21 March 2025 – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Charlyn Cameron
Making his return to Australia after a crazy successful run in 2022, Kansas City rapper, and one of the biggest independent rappers to ever exist, Tech N9ne made his long awaited return to the country. The hardest working rapper in the world has dropped 3 albums since his 2022 tour, but played no material off them, instead going the route of a crazy greatest hits setlist that would have pleased the most hardcore of the hardcore Strange Music fans. Accompanying Tech on this tour was fellow Kansas City rapper Joey Cool, and Brissy act SHORTY MAIN.
SHORTY MAIN was out first. I wasn’t super familiar with him walking in, but the man has built a cult following in his hometown, with quite a few people showing out for him which was cool. I saw a couple of people on the barrier rapping every word with him which was cool. At one point, SHORTY MAIN spoke about how this was his fourth tour opening for Tech N9ne since 2015. Something I love about Tech is his openness and willingness to surround himself with the same people, and having SHORTY MAIN open again for him is just another cool example of that. Cool vibe and cool flows from the locals.
SHORTY MAIN – Eatons Hill Hotel – photos by Charlyn Cameron
After a very quick twenty minute change over, the Kansas City double act began, with KC’s own Joey Cool running out to perform about 30 minutes of material. JC has been signed to Tech N9ne’s label Strange Music for a little while, but these were Cool’s first ever shows in Australia, with Brisbane being the debut show. And it seemed like Brisbane made one hell of an impression on him, as the crowd was going crazy with every track. One track he did play was called ‘OG Cool’, which had the crowd moving and vibing. Fingers crossed Cool is back soon. There was definitely a lot of love for him in the room.
Joey Cool – Eatons Hill Hotel – photos by Charlyn Cameron
Another 20 minute changeover, and the lights went down as Tech N9ne walked out to a thunderous ovation. I’ve seen a lot of gigs in this room, but nothing has been as loud as the noises for Tech. Opening with the stamina rap, he asked Brisbane if they were ready to fuck shit up, before launching into a set of absolute bangers. The first half of the set saw tracks like ‘Riot Maker’, ‘Midwest Choppers’, ‘Straight Out the Gate’, and ‘Am I A Psycho’, each song getting louder and louder reactions from the crowd. Tech welcomed everyone to Strangeland, before throwing a question out, as to how many people were seeing him for the first time tonight. Seemed like there were quite a few, because it even took Tech for a surprise. It didn’t surprise me though, as on the mezzanine, there were so many parents with their kids, no doubt tonight being their first ever show.
Tech N9ne – Eatons Hill Hotel – photos by Charlyn Cameron
After talking about his love for Brisbane, and asking about the OG Tech fans, he ripped out songs like ‘T9X’ and ‘Come Gangsta’, and even pulled a dude up to sing ‘The Beast’ (I think). I’d been eyeing this dude off all night, and no joke, he’d been singing almost every word at the same flow and speed as Tech all show. The fact Tech pulled him up to help out was sick. After a quick run off stage, Tech returned with his clown mask as the crowd chanted KOD, before we got ‘Blackened the Sun’ and ‘Killing You’, with half of ‘Killing You’ done through a megaphone. After another check in with the crowd to see how the nights been, we got ‘URALYA’, which went crazy again.
Tech N9ne – Eatons Hill Hotel – photos by Charlyn Cameron
After seeing who’d yell louder, the ladies or the men, the ladies won, and had ‘The Box’ dedicated to them, before ‘Dysfunctional’ was dedicated to the men. In between the songs too, Tech ripped out ‘Areola’ with no backing track, as the crowd sang it loud, including myself. It’s one of my favorite Tech tracks, so to see the entire crowd sing it with no track was so cool. Tech talked about loving how insane the crowd is, and that’s why he loves coming back to Australia all the time. Another shout out to the OG fans, before he ripped out a deep cut with ‘Planet Rock 2k’. Tech shouted out the fans for making ‘Caribou Lou’ and ‘Fragile’ go platinum as he played them, with ‘Fragile’ getting the biggest sing along of the night. Kendrick got a shout out too as he appeared on the original version of ‘Fragile’.
Tech N9ne – Eatons Hill Hotel – photos by Charlyn Cameron
Tech tapped his watch as he asked if the crowd was still with him, before ripping into ‘Errbody but Me’, and lead acapella sing alongs of tracks like ‘Imma Tell’, ‘This Ring’, and ‘Red Nose’, before bringing Joey Cool back out to do ‘Face Off’, which JC featured on the original. The crowd did the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson part of the song, which was super dope, and someone yelled out for Tech to do ‘Victory’, which he did, again, completely off the cuff and acapella. Even Tech seemed shocked that he remembered the words to it, which was hilarious. The show closed out with the verse from Falling in Reverse’s track ‘Ronald’, which Tech contributed to. The fact that Falling in Reverse was here earlier in the week, and I was able to see the Falling in Reverse and Tech sides of the same track, in the same week, is so crazy. Cool walked back out for the final song of the night, ‘Hood Go Crazy’, before Tech told us a new single ‘RDV’ would drop in the morning, as he walked off stage to ‘Psycho Bitch’. Tech shows are always fun. While it’s been over a decade since I’ve seen him, I need to make sure next time he’s back, I don’t miss him.
