Live Review: Vallis Alps, Fortunes, Downtown DJs

There's barely anyone in the room when Downtown DJs' set begins, but they don't care and just play anyway. The duo starts with one working the decks and the other just lingering behind chatting to the sound engineer. At first it's unclear if they're a duo or if the one playing just has an on-stage posse, but around midway they swap and get into some bass-heavy remixes, including one of Two Bodies by Flight Facilities feat. Emma Louise that gets the few of us there dancing — even the bar staff join in, tea towels and all.

The bass drops again when electro-soul two-piece Fortunes take to the stage. We're all blown away by Conor McCabe's vocals — he essentially sounds like what Guy Sebastian thinks he sounds like and then some. "The next song's about sharing a joint with a person you like and you touch their finger just a little bit… it's a good moment," McCabe explains before pointing out that it's a sold-out gig and we should all move forward.

Next up, it's Vallis Alps. The third duo of the night begins with David Ansari on the decks playing a beautiful synth-meets-piano tune before, mid-way through, singer Parissa Tosif comes out and begins her angelic vocal melodies, clashing perfectly against the strong beats as they begin with Reprieve. Crowd members shout out their love and support, but although everyone's cheering and clearly into it, there isn't much movement. All that goes out the window when they play bass-heavy track Oh!. At this point it becomes very clear to those of us in the crowd who saw them support Of Monsters And Men a few weeks before that Vallis Alps haven't changed their setlist in two weeks — especially when it's time for their cover of Bon Iver's Blood Bank. (Quite a lot of people yell out "Skinny Love!" at this point, putting two and two together about who Bon Iver is). "Thanks so much again for coming tonight. You guys are incredible," Tosif tells us. "We wrote this EP about two years ago in a cabin in Seattle and we never thought we'd put on our own headline show. So this is amazing for us, thank you," and they play Thru, prompting a huge applause before finishing on Young.