The weather outside was frightful, with freezing rain adding a fresh layer of dampness to the snow already coating the streets of East Vancouver, but inside the cavernous PNE Forum Jaime "El-P" Meline seemed unworried. He had a survival plan.

“If things get really bad,” he smiled, “I’m going to eat Mike.”

Michael "Killer Mike" Render joined in the laughter. There’s more than enough of him to go round, but that didn’t mean that he’s a slouch when it comes to high-voltage performance and verbal dexterity. Together El-P and Killer Mike form Run the Jewels, whose throw down last night in front of close to 5,000 raucous hip hop heads delivered an early candidate for Vancouver concert of the year.

There was electricity in the air as the two rap veterans strode on stage and immediately began bouncing to the opening three tracks, “Talk To Me,” “Legend Has It” and “Call Ticketron,” all fresh off their new album. The message was clear: This is an act coming into its own right now. In the category of cutting edge hip hop, nobody is hotter.

Both in their early 40s, Killer Mike and El-P’s seem oblivious to the traditional idea the rap is a young man’s game. After years playing small, sweaty clubs they’ve become masters of their craft. By the time the duo reached hits like “Blockbuster Night” and “Nobody Speak,” the mayhem was in full flow, Killer Mike needing to repeatedly remind the crowd to move back to give the hardcore at the front room to breathe. Even in the Forum’s wooden stands people were on their feet, losing themselves in the ferocity of the beats pounding from the decks and laptop of Trackstar the DJ.

Playing on their deserved reputation as political progressives in a genre yet to move past bling culture, El-P begged for quiet to deliver some spoken word poetry. No one bought the ruse, but the crowd remained coiled until his x-rated a cappella opening bars of “Panther Like a Panther” exploded into one the rowdiest beats of the night.

Lyrically brilliant, it’s Run the Jewels’ music that sets them so far apart from their peers. Fast, noisy and abrasive, these are new school bangers putting modern spins on the kind of radio-unfriendly blasts of defiance not seen since the heyday of sonic troublemakers Public Enemy and NWA. These weren’t beats to nod your head to. This was music for moshpits.

“We came here three years ago and played a club,” smiled Killer Mike, his stage name entirely failing to disguise his natural warmth as he looked over thousands of hands held aloft in the band’s symbolic fist and gun position. “Now we’re playing arenas.”

Returning to the stage to encore with “Close Your Eyes” sent the already-amped crowd delirious, bodies flying as its beats crackled with menace. The few people not dancing stood scanning the crowd, desperately trying to mentally capture the moment.

There’ll be ringing ears and sore bodies across the Lower Mainland today, but no regrets. In the suitable surroundings of Vancouver’s grimiest arena, two MCs and one DJ took hip hop back to its rawest, noisiest basics. It was nothing short of fantastic.