Live Review: Future Music Festival

It’s a beautiful Melbourne day and there is no better way to spend it outside soaking up the sun and excitement at Future Music Festival Summer ’15. It’s a breeze to enter the gates for those arriving early in the day, with organised queues we quickly land in the future. Instantly we are immersed in a colourful playground with an 8-bit Emoji paradise of emoticons.

The striking Kiesza heats up the Future Live stage with her flaming red hair and powerhouse vocals. She slips on a cool pair of sunglasses that fittingly match the stage’s smiley emoticon and she unleashes her fiery personality. With a unique blend of electronic dance-pop and hard-hitting choreographed moves, she delivers a knockout performance that sets the bar high. The uptempo disco-inspired Hideaway is a standout along with the explosive Take Ü There, recently recorded with Skrillex and Diplo for their Jack Ü collaboration.

Over at the Supernova main stage, German electronic DJ Robin Schulz is mixing uplifting deep house grooves. His collection of sublime sun-soaked remixes including Waves by Mr. Probz and his re-imagined arrangement of Lykke Li’s No Rest For The Wicked, turns the moody slow burner into a mild club thumper. One of the biggest summer anthems — Sun Goes Down, is an undeniably feel good track with emotional pop vocals, European tropical house flavour and a catchy saxophone melody.

For the first time ever, Gorgon City brings their full live band to the Melbourne stage with help from soulful vocalists Josh Barry and Lulu James. Producers Kye Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott create euphoric dance floor fillers with plenty of sing-along choruses from their debut album Sirens including Imagination and Unmissable. Their smooth flowing collection of high-energy deep house has us fervently throwing our bodies to the beat.

Navigating our way through the maze of crowds toward the Future Dome stage, we join in raving to the classic trance techno anthem Sandstorm, from Finnish electronic music producer Darude. Unfortunately it wasn’t as epic as we had hoped and lasts for only a few minutes as his set closed.

The pair runs amok on the stage and scare us.

A trek back to the Future Live stage to see British drum and bass duo, Sigma is well worth our time. Their fast-paced live show features stunning guest vocalists, an MC, drummer, and is tied together with a full light show with impressive visuals. Their pulsating dance anthems including hit Nobody To Love, a rework of Kanye West’s Bound 2 and the soulful chart topper Everything Is Changing, is a special live experience that is engaging and proves to be one of the standout acts of the day.

Future 2015 is all about the upgrades. Those who have a First Class Experience ticket, are treated to some of the best views of the Supernov main stage in style. The Sunset Club, however had pretty much everything you needed to just escape the crowds for a bit to relax and cool off in an island themed oasis. The exclusive area is well worth the extra spend with plenty of perks and a great atmosphere. Many enjoy the benefits of not having to wait in line for the bathroom or a drink, and take advantage of the shaded spaces, day beds, and tasty food options.

After recharging our batteries, we head back in to chase the rabbit into wonderland with English rapper Example. His exhilarating dance-pop is perfect for a music festival with an incredibly energetic stage presence. Elliot Gleave lifts us up and makes us bounce as high as we possibly can. The unlikely combination of his deep vocal raps complements the explosive electronic production with massive rave crescendos and catchy hooks on All The Wrong Places and the synth-laden Kickstarts.

Things get a bit kooky at the Futuredome as South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord shock us with their bizarre and outrageous performance of freakish proportions. Entering the stage in matching neon orange tracksuits that reveals ghostlike one-piece costumes underneath, we can’t help but be mesmerised by their wild display of obscene and overwhelming style. The interesting high-pitched squeals from the intriguing pocket-rocket Yolandi Visser and vulgar jarring raps from Ninja, is a unique juxtaposition that has us confused and captivated. With violent dance moves and crude gestures, the pair runs amok on the stage and scare us as they cut loose and conjure up a gritty, bass-heavy futuristic Afrikaans rave party.

Dressed in all white and ready top party, rapper 2 Chainz knocks us out with hip hop beats that has us krumping along to. Rapping through his repetitive self-proclaiming track I’m Different displayed in various languages on the background screen, we learn he really isn’t. He goes on about his excessive lifestyle about money, fashion, drugs and big booty women, but nevertheless he is entertaining with a catchy trap sound and a big personality.

With a huge line up spanning across eight stages, it’s inevitable that there are heaps of clashes and quick dashes from stage to stage to catch a glimpse of the headlining acts of the festival. Those who choose team Drake are left waiting with nothing but a symbolic owl to illuminate the stage screens for half an hour. To make the most of the annoying delay we can catch some of The Prodigy’s set as they tear up the Futuredome stage with their distinctive mix of electro punk-rock. The relentless performance is a special treat for fans to hear material from their new album for the first time, which has been anticipated since their 2009 release Invaders Must Die. The mosh pit ignites under a fiery-red light, blanketed in a thick layer of smoke as their dark, spasmodic energy hypnotises the audience into a rowdy chaos of mental fits.

Drizzy Drake finally arrives just after nine o’clock as flames and fireworks ignite the Future Live stage. Ever so assuringly he proclaims, “I’m not asking to change your life, I just wanna be a part of it." He takes us on a ride through his journey to make it to the top with his effortless freestyle rapping combined with grimey hip-hop beats. His charismatic personality and audience interaction is welcomed as he opens up and unloads his powerful emotions. He invites 2 Chainz and P Reign up for collaborations and his bud Lewis Hamilton joins him on stage as he is checks out the show whilst in town for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. It’s his first ever tour of Australia and he declares with full confidence that Melbourne is the best crowd of the entire festival so far, telling us that he’d travel any distance to return to Australia - "For real". He leaves us with a final note that it’s nights like tonight that he’ll look back on.

Swedish electronic music producer Avicii, closes Supernova with an impressive display on the mind-blowing electronic music main stage. CO2 jets billow streams of smoke, flames shoot into the air and an impressive array of lighting effects are all perfectly synchronised to the epic chart dominating dance anthems. The stage creates an incredible atmosphere, adding something special to Australia’s biggest music festival for the first time and Avicii’s music is the perfect headliner to push it to the next level. He leaves us with a final remix of The Killers track Mr Brightside as fireworks light up the sky and confetti explodes out onto the crowd.