Here's What Went Down At DREAMS' Australian Debut Last Night

DREAMS are certainly one of the most anticipated performances of this year's Vivid events. The Music reviewer Melissa Borg was among the first to see Luke Steele and Daniel Johns' new act at the Sydney Opera House last night. Check out the full review below.

DREAMS, a project nearly ten years in the making with Empire of the Sun's Luke Steele and Silverchair's Daniel Johns at the helm, made its Australian debut this evening under the wings of the Sydney Opera House.

With only two recorded songs and just a few shows under their belt, the hype was well and truly real, with a relatively full Concert Hall turning up to greet them, appearing that mystery still brings intrigue, or that at least their legacy still stands for something.

Ominous music and lights loomed before the stage went dark, and the Sydney Opera House's call bell was manipulated to welcome the two men in question onstage. Steele and Johns automatically assumed their personas and roles onstage – Steel (aka Miracle) donning a custom DREAMS branded silver coat and shirt, and Johns (aka Mr Dreams) draped in a shiny scaled jacket and pants. With guitars in tow, they stepped up to their mics and intricate layout of guitar pedals to begin chanting the words "feature film erotica" as they glared across the massive screen behind them.

The whole scene was overstimulating and intoxicating, between the screen playing audio visuals, the thumping club beats and coloured lights shrouding the stage and audience. Johns’ face loomed over them onscreen during Silence adding to the bizarreness of the show.

What became immediately apparent about this project was that it was made to be seen as much as heard, with the whole scene a spectacle you couldn’t take your eyes away from. In some regards, the visual spectacular was overcompensating for the music, which despite its primarily electronic sound, required seven members onstage to pull off.

However, what came as some surprise was that one of their two released songs (No One Defeats Us) had already been remixed by the Grandmaster Flash. But before we could get down to the business of experiencing it, Steele and Johns demonstrated what they called the 'jellybird dance', a reference used in the song, which required the crowd the wave their arms around. Surprisingly, the crowd was into it and some even took their bum off the seat to play along mid-song.

Some of their arguably more interesting tracks came in the form of downbeat electro pop numbers mid-set, with Steele taking the vocal reigns for an Empire-esque track, with an electric harp featuring.

DREAMS rounded out their thoroughly entertaining spectacle with known track No One Defeats Us, which has a distinctly early-The Presets vibe; hammering their guitars to a close, before exiting stage to resounding applause.