clipping.: The Dome, London – live review

clipping. | Jessica Winter
The Dome, London
November 16th 2022

clipping. have been producing some of the most immersive and creepy hip hop records of the last decade, but how does that translate into their live show?

It was an unexpected start to the evening.

Opening act Jessica Winter wasn’t the most obvious choice to warm up a crowd for clipping. While they, on the one hand, make chilling, confronting hip hop that icily drips down your spine and makes you feel, we’ll say, unsettled, Winter’s sound sits broadly within the gentler boundaries of pop. If anything, there were moments of her set that recalled those heady days of the late ’90s, when history, we were told, had ceased to be and the upper end of the singles chart belonged to people like Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. Indeed, Winter struck me at times as a version of a young Britney herself, resurrected a quarter-century or so after her initial materialisation into public consciousness, but bearing the scars and fashions of the indie and hipster eras that have since left their mark. It’s strange to see the pop culture cycle reset itself, but isn’t that just the way of things?

To be clear, none of this is a criticism of Winter, but her selection to open for clipping. was jarring, given what I was expecting from the group.

Horror is a genre I’d never particularly given much thought to beyond the realm of film, but then I heard clipping. for the first time. It’s quite a feat to actively frighten a listener while simultaneously making them want to dance, but that’s where one ends up with this band: thrusting hips and feeling sexy, while also picturing some genuinely ghastly images inside your head as you do so. Rapper Daveed Diggs has a knack for narrative, and the fact he delivers it using that syrupy voice of his makes it all the more compelling.

Given the movie-like vividness of their songs, not to mention Diggs’ own history as the Tony Award-winning star of Hamilton, I expected a certain amount of theatre to clipping.’s performance. Interesting visuals, perhaps, or some elaborate lighting. What actually occurred was far more understated: producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes walked on stage to cheers, and Diggs soon followed. There wasn’t much pageantry as they launched into Nothing Is Safe from 2019’s There Existed An Addiction To Blood. It was, simply, a hip hop show.

The set did not capture the all-encompassing, cinematic energy of their records, which, for one or two songs, felt slightly like an anti-climax. That feeling was soon overcome, however, when it became obvious just how good these three performers actually were. While the incredible depth of their songs’ narratives is perhaps lost upon the stage, the sheer skill of their performance more than makes up for that loss. This was not an especially theatrical experience. It was an opportunity to appreciate Diggs’ ability as a rapper and his bandmates’ flair for setting the scenes he can play with.

The crowd interaction was minimal for the opening stages of the set, with the group banging through some of their heavy hitters like Say The Name and Check The Lock, both of which featured on 2020’s Visions of Bodies Being Burned. By the time they played Shooter from 2016’s Wriggle EP, the crowd was going nuts and even moshing a little. Hutson and Snipes dropped some music that made it feel briefly like a rave. There was a cover, out of nowhere, of J-Kwon’s Tipsy. It was all good, meandering fun, full of handbrake turns and weird interludes.

After the Tipsy cover came Work Work, which was the last tune before the encore. Impressively, the calls for the group to return to the stage were initiated by a man beside me who started stamping the ground with his feet with such ferocity and majesty that I decided, there and then, that I needed to take note of it. I don’t fully recall why — something in his grace, perhaps? My hazy memory tells me he was topless as he was doing this, but it wasn’t that sort of gig and I’m sure I made that detail up. I’d had some drinks.

To digress, clipping. listened to the demands of this possibly topless, graceful man, came back on stage, did their tune, and got out of there, ready to do it all over again in Fabric the following night.

It’s a shame I couldn’t go to that show too.

clipping.: Web | Instagram

Jessica Winter: Web | Instagram

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All words by Tiernan Cannon

Image by Cristina Bercovitz

Source: louderthanwar.com