Sydney hosted the penultimate leg of the Listen Out tour at the Brazilian Fields in Centennial Park on Saturday and boy was it treated to an absolute pearler of a day. With two main stages hosting some massive locals and internationals, and a 3rd stage tucked away near the food stalls, you were never left to your own devices on this warm, sunny last day of winter.
Any day that you start your day off with Touch Sensitive is going to be a good day, with the Aussie hero laying out some of his classics plus new beats from his 2017 album ‘Visions’. Wandering past Little Simz with somewhere else to go was a bad idea, because damn that lady can distract you. A tight show, with more flow than Niagra Falls, I cant recommend highly enough.
Vallis Alps dropped some nice chilled melodic electronica, with the crowd floating about 2 feet off the air after being whisked away with ‘Young’. I’m not sure if more opposites exist within the electronic music scene, but Malaa took everyone from floating 2 feet in the air to burying them 2 feet under with some hard hitting electronica dub/house bangers. Nobody knows who this man is, with thoughts that it’s DJ Snake or Tchami. I didn’t really care who he was if that’s what he is capable of producing. Wow.
It was time for some chicken, a chill, and look at what was happening on the 3rd stage. Chicken was had, but chills were not as Melbourne local Alice Ivy absolutely tore up the stage. A one-woman show doing live samples, editing beats, and tearing it up on the guitar, this was impressive stuff. Got to take a bassline for a sunset walk and release that inner funk. Must see, must follow, must dance. Check her out.
Getter was an absolute surprise. Not just hard electronica as expected, the live show involved some instrumentals and the blend of house, hard dub, electronica, and hip hop went down very smoothly. Great set for magic hour after the sun has set. Green Velvet rinsed the crowd with some smooth a minimalistic deep house. It got very deep and very good, particularly thanks to his live vocals and infectious smile ☺
Future pulled out of this leg of the tour due to personal reason, which was disappointing, but Hermitude filled in last minute and dropped their usual array of vibes and bangers. Set of the day for me will go to PNAU. I hadn’t seen them for 9 years and let me tell you their show is smaller but packs a much bigger punch. Their old hits were incredible to see live again, but they have added so much more variety to their beats, with driving electronica being met me hard bass lines and euphoric vocals. Pull me out of the oven I was done!
Final part of the night was spent splitting time between What So Not and Duke Dumont. What so Not doesn’t ever disappoint if you can hear his sets, with Emoh joined by some type of massive horse on stage. Duke Dumont had us swish swishing our limbs as his feel good house was the perfect was to end an amazing day. Until next year Listen Out, you will be missed.
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author: Anthony Glanville
photo by: Zennieshia Butts