Live Review: Flume, Vince Staples

Thick trails of music fans swarm into the botanical gardens as another scorcher of a day begins its descent into night. This is the second of two nights that sees Brisbane's Riverstage filled to capacity, just shy of 10,000, and the mood on the ground is electric.

It's only just hit right on 7pm when Vince Staples take the stage, but the hill is already densely packed-out. At only 23, Staples shows the maturity of an MC beyond his years and from the moment he arrives tonight he is in complete command of the stage. A mid-sized LED stands behind him, inviting the audience on an orange-tinged excursion to desolate sets of Long Beach, California, with the potent lyrical display populating the space, filling it out with frames of personal narrative. Lift Me Up, Jump Off The Roof, and Blue Suede come across like long-time hip-hop classics, and by the time the set rounds out with Norf Norf he's made an impression fitting of a headliner.  

Hot on the trail of completely cleaning up at the ARIA Awards, electro wunderkind Flume returns to his home stages to close the year in the same epic fashion he opened it with at Laneway Festival. Only this time, the grandeur of space afforded by this magnificent venue gives him a lot more breathing room, allowing his dazzling production to extend to its full reach, and the results are nothing short of breathtaking. Skin opener Helix announces his arrival, giving a brief teaser of its slick, dystopian soundscapes, before he knocks us into the less angular terrain of his debut with a one-two-three combo of Holdin On, Sleepless, and On Top.

At first it seems like a rash move to pull out such heavy artillery so early in the game and run the risk of later depletion, but Flume goes on to prove you don't make it this far without having a well-honed sense of your craft and a finely tuned understanding of how to affect an audience. He keeps the set flowing with dynamism, and holds the crowd's devoted attention in every moment by strategically placing each selection. Counterbalances of variation are used throughout; the dark geography of Lose It alongside Kucka's appearance for Numb & Getting Colder, Insane beside his remix of Lorde's Tennis Court and Pika beside Never Be Like You. Between songs, Flume communicates a humbled appreciation to his supporters for allowing him to pursue his creative love, adding a touching element of intimacy to this grand celebration. Staples takes the limelight again for Smoke & Retribution but, unlike his subdued effort at Laneway, he delivers with an electrifying assurance, bouncing back and forth across the stage, only taking moments of physical pause to allow Kucka the space for her contribution to soar. From here it seems Flume can do no wrong. His remixes of Rustie's Slasherr, RL Grime's Core and Hermitude's HyperParadise roll into Free and Say It, before he beats Disclosure at their own game with a gorgeous version of You & Me that is a sensual feast; confetti fills the air and the whole thing is brought home on a real peak.

Ironically, Drop The Game drops the ball and Tiny Cities isn't the right play needed to recover. It's a strange encore that feels like more of an afterthought rather an inspired return to the glory of the main set. However, it's the smallest of missteps among a night of great leaps and bounds. His highly considered and stunningly executed visual show inspires moment after moment of utter awe. Sound and visual come together to produce a synesthetic experience that is finding its way toward the realms of the greats and, in a time where festival depletion has opened up a void in the field, leaving electronic music fans screaming for the long-overdue return of royalty like Underworld and The Chemical Brothers, we're all the more lucky to have someone building such a castle in our own backyard. Now if someone could just send out a call to The Presets and let 'em know it's their time to report back for construction duty...