British Summer Time 2019: Black Eyed Peas Review // 14.07.19

I was really excited to see the Black Eyed Peas. When I was younger Elephunk was a staple album during car journeys. And, honestly, we all know the Black Eyed Peas discography, it’s pretty iconic.

So why the fuck did I just experience the worst gig I have ever been to? (Oh, I’ll tell you why)

I have seen over 300 concerts of artists in almost every genre and, Jesus Christ BEP, that fucking sucked.

Yes, there was an ongoing sound issue that you tried to work through, pretending that there was no issue at all, but it does not excuse half of what I saw happen today. Watching an extremely poorly mixed show along with a constant static buzzing and feedback was heartbreaking. Watching the poor girl that had to replace Fergie cut off in Pump It as you completely skipped her part? Heartbreaking. Watching you in the visuals in the back like you had one take and didn’t really care was tragic, but I guess it didn’t matter because the visuals started faltering and freezing about halfway into the show anyway.

I am falling out of love with you, will.i.am, Taboo, Apl.de.ap.

And sure, I could see will.i.am’s face at some points of the performance grimacing through the complete disaster like he wanted the ground to swallow him up. I saw him regret every moment, but the band and crew shouldn’t have let it happen like that in the first place.

Any audio faults aside, the whole set was all over the place and evidently completely unrehearsed. For every 8 songs played only 4 seemed to be songs by the Black Eyed Peas- which would be fine if they were lacking in bangers (which they clearly weren’t). They have a great new single, Be Nice, which would have been good to hear, but they didn’t play any new songs at all. On top of that they even failed to play I Gotta Feeling, which is CRIMINAL.

The members didn’t seem to know who was speaking when, where they would stand on stage, what songs they were doing in what order and started their set over 10 minutes late, running out of time and being cut off with a “sorry thats all we have time for… bye!”

One of the worst parts of the whole performance was watching Miss Banks randomly turn up and do her own song. Poor Miss Banks was done so dirty by BEP, thrown randomly into the middle of their set. On top of this, as soon as she walked out the audio completely lost any comprehensive value and her feedback-ridden performance was met with confusion. It’s a shame, really, it could have been great exposure for her but ended up as a quick way to embarrass herself in front of thousands of people.

Just to bring the topic back to the sound, they must have not had anything playing in their earpieces because during every single song there was a section where they sang out of time or out of tune with the backing. Honestly at this point? Just shoot the sound guy.

Whilst you’re at it, just shoot the video guys too because they managed to catch every terrible action in the shakiest way and project it onto the huge screens- from the bands backs walking away to band members waving their mics at the sound guys and yelling. Paints them in a great light! Really.

Sound like a train crash you want to experience? Just put a BEP vinyl record by a hot window and then try to play it whilst making someone stand with their backs to you. That should recreate it pretty accurately.

Just to top it off, during the offensive version of Where Is The Love a fight broke out behind me, ending with a group of people being forcibly dragged out of the pit as the band start with their “where is the love” tuneless cooing. Honestly, I think purgatory sounds better than reliving the disappointment of watching a band you used to idolise die on stage.

So there we go. That was it. That was Black Eyed Peas ruining the mood perfectly in under an hour.

Black Eyed Peas- you need to sit and think about what you did. Think about how to structure a set list and for fucks sake let fake Fergie sing her bit in Pump It!!