Project Description

Fatboy Slim + Gorgon City + Motez + Henry Saiz @ Red Hill Auditorium 19/01/18

Fatboy Slim

Seeing as it was a really hot day on Friday, you knew that it was going to be a perfect evening at Red Hill Auditorium – not too hot and certainly not cold. For those of us who had the chance to see Fatboy Slim in 2016, we knew that we were in for a treat.

For any opening band, it’s always going to be hard as people are either just arriving or waiting until later to get to the venue but it’s got to be just that much harder for a DJ as people don’t usually get right into the music until the sun goes down.

Henry Saiz

Henry Saiz (Spain) was facing that very challenge as people were still parking their cars or arriving via the buses as he started. Despite the issues that Saiz faced, he did win the crowd over with his deep house mix infused with familiar disco sounds. Before long, he had people up on their feet and dancing to the rhythm and relaxing into the night ahead.

Motez

By the time Motez (Adelaide) took over the decks, Red Hill was starting to get packed and the crowd was loving what they were hearing. His set was a heavier, bass-driven sound with a decent mix of acid and tech house. Every time he dropped the bass, you could feel the satisfaction streaming out from the pit as he worked the audience into a frenzy.

Gorgon City

The first thing that you noticed when Gorgon City took the stage was that there was only one of them. Kye Gibbon was nowhere to be seen and Matt Robson-Scott manned the deck by himself. The second thing? Well Robson-Scott teased the crowd over and over and for those of us who were stone-cold sober; it felt like The Lonely Island had taken over and there were bets on When Will The Bass Drop? When it finally dropped an hour later, you could feel the relief and excitement pour from the crowd. It was almost surprising when heads DIDN’T explode.

While you could see the audience getting into Gorgon City, it was really the last half hour that won them over with a mix of Groove Armada’s Superstylin.

Fatboy Slim

Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook started with a slow yet beautiful version of Praise You before hitting the audience with Eat Sleep Rave Repeat and Renegade Master (Wildchild).

“I’m in Perth!”

Cook said excitedly.

By now, Red Hill was absolutely heaving with sweaty bodies; little clouds of smoke kept appearing throughout bringing a rather familiar smell and the Sunglasses at Night crew were out in force.

If there was any question of doubt that the audience had of how the night was going to go, it was almost immediately destroyed as Cook mixed in Uptown Funk (Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars), Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes), Eye Of The Tiger (Survivor) and The Rockafeller Skank. It was also the moment that you could visibly see the crowd change as certain substances kicked in and the energy was taken to a whole new level.

He also played Ya Mama, Deep Pride (Roland Clark) and It’s Like That (Run DMC ft Jason Nevins). If you were standing up on the steps looking down into the crowd, you could see the crowd energy drop briefly before Cook would lead them straight back in.

Fatboy Slim

He finished off his frenetic set with Where U Iz, House Every Weekend (David Zowie), Right Here; Right Now merged into Praise You, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones) and ending with The Rockafeller Skank – the whole crowd singing and clapping.

Cook’s energy bled into the crowd and back again as the smile was firmly plastered onto his face. The joy that he clearly feels from performing in front of people was so infectious that you couldn’t help but have a fantastic time. Cook was certainly the Puppet Master and had every single one of us there on his strings as he successfully controlled what we were feeling at all times during his set whether by the music he mixed or from the videos that were playing on screen. Once again, Fatboy Slim showed Red Hill Auditorium why he is still one of the best DJs out there.

In fact, the only real issue for the whole night was the whole hour that it took to leave the actual car park after the music had ended.

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