Live Review: Donny Benet, Electric Sea Spider, Simon TK, Simona Kapitolina

Early on in the evening Simona Kapitolina plays a strong set of industrial tunes. Up on Ferdydurke’s stage, which is much higher than the crowd and faces a sheer drop, Kapitolina commands our attention with her pseudo-militaristic movements and bold style – black, draped dress, black headband, black glasses and black lipstick. Smacking the drums pads, she blasts through synth-driven, dark love songs with tons of reverb on her croaky voice (think Depeche Mode). Everyone is sucked into the dark world that her music creates and we dance in unison. 

Following the legendary Simon TK’s esoteric disco set that keeps everyone buzzing, Electric Sea Spider hops behind the decks to take us to strange places. He plays a set of glitchy hip hop; sounds that suggest other worlds within the music rather than presenting them practically. This has a hypnotising effect and we are willingly led through peaks and troughs, which build in tension and are framed by tribal rhythms, until the drop releases us back into the real world.

The crowd is now eager for Sydney’s Donny Benét. He looks nothing like the other performers from today: balding with a thick moustache, wearing a white jacket and deep red shirt with enough buttons undone to reveal just a touch of chest hair. Up on stage with only a laptop, synth, guitar and mic, Benét launches into Treat Yourself, an ‘80s disco-inspired number. He’s able to deliver lyrics that are almost corny pick-up lines with an earnest confidence – possibly due to his Tom Jones impersonator past – and totally gets away with it. His whole act has the perfect amount of cheese and it never gets to the point where you don’t take him seriously. Though songs such as Electric Love and Sophisticated Lover are borderline parody, Benét’s enthusiasm as he strains for the high notes – or tears up a guitar or synth solo – give his act authenticity. Fortunately the songs are also fantastic, considered structures of synths and 808 drum machines – not cheap rip-offs. Even the bouncers are dancing.