Future Music Festival @ RymillPark, Adelaide (14/03/11)

Wed 16th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

It’s that time of year in Adelaide again – the end of the festival season. The Fringe has had its last weekend and WOMADelaide is winding up its four day run down in the Botanic Gardens. All isn’t lost on this glorious, if not a bit hot, Monday though, because up at The Garden of Unearthly Delights and Rymill Park, the 2011 edition of the Future Music Festival is just getting started.

After treating myself to a free massage in the Mazda tent, I wandered down to catch a bit of Gypsy and the Cat. The Melbourne group, now based in the UK, drew a large crowd to the Flamingo Stage, where they battled with the heat & the burden of being one of the early bands on the line up, to bring a fully pumping set. With songs off their 2010 record Gilgamesh prompting crowd singing from the hardcore fans and a rousing level of applause from everyone else, I decided to check out the other stages.

Now, before I continue, I should point how much I detest the music of America’s latest trash-pop star, Ke$ha. I get why she’s popular – hell, even when I’m drunk I will sing that I wake up every morning, feeling like P Diddy (still don’t know what that means). However, I was not expecting to experience the roughest mosh pit experience I’ve ever had today. If you’re wondering at this point why I was anywhere near the Future Music Stage for her set, it was because I was actually working my way to the barrier for the next act in Sydney’s Art vs Science. By the time I’d worked myself a decent way in, Ke$ha had strutted her way through her first few numbers before I found myself being shoved and pushed around by girls crazily belting out the lyrics to Take It Off and guys simply wanting to see a set of boobs. As an entertainer, Ke$ha did her job excellently. With her trashy-glam shtick at full intensity, Ke$ha worked the crowd into a frenzy with the support of her backup dancers and the handy backing track. By the end of her set Ke$ha’d drank fake blood and made one of her dancers simulate oral sex on her as part of a dance routine. The fans lapped it up and matched her energy to the fullest extent, which, as a performer, is what you want the most.

By some miracle, I made it to the barrier for festival (and personal) favourites, Art vs Science. Having reviewed their debut album and having it on high rotation for awhile now, it was fair to say that I was keen. During the interval, the crowd was kept abuzz by Australian DJ duo The Stafford Brothers. Accompanied by fellow DJ Timmy Trumpet, the crowd danced about to dance tracks whilst the stage was cleared. It wasn’t long before Art vs Science took to their drums and keyboards and opened their set with Flippers. I was beginning to think the heat was getting to everyone, the way the level of craziness seemed to escalate during their 45 minute set. Between crowd favourites Parlez vous Francais? and Magic Fountain, the crowd were treated to Art vs Science’s latest single A.I.M Fire! and also Bumblebee, off the new album, The Experiment. Following onstage guitar solos, and a talented sculling of beer by Dan Mac, the band farewelled their final Future Music crowd with Hollywood.

After the stage cleared, I made my dash back to the Flamingo Stage, where British producer/muso extraordinaire, Mark Ronson was already playing, with The Business Intl. The positioning of the major acts on this year’s line up was the main let down, I found. Last year, the majority of the acts were placed on the two stages erected in the Garden next to each other, meaning that you could easily flit between each one without missing too much music. This year however, they were on opposite ends of the area, making it harder to work through the masses of people from Stage A to get through to the already huge crowd which had formed at Stage B. Luckily though, I made it back to the Flamingo Stage for the last half hour of Ronson’s set. People were already going off so I just stood off to the side and watched on the big screens. The skunk haired Ronson and his group breezed through versions of Ooh Wee (originally featuring Ghostface Killah and Nate Dogg), Miike Snow’s Animal and the Boy George collaboration, Somebody to Love Me before wrapping up with an awesome performance of the ever so catchy Bang Bang Bang from the Record Collection album.

As the temperature dropped with the beginning of sunset, I made time for a wander about the VIP section before emerging for one of the acts I’d been looking forward to all day, MGMT. My plans of getting my Oracular Spectacular on were dashed though, as a poor viewing position and crap audio quality from where I was standing made for quite a poor experience. The best I could get was a short visual of Andrew Van Wyngarden performing Electric Feel on one of the screens. Not completely put down, I instead made my way back to the Future Music Stage to get a better spot for Britain’s reigning grime/hip-hop king, Dizzee Rascal.

I’d seen Dizzee at the 2010 Big Day Out and enjoyed his set incredibly, and I wasn’t disappointed tonight by him. Stage presence alone made Dizzee one of the standouts of the festival, with his rhymes and cheeky struts across the stage and call outs to the crowd proving why he continues to entertain time and time again at festivals all over. Highlights included Fix Up, Look Sharp and You Got the Dirtee Love, the collaboration with Florence and the Machine that went viral after their performance at the 2010 Brit Awards, prompting an eventual release. Returning for an encore in Holiday and Bonkers, Dizzee peaced out, ready to party on in Adelaide with the rest of his entourage, as we were told.

After my disappointment with MGMT, I decided to hold out through James Holroyd’s DJ set at the Future Music Stage in order to get a good position for The Chemical Brothers, foregoing Pendulum’s set. A good idea, as it turned out, as the D area I was in quickly filled with punters ready for the headliners. In preparation for these guys, I’d spent the last few days trawling various photos from the Future Music tour so far, as well as YouTube for any live footage in anticipation. By the time the stage lights went down and the only lights came from the apparatus which had been lowered from the rafters, the crowd was blasted with Galvanise. From there, The Chemical Brothers brought the heat. There were so many great things to come away from their set with. The fact that, visually, The Chemical Brothers brought a spectacle for us to enjoy. The vibe which was created lasted from start until finish, and it was obvious to observe, from the intensity in the mosh pit to the rest of us dancing like we’d dropped acid, that this was the main act people had rocked up for.

As I limped my way through the exit gates with the thousands of other festival-goers who looked equally as wrecked (think of a B-grade zombie film), I thought back to last year’s Future Music Festival. It may have been a better set out festival in 2010 and there certainly was more alcohol consumed, but in terms of good tunes and gig memories, it’s got some serious competition with this year’s offering. See you next year, FMF!