Busybee
Norgdom
Perth Music2008 Future Music Festival Review
Another festival that saw a change of venue this year was the 2008 Future Music Festival. This year saw the dance and funk festival set at Wellington Square in East Perth which some thought was a risky move. The smaller venue limited numbers through the gates and was an unfamiliar location for many but still held up well against the strain of tens of thousands of music lovers.
Parking wasn’t too bad as the festival was on the Sunday of a long weekend and the central location gave the easy choice of public transport to many. Getting through the front gates was not fun as the line to pick up tickets ordered of the internet was long and slow and then the line to get bags and ID checked and finally into Wellington Square was just as long. For good or for worse the smaller venue allowed punters to wander aimlessly around from stage to stage with ease, with easy access to (expensive) food and drinks, water fans and sprayers and plenty of shaded areas to rest. But like most dance festivals not many people were there to rest and there were abundant numbers dancing professionally and really unprofessionally, dressed up in ultra fluoro or a special costume for the day (I spotted a Batman, Wonder Woman and even a mixing desk) and most guys decided that shirts were optional.
The Electro Splash Tent was host to the Norwegian electro punks Datarock early on with a great number of fans happily dancing in anticipation. Wearing matching red tracksuits, Datarock played a fun filled set that swayed between a rock concert and a rave with beach balls bouncing around from one side of the crowd to the other. Computer Camp Love was the biggest crowd pleaser and the use of a saxophone at the end of the set was a great thing to see and hear.
Aesop Rock unfortunately drew a small crowd to the Future Funk tent but played a fantastic set to those that turned up. The American hip hoppers were very interactive with fans and the covered tent was a welcome relief to the hot sun. Daylight was great to hear live and new song Coffee was also performed to perfection. The small crowd did start to lose attention pretty quickly and the sides of the tent soon were getting pulled up as people were looking for something else to do.
The Silent Disco was quite interesting to see and quite an original idea for a music festival. Essentially people line up to get headphones that play 2 channels of music played by a DJ. The tent is then filled with people dancing to music that people without headphones can’t hear. Interesting idea but it got very old very fast and seemed just like something anybody could do at home instead of paying over $100 to do.
Roger Sanchez is a very popular DJ who was expected to entertain a huge crowd at the Famous Stage and entertain is just what he did. A great set full of popular songs mixed and matched seamlessly to the dancing crowd but unless you were quite close up there were sound issues. The small venue required the stages to be quite close to each other so sounds traveled between stages constantly to the annoyance of many. Sweat Dreams and Stronger were crowd favourites for sure.
The electronic duo that most had come primarily to see were greeted with a huge roar from the crowd. The Chemical Brothers not only had a great set but a fantastic light show that worked together really well. They play a show instead of a set which was missing from almost all of the other acts for the day. Hey Boy, Hey Girl, Galvanize, Do It Again and The Golden Path were all played and all loved by most. Even the dirt that had risen from the park ground and covered the feet of everyone couldn’t dampen the utter excitement that the dancing fans were showing.
Photos from Future Music Festival can be found here at PerthNorg (Thanks to Noodlez).
