Flume has narrowed down the amount of words I can use to describe his performance at Riverstage last Wednesday or two ago. A few that come to mind are: spectacular, immaculate, and fucking incredible. The show is one of few other dates of the Australian Palaces Tour, 'Palaces' being his newest album. The award nominated album features 13 songs, including the likes of ‘Say Nothing’ with MAY-A, ‘Sirens’ with Caroline Polachek, and ‘Highest Building’ with Oklou.
Collaboration is one of Flume’s important philosophies, as seen across his body of work, and even just the songs I’ve mentioned above. So support acts were likely hard for him to pick out. For Brisbane, it was Toro Y Moi and Channel Tres who had the honour. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch much of Toro Y Moi’s set, however the parts I did see were very professionally done and hyped up the crowd whilst they were getting drinks, eating food, and of course buying merch. Channel Tres then got the mosh jumping. His rapping, house beats, on top of incredible dance routines ramped everyone into the main event, Flume himself.
He approached the stage in his full racing suit, desks either side of him, ready to bring the noise. Coming out the gates was ‘Drop The Game’, an older song of Flume’s, featuring Chet Faker. Of course Faker wasn’t there, but his vocals through the desk sounded just as good. Soon enough Flume got into some of his most popular works: ‘The Difference' (which Toro Y Moi did come back on stage to play), ‘Say Nothing’, and of course the Hottest 100 topping ‘Never Be Like You.’ Flume also dedicated a song to the late SOPHIE, who accompanied him at Riverstage just 6 years prior.
Somewhere in between all this, surprise guest Sycco came out and delivered her song ‘Ripple’, which Flume features on. Some of his more prominent remixes featured as well, my favourite being Hermitude’s ‘HyperParadise’. An encore begging crowd brought Flume back to the stage for two more songs before we had to leave, his newest, ‘Slugger 1.4 [2014 Export.WAV]’, and one of my personal favourites, ‘Rushing Back’ featuring Vera Blue.
This was my first time seeing a DJ on such a big stage, so I was concerned how Flume would fill the stage being bound by his equipment. Happily, my concern was unneeded, as the pyrotechnic team absolutely destroyed it in conjunction with Flume. Flashy lights and projections filled a stage that one man himself could not, creating an absolute visual treat, a music video of sorts. They weren’t the only thing filling the stage however, as Flume’s very cool, very large arches filled the back of stage at times, which featured their own sets of lighting around the bends. All the lights were synced to different elements of his songs, sometimes instruments and other times timings.
It’s safe to say that Flume’s show went great from the fan standpoint. Being in the atmosphere of the place couldn’t not pump you up. Half the time, I had the chills from taking in everything around me, bass thumping up the hill, piercing through everyone’s bones. If you’ve not seen Flume live, just go see the spectacular show for yourself, trust me, it’s worth every penny.
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