Thursdays at Grace Darling Hotel mean one thing: $30 steak night. Having not eaten all day, I ordered a medium-rare steak that was more well-done on a table that advertised the event of the night—Hypnosis Therapy, accompanied by Porcelain Boy.
The floor was empty when I entered, so I sat at the back and played Slay the Spire while someone fixed the smoke machine for a stage in a room smaller than the average university classroom.
Having been to multiple smaller shows at similarly sized rooms, I'll cut to the chase and say that opener Porcelain Boy left a lot to be desired. They're on the cusp of something great, but they lacked something that made it feel disconnected and trite. I've watched a few interviews since the show ended where they note their inspirations in EDM being Gaga and Britney, to citing other indie pop inspirations, and as of now, their music felt more like a derivative than an homage. There was a soundbite that played after every track going: "you're listening to Porcelain Boy," and it served as the microcosm of my issue with them. The snippet acted as a breakpoint so they could transition between one soundscape to the next, but it just felt disjointed and without any real thematic connection. There were a lot of interesting ideas in the music; it sounded good, the melodies were catchy, but it did not fully come together to create a cohesive package.
Hypnosis Therapy, on the other hand, was electric from rapper Jjangyou, of Show Me the Money fame, who ran on stage donned with a monster mask, joining his bandmate Jflow DJing at the back of the stage. Jflow was a hype man in his own right throughout, constantly telling the audience to get up and dance, at multiple points yelling that he “wanted to feel the fucking energy.”
When Jjangyou got on, he did not start singing immediately. Instead, the first introductory song was spent with him just dancing to the beat in a manner that could best be described as controlled chaos. It worked for me because he just commits; by the end of the song, the mic stand was in pieces, he'd done the worm and played with every element on the less-than-three-metre stage, from the smoke machine to the disco ball.
As the set carried on, the mask went and so did other pieces of clothing until Jjangyou was in just his underwear that had "Love Sex Dream" embossed into the hem. At intervals after, he took water into his mouth and sprayed it over the audience, to varying reactions. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I was near a corner so I missed a lot of the onslaught. There was a moment in the middle where the set morphed, and the energy in the room shifted with it. An entire tube of glowsticks was brought out as the lights faded out. Jjangyou grabbed a bunch to throw them all over the crowd, and then went ham.
I tried to take short notes and videos to help myself remember, but no one in that room brought their phone out for the latter half of the show, and I wasn't going to be the one to ruin the vibe. The fact that everyone in that room was just dancing their heart out made it even more fun. I've been to several punk and rock shows in venues of this size, and so, even though a mosh was unexpected, both members in the duo thrashed their way in the crowd, and it just worked. Jflow called out that three songs were left, urging everyone to keep moving and keep energy high. One track looped a line to the effect of "get low," and Jjangyou dived into the crowd as the whole room dropped into a squat, bouncing in rhythm. It was a moment that could feel utterly ridiculous, if not for the fact that the show built up an energy where something like this was seen as inevitable.
From what I could tell, more than 80% of the audience were people who have never heard of the duo before, so them being fully entranced was a feat that most artists only wish they could achieve. It genuinely felt like a sauna, and the air was almost foggy with condensation.
As the final song played, both members of the duo stepped down from the stage and rejoined the audience, the music continuing through the speakers via the backing track set up by the DJ booth at the back. A guy almost kicked me and I didn't even care because it was one of the most carefree moments of my life.
After the set ended, the boys took their time to take photos with everyone who stayed back which was really lovely, a nice contrast to their stage personas which were brash and in-your-face. I sincerely recommend going to see them if you have the chance, even if rap and EDM aren't your cup of tea. It was an experience that to me was best described as just fun as hell.