There is no such thing as nostalgic performances for Israeli rappers. That is, until recently. Just in the last two weeks we got Subliminal’s “Mekorot” show, and yesterday (9/24), Shebak S’s reunion show on the occasion of the band’s 30th anniversary. So suddenly, in one year, in the year when hip-hop took over the charts – they are here again. For years we have watched our older brothers go to nostalgia shows, remembering their Roxanne days, in Islam, in a returning beehive, in an old man, in a child, in a rabbit and in spring, and in the days when rock was the bon ton of Israeli music. But just as hip-hop crawled under them in the nineties, so it also came a little late to the nostalgia shows. Now we have too.
here again Shabak S in Zappa Live Park. Photo: Matan Sharon
Every time Shev S get together, and in fact every time there is a reunion show, the obvious question is how they will look. Not only physically, but also at the performance level – will the older people who stand on stage, those who are pushing towards the age of 50 and have already become family members, meet the bar they set for themselves when they were energetic 17-year-olds? But this year another question occurred to me – I too have gotten older, already pushing towards the age of 40, so I only have to ask if I will live up to the bar I set in my youth? That’s the thing about nostalgia shows. More than they confront what you saw when you were young, they confront you with your youth.
I remember quite well the last Shebek concert I attended. 7/20/2012, Shoni Amp, the launch of the album “Pra Pra”. Exactly a decade ago. I was 26 years old, still energetic enough to squeeze myself into my shirt, jump to Pogo during Assassins and scream until I have no voice “falling and rising”. But now, at Zappa Live Park in Rishon Lezion, while Aimer Sound warms up the audience with specials recorded for them by Ravid Plotnik and Tuna – I already felt my back doing poses, even before the show actually started. And strangely enough, something was missing. I didn’t smell weed in the air. A look around showed the painful truth – we all grew old with them. Daman, it’s going to be tough this year.
Names are being made on the stages again. Shabak S in Zappa Live Park. Photo: Matan Sharon
But then Shebek S came up, for the first time in a decade with a completely full line-up, with “Shoub Kaan” (how could they not?) and began to clean the cobwebs from the joints of the entire audience. But it was just a warm-up. The show officially started with the guitar kicks of “Imperia”, which already shook the entire Rishon LeZion with refined energy that was poured from the stage through huge speakers (with a not bad sound at all), and the audience responded accordingly. When the song turned into “The State in Flames”, and pyrotechnics of fireballs above the giant screens were also added, it was already clear that no one was going to get out of here safely. “We’re going to rip you out of shape in the next two hours,” Mookie said right after. He didn’t lie.
I remember very well the first reunion of Shebek, August 23, 2007, Amphi Park Ra’anana. It was insanely crowded, it was hot as hell and at one point in the show some guy next to me lost his shoe, and I don’t think he’s found it to this day. I was 21 years old, newly released, I had all the energy in the world, the crowd jumped as one because it was so crowded it was impossible not to. In Zappa Live Park was already more spacious, although there was undoubtedly enough of an audience to feel the energy. The jumps were reserved for certain songs, but it turns out that the network has a lot of such songs.
Almost all the members of the band dressed with a certain nod to their past – my father-in-law wore a pilot’s hat that he had seen quite a few shows; Miro as always in an orange shirt, leather jacket, black fedora and sunglasses; Nimi was indeed wearing a t-shirt, but one that was designed as a football shirt; Even James was wearing his old clothes – shirtless. The line of hits from their first three albums didn’t stop during the first hour – “Trymo Thidayim”, “Labaksh Taksh”, “Danger to Society” threatened my back, and at a certain point my legs as well, and the entire air. And I fought back, energizing myself and being fully pumped into the wild energetic mode of shouting all the words of Shebak S.’s songs.
The only break finally came with “Just Tell Me”, Mookie’s solo song from “Kanaan 2000”, which received a Steel Aroma twist and a rather anemic performance. In fact, it was the only anime performance at the show, and as much as there was some concern about how Mookie would look with a post-Daddy’s Boy streak, for the vast majority of the show he felt more energetic, bouncy and kicking than anyone else. When “Yeld Yerok” started right after, the missing weed cloud was already standing over Rishon Lezion, marking those who were the pioneers of Israeli legalization. Yossi Payne, the legendary producer who helped build Shebek to what it is, took the stage as a surprise for a particularly trippy performance that slipped into “The Ganja Song”, and rolled back the second energetic run.
Another song here will be produced. Shabak S with Yossi Payne. At Zappa Live Park. Photo: Matan Sharon
By “Get stuck in the trumpet” and “Banana bender” I already felt that I had no air, that I had poured into the lager, that there was no way I could stand it any longer. At some point Nimi climbed the scaffolding and did his rap house from a height of 4 meters. But then “Don’t tell me” came, and it went to me. There’s no way not to get wild with it, and Nimi Nim – may God help me still looks as young as he did then and even changed his clothes to the red football jersey and the bandana – together with Mookie, murdered the whole amp. Swift Swift, chop chop, blood in the streets. When “There is no respect” came, a moment later, without rest, I was already together with the whole audience on another level. It was no longer nostalgia, it was the thing itself. We were sent to other days.
I remember the appearance of the entire first jackpot. 3.7.2003, Hangar 11 I think. The memory is already beginning to blur. So the show celebrated ten years of Groove and included most of the great hip-hop groups of that time, including one of the last shows of Shabak during their time of operation. About a month ago, another all-box show took place, this time without Shabak, but with a spectacular purposeful display of current hip-hop. And this band, who have now completed their part in this union, mentioned that they were the forefathers, the pioneers. The first people who rapped in Hebrew, and they are still as sharp as they were. It’s just hip-hop that developed, intensified and became a bigger monster than the Shek. That we revived.
Fittingly, for the encore, Elu Shebek came up with “What Was It Was” – a slightly late song that deals with growing up, with nostalgia and looking ahead. And there is no doubt that the encore marked the way forward, and not the old age. It is clear that with the first scream of “Assassins” – despite my back, legs and air – I ran past the fugo, to finally disintegrate before the spiritual ascension that is the closing song, “Falls and Rises”. It’s not for nothing that it became the song that symbolizes Shebek more than anything, a band that has gone through a thousand incarnations in thirty years of making names on the stages. And now he symbolized a new way, when all the children of Shebek members came on stage with them to sing this anthem. The tribe that is ShBK S still exists, develops, gave birth to children (real and metaphorical) and kicks as always. Aalek old people. It’s us who barely met their energy threshold.
I vaguely remember the first rap performance I saw. Shebek S., summer 1999, the roof of the Grand Mall in Petach Tikva. Or maybe it was the year 2000. Either way, I’m sure that this is a performance that Shebek members themselves will not want to remember, if at all such a negligible performance remains in their memory. I was 14 years old, and I went to see my favorite band because they were performing close to home. The surrounding crowd was full of mothers with prams passing a wasted lunch hour, and not much else. But for me, the only enthusiastic child at the concert, I was not on the roof of the mall in Petah Tikva, but on the roof of the world. I’ll never forget how Shebek made me feel then, and every time they visit with another reunion I’m reminded of that feeling that I still have inside of me. Daman, why didn’t anyone tell me that nostalgia shows are so much fun?