Listen Out Melbourne marked the start of the Listen Out festival tour, kicking it all of in a city that's renowned for its partying. While the weather threatened to ruin it all day, apart from the odd drop we were spared from the rain and left to enjoy the beautiful St. Kilda location in peace.
The Festival pulls together an eclectic mix of hip-hop and electronica all sharing the same motive, "DANCE". It's a contained, tightly-curated festival that continues to get it right year after year.
This year they successfully pulled out putting A$AP Ferg and Travis Scott before RUFUS, mixing two very different worlds but proving that the crowd really couldn't care less about what the genre is.
We went for the beers, beats and boss performers and came out with these as our favourite moments.
Anderson .Paak Drumming And Storytelling
Anderson .Paak is the greatets live performer on the planet right now. Period. There's no one who throws themselves into as much as he does and he left everything on the stage in Melbourne. His set was a funk-tinged trip that varied between old school soul and modern R&B. While the whole thing, from the growling Put Me Thru to the moveable Am I Wrong, was excellent it was his turn on the drums that stole the show. He perched at the drums and told us all a story about the first time his Mum bought him Jordans. It was the end of Carry Me and he perfectly timed every word while never missing a beat. What a guy.
Travis Scott's Antidote
Travis Scott's set was patchy and disjointed at best. Most of the time he looked like he didn't want to be there and responded aggresively to punters who jumped onto stage. That's understandably but the whole thing lacked the energy that he's been delivering at his shows overseas. That said, he pulled it together for the sets closing moments getting floaty with Pick Up The Phone and then tearing the place apart with Antidote. That song immediately got everyone back on side and ensured he left the stage with a good rep.
Baauer's Famous Drop
Kanye's Famous was dropped numerous time during the day but it resonated best in Baauer's set. Baauer brought the heaviest, hold-no-prisoners set of the day, giving us rollicking, pulsating bass for an hour. It was relentless and it proved just how good he's gotten since the release of his debut record Aa. Cuts from the album like Temple made the crowd go nuts but it was pretty hard to go past him slicing Yeezy's Famous into the set. That Rihanna hook is undeniable and it created one of the biggest singalongs of the day.
RUFUS' Sprawling Seven Minute Opus Innerbloom
When you're headlining a festival like Listen Out where most of the crowd has had plenty of drinks by 9pm, it's a brave move to put a seven minute song into your set. RUFUS' headlining set was a steady, twinkling performance that was only made more special by the spots of rain throughout. When they announecd that they'd be launching into their seven minute Bloom closer Innerbloom, we were curious to see how they'd hold attention. The seven minutes flew though, however, as the sounds perfectly matched endless night sky. "If you want me, if you need me, I'm yours," was the kind of hands-in-the-air moment that festivals thrive on.
Every Drop In A$AP Ferg's Set
You'd be hard pressed finding any performer that brings the party vibes as well as Ferg does. Every song he built up like it was the biggest song of his career and then released dirty trap beat after every trap beat, sending the crowd bonkers within the first five seconds of every song. The Skrillex-produced Hungry Ham blew up the place, A$AP Mobs Hella Hoes had the entire crowd yelling back and even the EDM-esque Strive was euphoric. He's the puppet-master of crowds and he pulled all the strings at Listen Out.
LDRU's Rock Vibes
LDRU is without a doubt one of the biggest producers in Australia right now and what's best is he reflects a generation of kdis that grew up predominantly in the '90s. He's all about big, hooky dance songs but he's also heavily influenced by Blink-182-esque punk. God knows how he did it but he managed to slice rushing, euphoric dance cuts like Next To You with bratty guitar. At one point it literally felt as if we were at a rock show before he cut into Carmada and brought us right back into the electronic world. The music listener in 2016 is ADD and nostalgic. LDRU ticks both those boxes.
All Photos By Dylan Pupavac.
