Sydney Opera House
Tuesday May 29, 2018 :
The long awaited Australian premiere show featuring creative, dynamic, and iconic duo, Daniel Johns (Silverchair) and Luke Steele formerly Empire of the Sun and The Sleepy Jackson shared their DREAMS in a big way to the Opera House this week as part of the Vivid Festival artist lineup. You couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate act to fit the bill, amazingly creative, musically powerful and a visual feast for the eyes brought this dream to reality in front of a very receptive audience.
The night kicked off with the usual Opera House welcome to country and intro followed by an almost uncomfortably long darkened moment of silence which was brought to an end by a louder than usual recorded dingdong used to call the audience from the bar to the seats – then it all went just a little bit crazy!
After the first three band members had taken to the stage at the rear, and started to punch out some thumping electro beats, came a stalking Luke Steele, aka Miracle, cheered on in a signature black sombrero and long coat. Shortly followed by a strutting Daniel Johns, aka Dr Dreams, to which the crowd roared. Looking like some waif like disco rock diva he took his position, obviously a long way from a comfy silver chair, rather a little awkwardly sparkly in his gold sequined pantaloons, cape and a pair of platform boots that would have easily stomped any gate-crashing frog!
Surrounded by synths and a vast array of pedals, we got a blast of something different from the outset. The huge screen flashed with quick fire words, emojis and imagery as the duo donned respective guitars and launched into a duet of electro guitar riffs and effected vocals.
It was straight into their second song, one of only two released, ‘Silence’ featuring Johns. By now he had lost the cape, almost bare chested apart from a little lacey chest piece, he delivered melodic vocals punctuated by modular synth lines and disco dance beats. The spectacle completed with his huge multi coloured face animated in sync on the big screen behind the band, confirmed he still possessed his magic.
Not real big on banter, the songs mostly came like cannon fire apart from a pause to teach the audience a new Jelly Bird dance, and for some horror movie monster voice banter between our two ring leaders. Oh and some dialogue about the band member’s groupie potential – the one at the back with the 3 harps which created yet another dimension to the electro–pop-punk mix!
There was however, a lot of strutting, megaphone screaming and baseball bat wielding going on during the songs, many of which we heard for the first time, some of the more downbeat songs featured melodic electric harp intros and multi layered guitar and vocals from both front men to really mix it up.
The end of the night got really big with the second released track, ‘No One Defeats Us’ – almost a one chord huge electro chant which felt like some sort of statement of defiance, culminating in a sensory overload of crashing guitar, an electronic cacophony on steroids as Johns on his knees franticly bashed pedals with his hands under flashing stage lights and with seizure inducing onscreen imagery on overdrive.
What a finish – there could obviously be no encore. With only three performances under their belt this could definitely be the start of something big – well it should be. It’s been 10 years in the making, and after all, as a few ladies shouted out, “We love you Daniel”
Reviewer : Nick Baron
Photographer : Daniel Boud
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