Sydney Showground
Thursday 29 February 2024
Photographer / Reviewer : Kevin Bull
On a stinking hot, mid-week afternoon, I head from the Cenny Coast out to the concrete jungle that is Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush to catch a duo who have been at the top of the electronic music totem pole for bordering on three decades, The Chemical Brothers. Now Chemical Ed (Simons) & Chemical Tom (Rowlands) really need no introduction, with 10 studio albums, six Grammy Awards, and close on 15 million album sales making them a household name even if dance music isn’t your thing. And if that happens to be you, and personally I am more of a metal / hard rock kinda guy so I do get it, I challenge you not to be physically moved by these fat bass beats. I admit it, it’s a guilty pleasure of mine that I hide from my punk mates.
All studio albums were visited, reaching back to Exit Planet Dust‘s ‘Chemical Beats’, all the way through to a heavy helping from 2023’s For That Beautiful Feeling. 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole was well and truely plundered, and rightfully so. Following the spoken ‘Come With Us’ intro, we launch into the pulsing beats of ‘Go’, and for the next two hours there was not a break apart from a short 60 second breather before the dreamy intro to ‘Escape Velocity’ eased us into the second manic hour of dance club sweetness. Yes, this was two hours in an enormous sweaty nightclub that felt relentless.
Highlights for myself were when things became darker. The merging of ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ and ‘Get Up On It Like This’ hit me deep, and to move this straight into the pulse of ‘Saturate’ was top notch. Let’s just drop some big-arse balloons onto the crowd for good measure won’t you. ‘Live Again’ removed the relentless high energy and gave us some sub bass frequencies, and the darker thump during ‘Wide Open’ lulled us into its joyous vocal coda. The night was paced well, with moments where we could catch our thoughts, before things exploded. I’m looking at you ‘Goodbye’.
Production-wise, this was one of the loudest shows I have had the pleasure to be assaulted by. I felt every thump deep inside. Lighting was ferocious and intense, with the video screen visuals synched cleverly with the backlights. In fact, there were more lights pointed at the crowd than the chemical boys – it was an immersive experience. For good measure, let’s release some confetti during ‘Got To Keep On’, and the biggest robots being suspended from both sides of the stage shooting lasers from their eyes and smoke from their ears…. Oh Oh, and let’s close the main set with ‘Block Rockin’ Beats’.
It was a wild night. I have not moved and danced and ‘head-banged’ so much since seeing Truckfighters at a small club in Gosford 9 years ago (google them, I like my stoner rock). My guilty please is out for all to see, I get off on a massive, sweaty house party, and The Chemical Brothers delivered this in spades. Hey boy, hey girl…. it was a night to ‘Get Yourself High’.
