Flume. Electronic music pioneer, home grown and a Tesla owner. There’s not too many more boxes you can tick to ensure your spot as one of the country’s most respected musicians. Therefore, Friday, November 25 was nothing less than a spectacular of epic proportions.
Arcadia had it’s opening night and it was the real first balmy evening Perth had seen this summer, so naturally every artery in and out of the city was clogged like a 76 year old smoker’s. I completely attribute the 36-minute stand still on St Georges Terrace as to the sole reason I missed out on SOPHIE’s set. The eclectic beat maker has made small ripples in the scene that gave him the honor. No, the right to open for such a class act. I can only hope he played MSMSMSM and finished on Lemonade.
Vince Staples blew me the F away. It was him in a blue hoody, a mic stand and a small screen with red bee’s crawling across it. He had a strong Childish Gambino energy with a bit more Kanye (before Kanye loved Kanye). He paid homage to his home, Long Beach California with his mantra ‘I speak from where I come’, dead panning the camera with a resonant seriousness so that when he sang ‘I ain’t run from nothin but the Police’ in Norf Norf, the undertones of the gang life made sense. He left us high and happy with that Blue Suede.
Extraterrestrial is probably the closest description to what the ten minute intro felt like. A grid of luminescent floodlights began to glow up the fog and a long drawn out droning vibration competed with the crowd’s cheers. Flume appeared shrouded by a gigantic drape of shadow as spinning blue police lights quickened in anticipation as the bass of Helix grew to a deafening sound. The bass dropped, the curtain dropped and it was on.
Launching straight into the classics On Top and Holdin’ On, the overhead video shots and the most intricate visuals made it so unique, so metallic, just so Flume. The staging was simple, suspended neon lit cubes that gave it a very mod vibe and allowed the lighting to be the biggest highlight of the whole gig. There was a lazer beam cage that shone from the floor to the roof, a strange red and blue light combination that made the crowd look as if they were both from a 3-D film and a part of Salvador Dali’s art and an explosion of colour and effects that I’d never seen before. It was a true artistic lightshow that could not have been any better.
A quarter of the way in saw him moving into Smoke & Retribution where Vince Staples came bounding back on stage with the same vigor but also with a dead mic and it unfortunately stayed that way for a whole verse. Whoever’s screw up it was, was thankfully recovered by Flume commanding a do-over. Kučka also joined in on the live effort and brought a sense of authenticity to the collaboration. He moved through his more minimalist and trance-y tracks and there were moments where the passage of time was completely lost until we were found again in a warrior scene with Wall Fuck that ran into Insane and his remix of Lorde’s Tennis Court. By some beautiful initiative, a few little phone lights lit up the opposing wall and like a ripple effect, there were little fireflies mimicking the other side and swaying in harmony to Say It, ft Tove Lo. Before we slipped into the eternal lullaby he shook us back to life with his mix of Rustie’s Slasherr and a surprise arrival of RL Grime’s Core, which was considerably bigger than any other track. It wouldn’t have been a Flume gig if that Hyperparadise remix wasn’t played out completely and thankfully he left us well satiated.
He is a master of production and a highly skilled DJ and there is no doubt in my mind that he is deserving of all those ARIA’s.
MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES
Photos by Louis Frère-Harvey
