Public Enemy @ O2 ABC, 6 September

Billed as a run-through of the classic Fear of a Black Planet album, tonight's show clings loosely to the promised narrative whilst delving into a rag-bag of hip-hop's greatest hits. Fierce polemic and incendiary rhythmic patterns are at the core of Public Enemy's finest moments.

 

Welcome to the Terrordome, Don't Believe the Hype and Fight the Power form the backbone of the set, as DJ Lord scatters White Stripes and Nirvana samples across the tight bass slaps and succinct drumming of Davy DMX and Flavor Flav respectively. An air of pantomime threatens to undermine the more potent offerings tonight; sub-Queen style vocal warm-ups and surface observations of the current political scene undercut the urgency and lustre of Timebomb and rarely performed 33&1/3.

 

Chuck D's rhetorical segments on the struggles of the people and the unity of the human race are, no doubt, well-intentioned. Offering welcome dramatic relief from the otherwise pounding, relentless pace; they serve up no original insights, reinforcing the suspicion that this rapturously received show is primarily an exercise in nostalgia.

Drawing upon expansive Led Zeppelin riffs and free-floating Chic sound bites, PE can still stir memories of how they once shattered the existing demarcations of music, but too often tonight their formerly penetrating treatment of current affairs is lost in bluster.