Live Review: Peking Duk, LDRU, Yeo

Yeo is unassuming on the decks, and while he doesn’t engage with the burgeoning crowd he plays a solid set of bangers that warms everyone up for the explosive stage presence of the act to follow. One-man band LDRU (Drew Carmody) looks like a kid who’s been chosen for team captain and relishes every moment of his thumping set. Mixing the best of Major Lazer, Hermitude, DJ Snake and Flume, LDRU reads the crowd almost analytically and adjusts accordingly to match the mood. Despite his brilliant efforts, however, Peking Duk rules the night and wear little matching bucket hat crowns to celebrate the fact.

A shocking burst of light filled the space before a dramatic rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra was pumped through the PA (aka the ‘Dawn Of Man’ score for Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) with some additional bass. Alas, the impromptu symphonic interlude was abruptly cut off by a volley of, “What’s this classical shit?!”-type comments from Peking Duk –­Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles ­– before the crowd was launched into a sampling session based around The Ramones’ Hey! Ho! Let’s Go and The Isley Brothers’ Shout! Pharrell Williams’ grossly overplayed Happy, expertly woven into the set with deft mixing, had everyone’s hands in the air, and actually sounded brilliant for the first time since its inception.

Hyde and Styles had already spent the entire night offering free vodka, asking everyone to take their shirts off.

After a lengthy set of sampling ‘90s hip hop and embarrassingly dance-worthy club tunes, the Duks finally released the kraken that is their smash hit High ft. Nicole Millar, and thoroughly tore up the Oxford Arts Factory. But then again, Hyde and Styles had already spent the entire night offering free vodka, asking everyone to take their shirts off, pulling the front row (female) revellers up on stage before demanding they crowd surf and just generally talking shit between their heavy drops.

Therein lay their only flaw in an otherwise infallible performance – Hyde simply spent too much time interrupting the flow of their set to spit out inane comments that elicited a ‘woo’ here and ‘yeah’ there from the crowd but not much else. Their skills in rallying audiences are unparalleled in the ranks of DJs, but by allowing the music to speak for itself, Peking Duk have more than enough ammo for a wildly hectic live show.