The Allergies, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review - funky hip-hoppers fire up the weekend

The Allergies kicked off their Freak the Speaker tour in Birmingham this week. However, the album that they were promoting was nowhere to be seen on their merch stand – “Brexit issues” apparently. This didn’t dim the band’s enthusiasm one bit though and they had the congregated soulboys and soulgirls of all ages – from teenagers to retirees – bouncing around like maniacs to good grooves aplenty at the Hare and Hounds.

The Hare and Hounds is not a large venue and access to the stage is from the crowd, which means that grand entrances aren’t really part of the vibe. So, once warm up DJ Sam Redmond had finished his set, black-clad turntablists Moneyshot and Rackabeat appeared out of the audience and started laying down some grooves and scratching ferociously with some block party-like hip hop and some groovy soul that was guaranteed to get everyone present up on their feet and shaking their bits. Not that those present needed much encouragement.

The Bristol duo’s band then appeared one-by-one with rapper Andy Cooper grabbing the microphone for the funky “Freak the Speaker”, with its call and response of “Red light, yellow light, green light – Go!”. The audience didn’t need any buoying up to join in and before long soul diva Marietta Smith was also up and lending her pipes to the proceedings, while James Moore was soloing on his sax like his life depended on it.

From there, the Allergies slipped into the lively “Every Trick in the Book” and “Promised Land”, while throwing in some lines from Blue Boy’s classic “Remember Me”. This led to more call and response of “I feel good!”, which took the atmosphere ever higher before they crashed into the turbo soul of “Felony” and “Are You Ready”. Audience participation was what this show was all about and no-one could accuse this crew of being stand off-ish. After fabulous bursts of Marlena Shaw’s “California Soul” and a deep and funky take on Creams’ “Sunshine of your Love”, a cry of “What time is it? Hustle time!” went up and Moneyshot and Rackabeat’s scratching went bananas.

To be fair, this would have been more impressive if they had actually been using vinyl rather than laptop-powered tunes, but no-one really cared. The crowd’s enthusiasm went ever higher, as they threw their hands in the air and themselves around with some serious energy. There was no drop-off as the set headed into a final strait either, with “Rock Rock” almost taking the roof off and a burst of “I Want to Take You Higher” evolving into some serious funky soul, with monster strobe lights taking things to even greater levels.

The Allergies may not have an especially individual and original sound, reminding this writer at least of Big Beat originals The Wiseguys – to the extent that it almost seemed inevitable that they were going to break into the barnstorming “Ooh La La” (they didn’t) – but that was to miss the point. The Allergies are all about getting people up and dancing and that they managed with gusto.

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