De La Soul Tickets

“I love the Digital Age,” sighs Posdnuos, de facto leader of Long Island, N.Y. trio De La Soul. “But can y’all put down your camera phones for one f**kin’ minute and just wave your hands in the air?”

The group are onstage at IndigO2 roughly 22 years, nine months and one day after their classic peace and love endorsing debut 3 Feet High and Rising stuck a Day-Glo daisy in the barrel of gangsta rap’s TEC-9.

That’s comfortably long enough to put them in the ‘veteran’ category and as such, De La Soul are used to doing things a certain way. Performing to a crowd of LED flash bulbs isn’t one of them.

Despite having to continually adjust to new generations of fans (a straw poll shows most of the audience weren’t alive the decade 3 Feet came out, let alone the year) the group’s philosophy is still firmly rooted in the old school.

Everyone follows instruction and stashes their mobile though, because, after two decades spent honing the craft, Pos and the rest of his crew are that ‘true emcee’ KRS-One sermonised about: party-starters with a knack for having audiences eating out of their hands whether live or on record.

De La Soul concerts are an object lesson on how to move a crowd without breaking sweat; literally, if like Trugoy a.k.a Dave, you’ve taken to the stage wearing three layers and a body warmer.

The old school block rocker’s tools of trade are in all effect: call and response, sing-alongs, crowd noise battles; all sound tracked by a stream of hits that keep proceedings at fever pitch – ‘Eye Know’, ‘A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”’, ‘Potholes in My Lawn’, ‘ITSOWEEZEE (HOT)’, Ego Trippin’ (Part II)’.

De La is composed of three magnetic personalities: Pos is wise and has a natural authority, Dave couches everything in dry wit and DJ/MC Maseo is like an infectiously enthusiastic little brother.

Still, it’s natural to assume doing the same material for 20 years (even their newest stuff is over seven years old) with the same two guys beside you will eventually grate; however cool they are. Endearingly, the group freely admit as much. Posdnous even craftily works “Maybe it’s ‘cause we hate this song” into the opening bars of 'Me, Myself and I.' Not that the audience, bouncing furiously, notice.

It’s that crowd reaction, say De La Soul, which keeps them going. The oldest line in the book perhaps, but these guys – one of the last remaining rap acts from the late ‘80s still even talking to each other let alone touring – seem to really mean it.

The trio come out for their encore, an extended version of 'Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey),' before exiting once more. Well, all except for Maseo, who stays behind to cut up classic A Tribe Called Quest jams while IndigO2 staff check their watches and tut disapprovingly.

Finally, Mase is dragged off stage – but not before the camera phones come back out.