Love reigns at Future Music fest
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Eerie … Deadmau5 brought high end, hi-tech production and his now famous mouse mask. Picture: Bradley Kanaris
Source: Getty Images
THERE may have been no Pharrell Williams but there were plenty of happy punters who got lucky yesterday as Brisbane laid on a perfect day for the Future Music Festival at the RNA Showground.
With the big-hat wearing hitmaker still in LA gunning for his first Oscar tomorrow – he doesn’t arrive until the Sydney and Melbourne legs next weekend – it was down the likes of Hardwell, Eric Prydz, Deadmau5 and Rudimental to showcase some of the hottest dance music in the world right now.
Crowd pleaser … Deadmau5 performs for energetic fans at the 2014 Future Music Festival at RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. Picture: Bradley Kanaris
Source: Getty Images
With the sun blazing down on the first day of autumn the weather gods finally smiled on a festival plagued by rain in this city in recent years, making shirts an optional accessory for many of the men in the mostly young crowd. Good times reigned with a relaxed vibe among the outrageously underdressed, the fantastically fancy-dressed (mercifully the onesie seems to have been consigned to the dustbin of fashion history) and even the comically cross-dressed.
After the gates opened at noon, the early arrivers were rewarded with one of the country’s electronic dance music rising stars Will Sparks. The 20-year-old from Melbourne was literally DJing in his bedroom a year ago but thanks to his breakout single Ah Yeah and storming live sets he has been touring the globe spreading the word on the sound that has been dubbed the Melbourne Bounce. With boundless energy on stage, he worked the crowd like a veteran, slipping Swing, the top 5 single from his friend and fellow Bounce exponent Joel Fletcher into his set alongside his own tracks.
Early bird … Ben Haggerty aka Macklemore made a plea for marriage equality at the 2014 Future Music Festival at RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. Picture: Bradley Kanaris
Source: Getty Images
Macklemore and Lewis drew an early crowd on the main stage with their hits Thrift Shop and Same Love – the latter coming with a plea for marriage equality – brought to life with a crack live band that included backup dancers, strings and brass. Main man Macklemore declared Australians to be the most attractive people in the world and the love came right back at him in waves.
UK four-piece Rudimental, whose debut album Home hit No 2 on the Australian charts last year and who were fresh from a win at the BRIT Awards, continued the live music, pulling a big crowd as the sun set. Declaring they wanted to replicate the likes of James Brown and Funkadelic with their live show, their high-energy set took nine musicians to deliver, with a virtuoso trumpet player and three singers, who all did a creditable job replicating the vocals of the likes of John Newman and Emili Sande. Their joyous finale, Feel the Love, could not have been better named.
Loved up … Vocalist Ray Dalton performing with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis during the 2014 Future Music Festival at RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. Picture: Bradley Kanaris
Source: Getty Images
Hardwell showed why is currently rated the world’s No 1 DJ by DJ Magazine, with a massive set and the biggest production of the festival. Featuring mesmerising graphics, a laser show that could probably be seen from Mars and confetti cannon of epic proportions, the Dutch house master justified his place high on the bill.
So too did the man who followed him, Deadmau5, with a similarly high end, hi-tech production and his now famous, slightly eerie mouse mask.
French outfit Phoenix – like the Stone Roses and New Order before them – found what a tough ask it is being the only rock act on a dance music festival. Pitted late in the night against the massive gravitational pull of Deadmau5, the alt-rock quartet deserved an audience a whole lot bigger than the one they got. Those who made the effort were well rewarded however, finding a band in red-hot form, mixing up songs from their most recent album Bankrupt with established sing-along crowed favourites such as Lisztomania.
Future Music Festival is at Perth’s Joondalup Arena today, Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse on March 8, Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on March 9 and Adelaide Showgrounds on March 10.
Visit futuremusicfestival.com.au for details and tickets.
