With (almost) all of the dust from the Good Vibrations Festival cleared up from their eyes, noses and chests, Perth’s festival goers summoned their collective strength for the last party of a summer that’s been jampacked with events, and headed to Wellington Square for the Future Musical Festival on Sunday 2nd March.
While the late announcement that DJ Yoda and Robbie Rivera had pulled out of the festival put a dampener on proceedings for some punters, there was no shortage of enthusiasm in the Future Funk tent early on in the day. While John Digweed got things fired up on the Future Music Mainstage, the Future Funk tent was overflowing with fans eager to hear the sounds of UK breaks duo Evil Nine. On the visuals behind the decks, the recurring and entirely appropriate symbol was the Energizer logo. Eschewing the bland and overplayed electro-breaks sound that plagues far too many breaks sets at the moment, Evil Nine delivered an upbeat and high-intensity set that revolved around a bass-heavy rocking sound. A thumping remix of Metallica’s Enter Sandman got the metal heads excited, and the duo’s own Crooked (featuring the next performer on the Future Funk stage Aesop Rock) was well-received, but it was the classic Soulwax anthem E Talking that generated the biggest crowd response. All in all, it was hard to complain about Evil Nine’s crowd-friendly set – it was clear the boys knew exactly what was required at a festival such as Future, and they delivered it in droves.
Following Evil Nine on the Future Funk stage, Aesop Rock was faced with the day’s toughest assignment. The performances of Eddie Halliwell and Sven Väth on other stages resulted in a small but devoted crowd for the US MC, but the Future Funk tent proved to be a difficult setting for delivering live hip hop. Battling a distorted and out of balance sound, the Def Jux veteran and his sidekick tried valiantly to generate some crowd involvement. Dark Heart News from last year’s None Shall Pass album was a winner but overall, it was unfortunately a forgettable set. Note to organisers: any live hip hop should be outdoors in the late afternoon, à la the performances of De La Soul and Jurassic 5 in the Belvoir Ampitheatre in years gone past.
While some may say 6pm is about 9 hours too early to hear Sven Väth’s brand of hard-hitting techno, a sizeable crowd was gathered on the Future Main Stage to hear the legendary German’s set. While the inevitable festival clashes meant I was unable to watch much of the set, the number of hands in the air (including those of the DJ himself), seemed to indicate that it was a set well-received and much-enjoyed.
Back inside the Future Funk tent, Montreal’s Kid Koala, from the much respected Ninja Tunes label, provided a lesson to all aspiring turntablists on how to showcase your technical skills whilst simultaneously maintaining a party atmosphere. Many turntablists are either content to simply demonstrate their technical skills (*Q-Bert* for example) or are weighed down by poor song selection (*DJ Craze*, I am looking at you). In stark contrast, Kid Koala combined precision mixing (across multiple decks without the assistance of headphones) with a fun and typically eclectic set of tunes, rhymes and samples. Joyriding across the musical universe with reckless abandon, Kid Koala jumped from thrash guitar and death metal to nursery rhymes and trombone-laden blues (upon which he inflicted the most serious of scratches). It was an entertaining and intriguing set which even inspired one intrepid reveller to climb one of the giant poles in the tent. As if fearing for the young kid’s safety, Kid Koala wound down the set as security guards forced the kid to come down the pole. The final track was typically unpredictable: a wistful folk number which kept asking to get scratched to hell but which somehow managed to avoid such audio rape. It was a strangely smooth and downbeat ending to a frenetic set, but I have no hesitation in declaring that, in Kid Koala, Ninja Tunes’ reputation for impeccable live performances remains firmly intact.
Venturing across to the Famous stage to catch some of Roger Sanchez’s set, I was disappointed to discover that Roger’s sound has changed little in the 18 months since I last saw him. Sticking to the tribal house sound that has been increasingly part of his sound since he began his Ibiza summer residencies in 2000, what I saw of his set was fairly plain and unexciting. Underworld’s Born Slippy got the large crowd firing, but Fatboy Slim’s dated Star 69 and a remix of Night Train that would have James Brown turning in his grave were evidence of the stagnation in the Sanchez sound. The ‘S Man’ needs to continue to develop and update his sound if he is to remain at the global forefront of house music.
From Sanchez it was over to the Future Music Mainstage, where getting a decent position for the Chemical Brothers proved exceedingly difficult. DJ Yoda’s cancellation meant the vast majority of attendees were gathered to watch the headline act. I’m not sure exactly why it’s called the Future Music Festival, but all I can say is that, if the future of music is dependent on its past, then the Chemical Brothers are the ideal headline act. Multiple Grammies, millions in record sales, headline spots at legendary festivals such as Glastonbury, the release of several seminal dance music albums, many of which came before the fluoro kids knew how to tie their (neon?) shoelaces. There is little in the music world that the Chemical Brothers have not done.
After James Holroyd got the massive crowd going with a selection of harmless party breaks, the Chemical Brothers took to the stage just before 8.30pm, appearing to rapturous applause and the eerie wails of No Path To Follow, the first track off their latest album We Are The Night. As the applause and wailing died out, Tom and Ed took up their respective positions in the onstage musical laboratory and launched into a rousing rendition of Galvanise. There was no messing around with salutations, it was game on right from the outset. And right from that blistering version of Galvanise, it was clear that the quality of production that sets the Chemical Brothers apart in their recorded work similarly sets them apart in a live setting. A crisp and powerful sound was accompanied by a dynamic and crystal-clear visual show, with mesmerising lights and lasers.
Prior to the trip to Australia, the boys had hinted at a live show focused on their newer work and so it was early on, with a selection of hits from We Are the Night (including Burst Generator, Do It Again and All Rights Reserved) delivered to an appreciative and knowledgeable audience. But there was still plenty of room for older material later on, with Hey Boy, Hey Girl and Out Of Control off 1999’s Surrender also proving popular with the crowd. After the briefest of pauses just after 9pm, the Chemical Brothers embarked on another signature build-up, eventually morphing into Saturate. From there, things got a little heavier, with particular highlights being the title track off We Are The Night and the classic Chemical Beats from 1995’s Exit Planet Dust which provided a spectacular end to the main set.
Allocated just 10 minutes for an encore, I was curious to find out what the boys had in store for the Perth crowd. It was hard to argue with what was provided: a rollicking and remodeled 10-minute version of The Private Psychedelic Reel from Dig Your Own Hole. Dynamic, explorative and downright rocking, it was an accurate summation of an incredible set that suggested the Chemical Brothers will continue to set the bar for dance music for many years to come. How’s that for predicting the future?
Rightio. So the Chemical Brothers were pretty good then? Check out this clip to get an idea of just how over the top it was…
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