I Am Not A Robot", and later on by MC Lars on "Living In The Future". The focus was on more recent tracks from Akira's new album The Life Equation and the best-of compilation EP Living In The Future. And it was awesome, overall - a great performance, a great crowd (including about half a dozen people singing along to every word of every song - and I thought I was a fanboy!), great tunes and a great time.

I got to meet Mr Donovan later on at the merch stall, where I bought large numbers of CDs, an epic "Living In The Future" T-shirt, poster and badges. He's as lovely in person as he seems from his Internet presence, signed loads of stuff for me, took evident pride in his merch packing abilities. I asked him whether he'd made it to G&Ds in Oxford as I'd suggested on Twitter, and how he felt about strangers asking him questions like that out of the blue, and his reply really touched me - "We're not all strangers. We're all part of this shared experience." Yeah, I know, it can be trite, but of the artists out there using the internet to build a community of fans, Akira's one of the ones doing it most successfully. In fact, I'd popped to the merch stall before he came onstage, only to be told by one of the crew to come back afterwards so I could meet him.

The rest of the acts were great too - all American, all more consciously "nerdcore" than Akira, but again good entertainers who didn't have to work too hard to get the crowd moving and singing along. MC Chris is, of course, Internets famous for "Fette's 'Vette", a song about everybody's favorite Mandelorian bounty hunter and his pimped ride. His crowd banter was a bit more confrontational and antagonistic than the others', but he didn't alienate the crowd and clearly was one of the most popular acts, with more people in front of the stage than the other acts.

I'd heard a bit of Weerd Science before he took to the stage alongside MC Lars. He's a good rapper, and cute in a cubby emo way, but I don't like the misogynistic tone of the tracks I listened to. Fortunately, he was mostly rapping along with Lars to Lars' tracks, which include the Iggy Pop-sampling apparent Internet sensation Download This Song. The crowd thinned out a little after MC Chris, but what was left was jumping around and singing along and having a lovely time. Akira came onstage for one track, and became the third person during the set to stage-dive - with the crowd a bit thin, me and DJ Jack Nimble as two of the tallest in the crowd rushed forward to grab his Run DMC lounge pants and bear him to safety.

The tiredness kicked in when Lars and Weerd left stage; I sat around nursing a JD & Coke waiting for the merch stall to clear so I could get some Lars stuff, but it hadn't by the time I'd drunk up, so I headed off to get home before midnight. All in all it was a great evening, solidly entertaining, and I left feeling happy and more relaxed than I have done for a while.