48 hours on from The Horrors' special little Shacklewell Arms show, and it's back to Stoke Newington Road. Amidst the myriad kebab houses and gaudily garnished florists a lump of humanity lurks outside The Nest. Within, gasmasks glow beneath menacing red hues and as we're once again sixteen feet under, you begin to challenge whether or not Dalston offers any worthy activity at ground level. With the queue snaking up the stairs and spilling out onto the besmirched pavements above, beyond the door that's guarded as though it were a portal to some pristine Utopia, Naeem Juwan is so indistinguishable from a resident Dalstoner that his entrance into the venue's hedonistic surrounds is initially barred until a promoter ushers him in. Round-rimmed glasses, shaved back-and-sides, vaguely ironic Hawaiian shirt; the resemblance between the Baltimore MC and those that tonight venerate him whilst gazing through sweat-beset eyes is practically uncanny.
On with the Spank Rock show, and Juwan is joined by support act Win Win on the decks, and Gaga-meets-Princess Superstar vocalist Amanda Black, who intermittently wades to the fore to dribble a spiky vulgarity over the Salt-n-Pepa swank of Bump, amongst an eclectic selection of material from forthcoming sophomore Spank Rock long-player, the exceptionally entitled Everything Is Boring And Everyone Is A Fucking Liar. Obscured by shadow, strobe and copious white middle class hip hop gesturing, Juwan perspires suitably, and almost to the point of expiration (or to the verge of melting into viscous liquid if Black is to be believed), to an elongated take on Coke & Wet as the atmosphere is transformed into Detroit rap battle setting. From feeling as though we're juiced up extras in Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile to stumbling out to glimpse the staggering silhouettes of the City, Spank Rock too provides an evening of extremes: from the unabashed profanity of The Seeds-sampling Put That Pussy On Me to the gloweringly sinister What It Look Like, Juwan comes across a little like the exceedingly sexualised Prince trapped in the body of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, continually disrobing as vision further blurs. However Juwan remains exceptionally ebullient throughout, evidently animated by being not only in London, but in East London, before exclaiming in his best stilted English accent: "I feel like Dizzee Rascal!" I remember the Bow 'Rascal tearing the proverbial roof off Wembley Arena a couple of years ago when he aired a certain airtime-devouring track that rhymes with a certain Tyler, The Creator track, and musical ubiquity, festival headlining, and number one records followed. If Spank Rock were to release a single to rocket them towards paralleled stardom it'd be forthcoming, Boys Noize-produced, Can-sampling single Energy, with "new energy" being precisely that which teems forthcomingly from the rabid mass of flailing limbs as its retro-tinged verve bristles through jetblack speaker stack. Dalston got spanked for six, and it's presumably still reeling...
