It seems the music gods were smiling down on us this past weekend- or at least the gods of Trap music- after being hit with arguably two of the most berserk club performances to raid the shores of Melbourne, leaving myself, my photographer and surely every dance music fiend in the city completely rattled from a Bass overload.
We decided on this little Stoney Road trip – pardon the pun – to the neighboring state of Victoria for a much needed music fix/adventure that was happily handed to us over the course of the weekend from our gracious guests, Chicago duo FLOSSTRADAMUS and Montreal’s freshest resident (and one half of the powerhouse team TNGHT) LUNICE.
Jetting to the city of Melbourne with one of the talented photographers from Voena, we headed out on the town with high hopes, and made our way to CANT SAY nightclub on Friday for the much-anticipated visit from FLOSSTRADAMUS as well as Sydney boys WHAT SO NOT, who were on the road promoting their new EP.
In terms of venues, it is safe to say Melbourne can deliver! We found ourselves lurking through an old train tunnel-turned nightclub that gleamed with acoustic perfection for this type of gig, which of course was the humble abode of CANT SAY.
Now that we know the place itself has got the goods, lets talk performance wise.
Armed with two stadium power strobe lights (which, in fact, only one was used due to the Nightclub short circuiting during the testing of the strobes) and head to toe in motor cross gear – for reasons I will never quite understand – the fellas’ from FLOSSTRADAMUS took to the stage where they would successfully melt faces throughout their hour long set.
The music these club anthem kings were bumping out was perfect for the atmosphere of the venue, and if you were not drenched in the sweat that seemed to be dripping from the tunneled walls, then I don’t think you were really there.
An edited version of FLOSSTRADAMUS’ own remix of MAJOR LAZER’s ‘Original Don’ easily obtains the highlight of this killer club set. The reaction of the crowd, and the club staff for that matter, when this TRAP anthem started to play was ridiculous to say the least, and the full capacity venue seemed to lift the roof off the nightclub itself and probably any venues within a 2 kilometre radius.
The glaring of the strobe lights teamed with excessive smoke machine usage and a deafening FLOSSTRADAMUS set nearly had me in tears of joy. Shit got real.
This leads me to the second night of our invasion of Melbourne, where in which we hustled up to the industrial area of Kensington, North Melbourne, for an intimate but equally as intense night session with LUNICE.
The Canadian TRAP enthusiast stepped onto the stage an hour after his original starting time which had some of the crowd slightly nervous and confused but in the end is totally fine due to the fact that he is he has to be one the freshest individuals in the music scene going around and didn’t disappoint when he got behind the decks. Or in front of the decks for that matter.
The Venue was the Revolt Art Space, and it is a rustic factory space about fifteen minutes from the Central Business District that buzzes with an exclusive vibe. The street-art decorated walls, the old-school barbershop chairs, and the vivid LED screen set-up definitely set a comfortable mood for dance music, and the sound was phenomenal.
“Do you guys like RAP music?”
This direct quote from LUNICE himself kicked off his set, and it was quite clear the answer was yes from the get go. The strongly Hip-Hop influenced set got bodies moving and shaking, including LUNICE himself in particularly. It seemed everyone in the venue left their skeletons at home. People were twisting, bending, dropping and flopping all over the place with every drop of a LUNICE’s aggressive Trap style.
Throughout the set (when he wasn’t dropping it low on stage) LUNICE utilized his own individual remixes, tracks produced as apart of TNGHT and some other dope Hip-Hop tunes that allowed for a favorable mixture of sounds radiating throughout the Revolt Art Space.
Towards the end of his set, LUNICE graced us with some killer new tracks he has conjured up lately, including a heavy remix of KANYE WESTS’ ‘Cold’, which – along with a trademark TNGHT style bass similar to their track ‘Chimes’ – had the largest and wildest reception from this overly excited crowd.
So at the end of all this, after hours of great music and minimal sleep, I can safely say Melbourne got the better of us! For more visual evidence of this huge weekend head over to our photo album for FLOSSTRADAMUS here and keep your eyes peeled for our full album of LUNICE that will be dropping very soon!
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