No NERDs allowed
27th August 2008
This was my big event, the first world famous band I had seen during the Edge Festival and my first trip out to the Corn Exchange. I had a slight suspicion N.E.R.D wouldn’t live up to my visions, which included Pharrell Williams whisking me away to a desert island for our wedding but hey I would go with a open mind!
Straight away from the opening bars of their first song I knew this gig was going to blow the crowd away. N.E.R.D are clearly pros at getting the crowd going. With two drummers the sound was deafening as the whole crew jumped around on the stage letting each musician have their own slot to show how amazing they were.
The crowd was mixed but rude-boy caps were everywhere including about seven people standing in front of me. This didn’t matter as much as I thought. The whole crowd, including me, was jumping up and down the whole time anyway. I’m going to cancel my gym membership as I think I lost a stone at the Corn Exchange that night.
Pharrell noticed two youngsters at the front and got them up on the stage. These two 12 year old boys where not even phased by it and looked ten times cooler than anyone I know. The crowd got behind these two little dudes straight away as Pharrell taught them some moves.
The last song was N.E.R.D’s latest single Everyone Nose during which N.E.R.D went along the crowd picking out pretty girls to get on stage (I’m a little bitter I wasn’t there). N.E.R.D were not afraid to get dancing with these 30 screaming frantic girls which did put a little comedy into the night, I know I would be acting exactly the same though.
N.E.R.D put on a huge show which was all about the music, mixing up their old albums and showing the progression into this new sound which is a fantastic hybrid of hip hop, Jazz and R&B. It’s a unique sound which is amazing to see created live.
words: Fiona Gardner
