Future Music Festival @Joondalup Arena, Perth(06/03/11)

Wed 9th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

So…. Future Music 2011! One reviewer vs five stages with more draw card acts than you can shake a glow stick at.

To sum up the day in one simple word would be ‘Epic’. The crowd of 40000+ was epic, the arena was epic, the bottlenecks between stages were epic, the price of food and alcohol was epic and not forgetting the range of music on display …that was totally epic!

With two main stages, a large tent and several smaller stages dotted around the venue’s perimeter there was a happening at every turn and a unique musical fragrance to smell. A bulk of the crowd got there early to get on down.

KE$HA was the first main draw to see and what a nutty gig! Certainly a case of stylist(s) over substance(s) this was a bizarre romp of ‘sexy (!) confronting (!)’ theatrics that failed to win at all in the music department, but the visual part of KE$HA totally dominated proceedings. A one-trick pony? It was surprising that she wasn’t attempting a trick with one on-stage!

Mark Ronson and Business International over on the Flamingo stage delivered a strong set. Ronson knows how to work a crowd and worked his butt off keeping it real for his set, climaxing with the track Bang Bang Bang.

Leftfield in a live context centre around two specific elements: volume and bass… as much as possible of both… and then some more. Wisely housed in a large tent to contain the sound (and as the day progressed it became clear this was to be the stage untarnished by uninvited crosswinds) and with Neil Barnes the only original member, using a band of crack instrumentalists, vocalists and MCs was there no way anything was going to be left half baked in Leftfield land.

It was their dub-laced-and-spaced sounds supercharged by some serious electronic 4/4 techno that sent the crowd spiralling. By far the most overtly ‘enjoyable’ act of the day with special kudos to Barnes for his multi-instrumental forays.The set-list was eloquently chosen with drops from all of their albums, an extended version of Inspection (Check One) being a highlight through to a most hell-raising rendition of Phat Planet as the set closer. It seemed that a whole extra set of subs were just bought out for the finale as it was difficult to see and stand vertically when the 808 bass kicks dropped in. Marvellous stuff! A little unnerving at the end, but fabbo nonetheless.

To get back to base camp, it was necessary to wander past the Flamingo stage where MGMT were battling to perform on the positive side of palatable. A mix void of dynamics only reinforced that MGMT are nowhere near sorting out the art of live performance. Andrew Van Wyngarden’s voice was brittle, the band’s stage energy seemed on par with a flat nine volt battery and their ‘guitar oriented’ sound polarised punters pondering their relevancy on the bill. Relevancy questions were somewhat answered as a crowd of several thousand females hung onto their every word and chord. An uncomfortable, and thus fleeting, encounter.

Dizzee Rascal is one smart and smooth customer. With a DJ and backup MC supporting him he was on the money from the moment he bounded on stage till the moment he ‘bonkered’ off. For one MC to grip an entire arena’s focus for a full set is impressive. The radio friendly hits peppered throughout Rascal’s set kept the energy levels up, his mix up You Got the Dirtee Love (with Florence and the Machine) received one of the biggest applauses and again, it wasn’t until his final track, the hook laden hit Bonkers that another set of magical bass bins were hauled out and the throb could be felt through the seat….in a grandstand…...10m above the ground….200m away from the stage…... with several thousand people in between!

A quick mercy dash over to the Flamingo stage quickly followed to check out where Pendulum are at with their DnB to rock crossover shift. Their remix ABC theme music was cringeworthy enough to inspire a dash straight back to the main arena for the start of the Chemical Brothers. Never being quite able to ‘get’ Pendulum for what ever reason, I was obviously in the minority as a massive crowd went mental to their dazzling lights and sound.

Back in the main arena, the Chemical Brothers swiftly delivered the reasons why they are one of the world’s most impressive electronic acts. Their ability to harness melody and hooks and layer them with massive drum sounds and squelchy synth loops seems effortless; it sounds so simple yet is so effective.

By that stage of the evening a breeze had picked up in Joondalup, the crosswinds sometimes wreaking havoc with the PA’s top end however, the bass pulsed and throbbed its way through everything in its path. The set-list was predominantly a tried and tested one …a few newer tunes/ideas were sequenced in and out of the performance but overall they still deliver the goods.

Whilst 90% of Future Music goers were block rocking to beats at the Chemical Brothers, a relatively small and quite feasibly clued-up crowd gathered in the tent to see Richie Hawtin perform his Plastikman Live. Confronted with a semi-circular semi-transparent LED video screen wrapped around the front of Hawtin’s arsenal of equipment, the crowd were soon drawn into a world of dark brooding minimal techno, heavy on the 808/303 ratio with a synched visual show that short-circuited what ever was left of the collective synapses. For sixty minutes, Hawtin pushed and pulled with his Plastikman concept taking prisoner anyone who happened to be within eye-shot of the stage. Unlike other acts of the day, Hawtin didn’t bother about massive build-ups and bass drops to keep the crowd satiated, he just delivered a incredible aural and visual piece of art.

Chemical who? Plastikman Live is a complete event in itself. Hawtin’s plan and execution was on par with Daft Punk’s Neverever Land show (aka the Pyramid show) for raising the bar for of electronic music plus visual performance. Whilst not as ‘accessible’ or ‘French’ as the Daft Punk show, Plastikman Live deserves an honorary mention for originality and integrity.

As the strict 10pm curfew took hold the stages were mute, a tired and over-refreshed crowd stumbled out of the gates into Joondalup having enjoyed possibly the most ecletic Festival in Perth’s summer of 2011.