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Meribel Apres Ski Report: 26th January 2012

Talented beatboxer, Petebox, plays to an appreciative crowd

featured in Nightlife reviews Author Jack Franks, Meribel Reporter Updated

In an increasingly saturated market, how can a beatboxer possibly stand out from the crowd and remain ahead of the game? It is rare to attend an open mic night these days and not witness somebody thinking they are the next Rahzel spitting all over a microphone like a toddler blowing out birthday candles. For this reason I entered ‘The Den’ with a minor degree of scepticism on Monday evening. I was there to see ‘The Petebox’. His name is Pete. He is a beatboxer.

The Den was full, mainly of seasonnaires along with the odd punter who still thought it was a Pizza Express. An audience of people who all seem to know each other in some loose way is an intimidating crowd to play to, even more so if this is your first gig of the year. But, at around a quarter to midnight, The Petebox casually strolled onto the stage.

On first look Pete could have just been a member of the crowd accidentally stumbling onto the stage but from the moment the show started he had the entire audience in the palm of his hand. About half way through the night I overheard some late arrivals mentioning their shock that it wasn’t a DJ up on stage.

The set began with introductions to some of the various sounds and effects that Petebox has in his arsenal. This lasted long enough to show us that we were in the presence of a talented beatboxer but not so long that it turned into a gimmick. Before long these sounds and effects were layered and put together and with the help of a loop and effects pedal we were treated to a record quality rendition of Roots Manuva’s ‘Witness’.

At this point in the evening The Petebox picked up a guitar and informed his audience that he was going to be ‘turning it up a notch’. What he did in fact was turn it up several notches. Always keeping the crowd engaged with a good level of between song banter and careful to remind us that apart from the guitar, everything we were hearing came from his mouth.

For his first gig of the year it was a pretty polished performance. The set list spanned many genres as Petebox jumped from The White Stripes to the Eurythmics, from Nirvana to the Pink Panther theme tune with some of his own material thrown in to an equally pleased crowd.

Ending on a cover of the Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams, it was clear from everyone in the rooms rapturous response that they had not yet had enough and it was pretty obvious that an encore was on its way. I don’t think the Den (or The Petebox) would have survived if the encore didn’t happen and the night was brought to a close with a (don’t shoot me) possibly better than the original cover of the Pixies, ‘Where is my mind?’ and an up tempo rendition of Basement Jaxx, ‘Where’s your head at?’. This finale caused half of the room, as if to show their appreciation to The Petebox, to leap onto chairs and tables and form a make shift dance floor near the stage.

Several audience members were left wondering where their heads 'were at' and I certainly had to have a think about where my mind was. Turns out it had been severely blown by the evening’s entertainment. In the space of an hour, The Petebox successfully answered the question that I opened this review with. It’s quite simple really, all you have to do is be abso-bloody-lutely brilliant.

The Petebox played:

Roots Manuva – Witness
White Stripes – 7 Nation Army
I like to move it
Own song – Vodka
Own song – Jazz song into Pink Panther
Nirvana – Lithium
MGMT – Kids
Gangsters Paradise/ Fresh Prince medley
Benny Benassi – Satisfaction
Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams
The Pixies – Where is my mind?
Basement Jaxx – Where’s your head at?