Live Review: Listen Out Sydney

Sydney produced the perfect weather as festival-goers congregated under sunny, blue skies at Centennial Park, kicking off their long-weekend at Listen Out.

A string of Aussie talent warmed up the festival’s three stages. Haiku Hands took over the Atari stage from Melbourne-based pop act Kira Puru, Flexmami taking to the decks and joining the four members that make up the electronic dance group for their high-intensity set. They worked up a sweat with energetic choreography, getting the crowd dancing along to their fun, catchy tunes.

Over on the 909 stage, London R&B and soul act Col3trane, accompanied by a guitarist and keys player opened his set with X. X. The talented rapper and singer exclaimed what a pleasure it was to be there on such a beautiful day before getting everyone moving to his sweet grooves. POLOSHIRT, the collaborative project of Winston Surfshirt and Polographia brought summery vibes to the Atari stage with their mellow tracks, performed in front of glistening sunset visuals.

The festival grounds were decked out with long bars with relatively short lines and plenty of bathrooms, water stations and food options. The three stages were close enough together to allow  punters to move between them quickly but far enough apart that there was no noise bleedover. After the two deaths at Sydney’s Defqon.1 festival earlier this month, there was a very heavy police presence, including drug-detection dogs resulting in several attendees being escorted out of the event.

Festival fashion trends included colourful, printed button-ups, overalls, bum bags and heaps of glitter. Fashionista Flexmami rocked a sweet pantsuit with kicks, drawing a crowd and hyping them up with a mix of tracks by Cardi B, Migos, Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar on the Third Base stage.

Sydney’s own Manu Crooks delivered an incredible set with tracks like Ridin’, and Assumptions setting the crowd off. Requests for the ladies in the crowd get on shoulders were answered during hit Fuego, performed in front of flame visuals as the crowd shouted the songs hook.

Whilst Manu Crooks’ mosh pit was going off, Melbourne duo Kllo were chilling out fans over on the 909 stage, with By Your Side off their 2017 release Backwater, captivating the crowd with interesting synth textures. 

Imbi The Girl brought a unique vibe to the Third Base stage, with their poetic hip hop and R&B, engaging with their small but eager audience and showcasing some seriously impressive vocals with tracks like Conversations.    

Chicago poet-turned-rapper Noname, one of the most exciting acts on the line up came out with a full band (who were seriously amazing) and humbly took to the mic with, “What’s up, I’m Noname, I’m gonna rap for a bit… This is the end of our Australian run and I wanna sang thank you for having me”. She impressed with her incredible flow and lyrics on songs from Telephone and the recently-released Room 25, and fought for crowd participation, asking, “Are y’all here? Are you all really present?” By her set closer Yesterday, the crowd was well and truly vibing with Noname.

As the sun began to set over Centennial Park, US collective BROCKHAMPTON opened their set with their new album’s opener NEW ORLEANS. The stages visuals matched the new album’s artwork and despite only being released a week ago, fans were already rapping along to iridescence’s songs including WEIGHT and FABRIC. The group performed fan-favourites including SWEET too, the pit getting pretty rowdy with a circle pit opening up - but everyone seemed to be looking out for each other.

English grime artist Skepta treated the crowd to his new single Pure Water and apologised for pulling out of the festival last year, explaining he was in court. He requested red lighting for It Ain't Safe and hyped up the crowd with hit Shutdown. The London rapper stopped the music midway through as people were throwing things on stage before closing his relatively short set with fan-favourite Man (Gang).

As A$AP Rocky’s set was slightly delayed, an official took to the mic to warning the crowd if they didn’t calm down a bit the music would be stopped. The warning did little to deter fans as the rapper came on stage, which had a smashed up car, C02 jets and pyrotechnics - the first real theatrics of the festival. After bouncing around the stage for A$AP Forever, he brought Skepta back out for their track Praise The Lord, the two hugging at the end as plaques were brought out and it was announced the track had gone platinum in Australia - before the UK or US.  

A$AP Rocky stopped halfway through mellow L$D to break up a fight between two fans in the mosh pit. “This is a love song”, he told them before spending a large chunk of his set time trying to get them onstage. A$AP Rocky preached to the crowd, “When you’re in the mosh pit you’re supposed to get out your rage... but when it’s all said and done it’s about love...”, before dedicating the rest of L$D to the fighters. 

“Y’all a fucking wild-ass crowd I love you”, he announced as Everyday came to an end before a  ‘one more song’ chant was immediately answered with Wild For The Night.

Punters ran over to the 909 stage to catch a glimpse of British electronic duo Snakehips, who professed their love for Sydney before dropping their MØ collaboration, Don’t Leave.

Skrillex was the perfect act to close the day, the EDM producer taking to the decks and asking the crowd to show him what they’re made of. With lazers, C02 jets, flames and a giant spaceship set, Skrillex played a combination of his massive hits including Purple Lamborghini, Bangarang and Where Are Ü Now and his remixes of songs like Migos’ Bad & Boujee and Kendrick Lamar’s Humble. He also somehow managed to make Vengaboys’ We Like To Party. Cool.

Skrillex asked the crowd to put a light up for someone they love as a mix of Coldplay’s Fix You and Benny Benassi’s Cinema played, while the DJ waved around a huge Aboriginal flag. After taking a photo with his crowd, Skrillex finished his set, and the festival with Lil Pump and Kanye West’s I Love It, sending the crowd off with “Love you, goodnight”.