Another year of Listen Out Festival is done and dusted and we're pretty sure this year's festival was one of the finest they've ever had. With massive acts like Brockhampton, A$AP Rocky, GLADES, Noname, Skepta and Confidence Man taking to the stage over the last two weekends, we were on ground at the Sydney festival and here are the performances we won't be forgetting any time soon.
GLADES
The Sydney alt-pop trio took to the stages with a super-polished show, incredible neon visuals and immediately had the crowd hooked from the get-go. While their newer songs like Eyes Wide Shut and Not About You went down a treat, it was old-school track Do Right that really had the throng of fans hankering for more - even before the set had even finished! We caught some fans at the back absolutely shrieking the band's name to try and get their attention and some acknowledgement (they were a little too far back for the band to see them). Dressed in a chic pale pink outfit, frontwoman Karina Wykes' vocals were on point and we're so excited to see what GLADES do with some even bigger stages and audiences.
Skrillex
Wrapping up the pointy end of the festival, Skrillex obviously came prepared with pyrotechnics, some mega-bangers from his own repertoire - including Jack U - and some huge drops (duh). With a set that resembled a giant spaceship, the former-emo lead singer took us through hits from Kendrick Lamar, Kanye and Lil Pump (yes, I Love It went down a treat) and even Vengaboys, making it a set that got the night's partying started for heaps of punters. And Skrillex got his own partying started too - he later was seen at Sydney's The Ivy playing a b2b set with Fisher at his afterparty.
A$AP Rocky
Maybe the most over-the-top stage production at Listen Out this year, Rocky brought two cars to the stage as well as pyro, a whole load of black-and-yellow tape that made the set look like it was police-barricaded. Following on from their triple j Like A Version performance earlier in the week, festival-mate Skepta also jumped on for Praise The Lord - in another awesome moment, platinum plaques were brought out for the pair to celebrate the song going platinum here in Australia.
Kira Puru
Though she was opening the main stage and started as punters were still flooding through the festival gates, Kira Puru plays like she's performing to thousands of people every time. Wearing a flowy kimono-esque coat and her trademark tiny sunglasses, tunes like Fly and Molotov from the Melbourne-based singer's new EP were sassy as hell, matched with brightly coloured, cartoonish LED backdrops. We love Kira's between-song banter too - too funny.
Brockhampton
Arguably one of the biggest moshpits of the festival, Brockhampton were the lucky act to score the golden-hour set time, the sun setting just as the band's heatmap-themed visuals took over the huge LED screens. The boys were as energetic as they come across in every single one of their music videos, wearing the same matching black shirt and pant combo as they played cuts off their newest album Iridescence (which fans knew the words to already!). We can confirm the atmosphere in the crowd was total madness for these guys.
Haiku Hands
The four ladies in Haiku Hands (plus Flex Mami behind the decks) present a super-unique offering - synchronised dancing, chirpy, cheerleader-esque vocals and some insanely fire bass drops that got the crowd moving like it was 5am at a heaving house party. Current single Jupiter as well as Not About You (not to be confused with GLADES' track of the same name!) all got an airing but it was a heap of unreleased stuff that the crowd just lapped up.
