Listen Out 2014 Brisbane Review

Listen Out is only in its second year, but this boutique IDM (intelligent dance music) festival is fast becoming one of the most talked-about one-day festivals on the Australian summer festival circuit.

Listen Out, otherwise known as Parklife’s spawn, was designed to remedy some of the things we don’t like about dance music festivals: with the philosophy of quality over quantity, or best but not biggest, Listen Out 2014 offered a tidy smorgasbord of diverse dance music, minimal line-up clashes, short walks in between stages, and a sundry of punters that created one of the most spectacular festival atmosphere’s that I have experienced.

To kick my day off, I headed around to the 909 where Adelaide dance-sorcerer Tkay Maizda opened up the stage to a surprisingly big crowd. Tkay had us all grinding, and sweating from the get-go as she smashed out funk-inspired electro, rap anthems such as 'Brontosaurus' and 'Uh-Huh'. And to the luckies who got handpicked out of the crowd by Tkay and given dinosaur costumes to wear during the finale, well I salute you for your intoxicated confidence! Her ground-shaking, bass-whopping performance really set the scene for the day to come.

Tkay Maizda - Image © Lachlan Douglas

The crowd stuck around for Young Fathers who followed after Tkay. Some people clearly knew exactly what to expect, while others were not quite sure how to handle, or dance along with the Tribe of Judah — part beatpoet, part krautrock — that was being offered. It was a weird, somewhat tribal, and slightly cultish. But it wasn’t bad; rather, Young Fathers performance had this eerie yet encapsulating element to it that I can’t quite pinpoint.

Young Fathers - Image © Lachlan Douglas

Midway through this performance I peeled myself away and dashed over to the Atari stage to catch Sydney-siders Golden Features. With a sea of smiling, bopping heads in front of me, the whole set was drenched in sweaty energy, and explosions of fun that had the whole crowd grooving together as one. There was something about the cooling afternoon sun, and Nicole Miller's featured voice layered alongside the big-hollow-wooping bass in 'Tell Me', which created this truly magical environment. Golden Features are a must-see, but be prepared to mercilessly let yourself go to their catchy, impressive, and unforgiving dance creations.

Golden Features - Image © Lachlan Douglas

Unsurprisingly, English electronic music duo Bondax played one of the great shows of the day. The duo, whose music is dubbed as ‘future garage’, blew us through the stratosphere with their transitional female/ male vocals and their energetic Rudimental-esque rendition of 'No Diggity' (maybe a quick reminder to everyone that it was not written by Chet Faker).

Bondax - Image © Lachlan Douglas

Interestingly, Chet Faker was next up on Atari after Bondax, and I'm not sure if he opted out of playing 'No Diggity' as I didn’t stick around long enough to find out (due to an unfortunate timetable clash). Despite this, the bearded-crooner drew one the biggest out-pourings of joy from the punters. He performed solo (not alongside the two musicians who did the recent tour with him), and had our knees trembling with an overwhelming sense of oneness as we all sang his songs in unison. Chet enjoys what he does, he’s comfortable, he's happy, and the crowd reflected this. He sure knows how to bring the love.

Chet Faker - Image © Lachlan Douglas

I peeled myself away from Chet Faker because I wanted to secure myself a good spot for the Californian hip hop lord Schoolboy Q. Many punters had the same idea, and the crowd really starting filling in towards the end of Snakehips – who deserve a mention for dropping some of the funkiest grooves of the day – the mystical-chill trappers created the calm before the storm.

Snakehips - Image © Lachlan Douglas

The already eager body of punters were teased by Schoolboy Q’s DJ, who energised us by spinning Chief Keef anthems. The moment that party-savvy, and self-sabotaging Schoolboy Q took the mic, the 909 stage erupted with skanking, grinding, sweating fans.

Schoolboy Q crowd - image © Lachlan Douglas

Schoolboy Q was fierce; and really brought his experiences of the inner-city rot of Los Angeles to the stage. Crowd highlight was ‘Break The Bank’.

Schoolboy Q - Image © Lachlan Douglas

Forerunner of Australian’s electronic/dance renaissance, Flume closed the festival with a bang. He took the stage grinning wildly at the bursting-at-the-seams crowd. The crowd smiled back at him with an eager appetite for those thumpers that penetrated the scene last year.

Flume - Image © Lachlan Douglas

And he fed us exactly what we wanted, with sugar on top. Crowd bangers included his famous remix of Hermitude’s ‘HyperParadise’, and ‘Holdin On’. Every single person in the vicinity beamed with an electric happiness while Flume reminded us of his worthiness of international acclaim.

Listen Out punters - Image © Lachlan Douglas

Listen Out might be ‘the new kid on the block’, but this ‘kid’ is paving the way for the Australian summer music festival experience. Listen Out’s philosophy of quality over quantity creates a niche experience for the punter. Kudos, Listen Out.

Written by Keara Forde

Images by Lachlan Douglas