Live Review: Origin NYE 2016

The final hours of a tumultuous 2016 were slated as the party of the decade with Origin NYE celebrating its ten-year anniversary.

The line-up featured a monster line-up studded with aces in rap, hip-hop and drum and bass. It was millennial madness on the streets, pounding the pavement from the well-worn Showgrounds train station into the venue – three main stages heaving early.

Chill electro-pop act Giraffage kicked off with a mellow set of dreamy synth and soft beats. Feels appeared early before getting stuck into his recent No Reason EP. Giraffage landed on a lot of radars with his remixes, however, solid tracks such as Hello and Tell Me demonstrate an arrival on the dream-pop stage.

Local space star ShockOne hit the tent to see massive support early on, dropping some electro enlightenment on the young’uns. Unleashing heavy beats such as Chaos Theory before dishing up fav collaborator Reija Lee. Home rocked, usually a low-key listen through headphones, it absolutely drilled the chest cavity in a live setting with the soaring Lee vocals over the top of layered synths as it was "bangerz from here on".

News began to circulate that headline act Chance The Rapper had been held up with flight delays and wouldn’t be showing up. Chance has flaked on a few shows lately citing personal reasons and is carving a reputation as a difficult act. As the gateway artist for quite a few fans the disappointment was understandable. The TWERL fill-in set, however, was on fire – relishing the opportunity to reinforce his opener slot playing up the line-up as dusk rolled in.

Terminal welcomed East London grime duo Newham Generals to the stage with impressive wrap-around LED screen flickering with intense light and graphics. MCs D Double E and Footsie spat vocals in rapid spurts with super dirty structures Boom Boom killed it with its retro roots.

It was back to the Tent for a dose of Wilkinson, a future jungle/dubstep act also from the Blighty Isle. Smooth tracks again ramped up in a live setting as he rolled out the majority of the outstanding Lasers Not Included EP plus a few from a possible new release on the cards for the New Year. Half Light lit it up before capping a stunning set with his standout and major track Afterglow

The international flavour continued in the tent with European liquid drumstep act Netsky importing his smooth Belgian flavours, making complete sense for a country famous for coffee and chocolate. It was his early stuff that moved the crowd into phase three party mode with dreamy mashups of Storm Clouds and Gravity.

What So Not rocked into the mainstage, now clad in darkness and lights show at full effect. Crowds turned up to check out some of his new work featuring collabs with some big names. WSN has been killing it on the Aussie scene demonstrating versatility both sonically and in live performance. As The Man appeared over his shoulder and whispered, WSN cut the music, picked up his mic and had a good old fashioned crack at officials trying to cut the set early, much to the delight of the crowd. Highlights included High You Are and Gemini

Chase & Status launched back in the tent and appealed to the audience with trans-generational stud track Smack My Bitch Up. Slated as a DJ set, the duo kicked off proceedings with their smooth ‘bangerz’ style and sweaty heaving mosh ate it up. Their set kicked into gear dropping MC Rage into the mix in style as he picked up the mic and strode on to stage for Fool Yourself — just so heavy, so damn good. Glittery ticker tape and shiny shit blasted out from the roof as the countdown reached its finale, fireworks where heard overhead but for the tent people, it was second fiddle to the crown jewel of the lineup.

At last, the long-awaited return of Pendulum, an act we consider our own. Reunited for first time in bloody ages and the boys wasted no time getting into it with Watercolour from their watershed 2010 album Immersion. The slow vocal built with barely a minute before the break dropped and the house unleashed. The tent was at fever pitch and the veterans knew just how to work it dropping a flawless playlist consisting of Tarantula, The Island – Pt. 1 (Dawn) and even the cult classic ABC News Theme remix – an epic slice of Aussie culture. A huge first hour of 2017 for punters with hints dropped at a big 2017 for Pendulum to come.