Listen Out Festival 2015 Review

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Comedy Cruise

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ABBA Tribute Cruise

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Beatles Meets Elvis Tribute Cruise

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Retro Party Night

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Sunday Jazz Sessions

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Spring has well and truly arrived! And with that, we see the start of an exciting new festival season upon us and ready to dominate our party calendars over the next coming months.
Boutique dance and hip hop festival Listen Out led the charge this month with their touring event that took place across four major cities in the country – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.
Returning for its third outing and featuring a stellar line-up of international and home grown talent, the festival kicked off its first leg of the tour at a new Melbourne location, Catani Gardens in St Kilda.

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Though the Victorian weather can often be frustratingly hit and miss at times, the day fortunately brought perfect festival weather filled with blissful sunshine and clear skies throughout. Revellers also enjoyed lush ocean views and palm tree lined lawns as they migrated between three musical stages, all offering up an exciting roster of rising and acclaimed acts, who all effortlessly kept the party going from start to finish.
DJs Jordan Burns, Roland Tings and George Fitzgerald each respectively got festivities underway, delivering laid back house that wouldn’t have been out of place at the likes of Ibiza favourites Café Mambo and Cafe Del Mar. Hitting the decks for early to mid-afternoon slots across two of the main stages, their ambient summery sets warmed up proceedings nicely.

Electro pop duo Client Liaison – Melbourne’s answer to Chromeo – took things up a notch, setting a high bench mark for stylish showmanship early on in the day. Bringing with them a love for all things 80s kitch, their infectious synth drenched disco had the crowd excitedly throwing shapes to catchy singles ‘Feed The Rhythm’, ‘Free Of Fear’ and ‘Queen’, as well as gleefully joining in for many a chorus. Dressed in their best retro clobber, plus some impressive mullets and headbands to match, and their trio of leotard clad dancers, who were armed with their finest aerobic routines; Client Liaison’s entertaining and charismatic afternoon show marked an exciting turn in the day; already carving themselves out as one of the day’s festival highlights.
Making their Australian debuts, Atlanta’s ILoveMakonnen and brothers Rae Sremmurd followed, taking the day in a totally different direction with their fierce brands of dark and grimy hip hop. Grammy nominated ILoveMakonnen was an energetic warm up for the much anticipated sibling duo; with bass heavy cuts that saw him jumping about insanely, as well as dropping his recent club banger Tuesday, featuring none other than Drake. The Rae Sremmurd boys were just as explosive, treating the crowd to their bouncy trap anthems ‘No Flex Zone’ and ‘No Type’, taken from their debut smash ‘SremmLife’. Their high energy performance also saw them spraying the audience with bubbly, chucking inflatables all over the place, jumping into the crowd and even performing from the top of a ladder at one point. Another stand out performance of the day.

Seattle’s Odesza were a distinct musical departure as evening started to descend, though were nonetheless appealing, as they led the audience into their realm of dreamy, soulful minimal; punctuated by some rather atmospheric live percussion as well their stunning remix of ZHU’s ‘Faded’ and of course, big crowd pleasers ‘Say My Name’ and ‘It’s Only’.
House pioneers Dusky picked up the pace and in turn sent their jubilant crowd into a frenzy. Indulging in their love for techno, the London boys triumphed, delivering a sublime set, fit for a big, dark warehouse rave.
At the same time rising star Alison Wonderland also prevailed, igniting the crowd with a lively set, filled with her own original tracks and remixes, as well as her trademark Kaleidoscope-like visuals. The Sydney-based DJ and producer, who constantly sells out shows around the country, put on a show stopper from start to finish. Heavy on the reverb and pounding bass, while cheekily mixing the likes of the Spice Girls into Daft Punk, Alison was a true pro; but still had time to dance wildly behind her decks, while flawlessly delivering one of the best sets of the night. Her enthusiasm and likeable charm was absolutely infectious. Alison Wonderland truly brought the party!
The clandestine SBTRKT was another hugely anticipated artist of the festival, garnering a sizeable audience who excitedly surged forward for a chance glimpse of the man in question. But alas, he had donned his trademark tribal style mask as per usual, remaining as mysterious as ever. Though only down for a DJ set, he managed to keep his diehard fans at bay with a sprinkling of his biggest hits – notably ‘New Dorp New York’, ‘Living Like I Do’, ‘Wildfire’, ‘Ready Set Loop’ and ‘Trials of the Past’ – amongst some of the year’s biggest tunes, including Jamie xx’s ‘Gosh’ and Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Alright’. The eccentric artist and producer is somewhat of an enigma, preferring to remain in anonymity and letting the music speak for itself. And that it certainly did. We still might not know much of SBTRKT’s true identity, but instead got an insight into the artist’s eclectic musical preferences, as well as his effortless knack for keeping bodies moving.

Rounding off an already impressive day of performers, were two of the festival’s biggest draws, Joey Bada$$ and Childish Gambino.
At the tender age of 20, Brooklyn native Joey Bada$$ has already conquered the underground. And with a healthy love for late 80s and early 90s hip hop, particularly the boom bap style that was synonymous with so many of rappers from his hometown from that era, he picked up where others had left off, unleashing heavy hitter after another on a new hungry generation. Bringing the noise, chaos and passion of that exciting time, he epitomised his badass moniker. Inviting girls from the crowd onto the stage to dance, while spitting out eternally anarchic sentiments, Joey’s refreshingly raw performance brought the mean streets of New York to the Melbourne’s unsuspecting festival goers; and it was perfect.
Though Joey and the rest of the day’s artists were all mere specs on the memory the moment Childish Gambino a.k.a. Donald Glover took to the stage. Blowing everything and anything that had come along before, the man most famously known as Troy Barnes from the sitcom Community, silenced anyone previously dubious of the actor turned rapper. Those already in the know are smug in the knowledge that this multi-talented artist has in fact been putting triple threats to shame for years; working as a successful writer, comedian, singer-songwriter and record producer alongside his rapping and acting duties.

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A unison sing song of happy birthday marked the Grammy nominated Gambino’s entrance, before he magnificently dropped the ferocious brilliance of ‘Crawl’, from his celebrated ‘Because The Internet’ record.
Raucously dancing across the stage throughout, while bathed in the technicolour of his vibrant backdrops, the Los Angeles native gave the audience exactly what they wanted, knocking out hit after hit from his aforementioned 2013 release. The likes of ‘Worldstar’, ‘The Worst Guys’ and ‘Sweatpants’ had the crowd bouncing to his wonky hip hop style with a nerd-core edge, while seductive slow jams ‘Shadows’, ‘Telegraph Ave’ and ‘V.3005’ showcased the rapper’s sultry side, as well as his smooth as silk voice; serenading the audience as if putting the moves on them to take them home. And  if he had actually tried, he probably would have had more than one taker that night. Falling in love with this much talent is just too easy.
Like Yeezy back when he was a little more focused on the socially and politically conscious stuff, this awe inspiring performance was the only way to end this festival (sorry to the other headline acts), with the anthemic bonfire marking a reluctant close to an astounding Listen Out for this year.
www.listenout.com.au
Images and words by Sandy Dhaliwal

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