Live Review: Field Day

The first day of 2014 threw a few big surprises at punters, one in the form of a little dubstep king, while those who went too hard on New Year's Eve were given healthy doses of good vibes to cure their hangovers. The great thing about Sydney's Domain is that the Centre Field and Island stages are close enough to comfortably drift from one to the other without missing too much.

triple j Unearthed winner KLP rocked the Island stage early with Operator Please drummer Tim Commandeur, who also played with Panama. KLP's vocal talent is impressive but outdone by her attitude and stage presence. She even blooded a new Motez collaboration while Motez played the Centre Field.

The whole day seemed to have a '90's theme. Flight Facilities pumped a fan-voted decade set, the '90s won and the Centre Field was treated to everything from Michael Jackson to Cypress Hill to Bomfunk MC's Freestyler. Meanwhile Elizabeth Rose, who was looking fantastic in a sparkling pink leotard, busted out 40 minutes of synth-infused dance tracks. Her recent Like A Version cover of Rhythm Of The Night was another throwback to the decade most ticketholders were born in.

London Grammar produced the most haunting set of the day. Starting with Hey Now, Hannah Reid's voice was almost better live than on the record, if that's possible. After Wasting My Young Years Reid picked a favourite audience member: an enormous sleeve tattooed man screaming soft girly tracks back to her. Reid also proclaimed the Island Stage to be the loudest crowd she had ever played in front of, which only made them louder. The contrasts between the Centre Field and Island stage was enormous, as London Grammar mesmerised with a soft and beautiful display A$AP Rocky produced a flashy high-energy set which proved impossible not to enjoy.

Wiz Khalifa came out and embraced probably the biggest crowd reaction all day; he also enlightened the crowd with his opinion on smoking weed: “Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't smoke weed and function, that's bullshit. Man makes laws, man makes guns, God made weed.” That little speech may have had something to do with the cloud of smoke above the crowd when Khalifa played Young Wild And Free.

Solange's jazzy set invoked precarious amounts of bumping and grinding. It's hard not to compare Solange to older sister Beyonce, but baby B held her own. Losing You was huge. Solange's stage presence and confidence were as powerful as her vocal performance. It remains to be seen whether Solange can reach the dizzying heights of her big sister, but one certainty is that the Knowles family have got some grade-A DNA.

The Wombats came on after Solange and many hardcore Wombats fans were worried they would plug their upcoming album and discard their biggest hits; that's not what happened at all. They kicked off with Moving To New York and played hit after hit after hit. They then jumped into the fog, killed the director, took us to Tokyo and played just one new track Your Body Is A Weapon, which despite being only the third time they had ever played it live was embraced by the crowd due to some strong radio airplay. They refused to start playing until everybody screamed with their hands in the air, and Matthew Murphy had never sounded more British when he eloquently told everyone to get “absolutely feral”. They promised a Celene Dion cover to finish the set but nobody minded when it turned out to be Lets Dance To Joy Division. Of all the acts that didn't use decks The Wombats were easily the best.

When Flume finished Chet Faker came out for Drop The Game. That would've been a happy enough ending for everyone until Skrillex walked on stage, provoking about 5,000 people to collectively lose their shit. The Flume and Skrillex mix-up was heavy, but also showed Skrillex's intention to move away from dubstep and more into house.

Leaving the festival there was mass confusion, as organisers shut one of the two exits and made 10,000 people walk the length of the festival along a three-metre-wide pathway. Security and police copped several earfuls from weathered festival-goers ready to get home, but it was only a slightly annoying end to an excellent day. If Field Day is any indication of what festivals will be like in 2014, we're in for a great year.