- After a lengthy stint travelling around Europe for three years, it was nice to return to the confines of PoW in St Kilda for a night of rocking electro beats, headlined by Infusion, to get a heart starter back in the Melbourne scene.
The main room was decked out with screens and visuals that proved more eye-catching than a Jamie Stevens tie and shirt combo, and the pre- and post-Infusion beats dished out by Poxy Music, Keltec, Dan Mangan and Gavin Keitel ensured that the experience was always going to be a journey of some description.
Poxy Music came on slightly later than expected, unleashing techy breaks with plenty of funk. Their remix of Alter Ego's ‘Rocker’ and their classic ‘Our Break’ moved people from the steps to the floor with more than a little dash of shuffle.
The crowd kept building as Saturday morning reared its head and post-spliff balcony dwellers entered the darker confines of the room to grab a position for what was Infusion’s last appearance in Melbourne for some time. They now head back overseas to ply their trade at Creamfields - South American style, before charging through the States. Unlike their performances in London at Fabric and Cargo last year, Infusion played a much longer live set, and as Rev Manuel promised the congregation early on, they were going to take us right back to the beginning.
Armed with two guitarists that accompanied their BDO appearance and other recent PoW show, Infusion began with some of the earlier work on a more progressive tip. The collection plate was filling fast!
Whilst many there seemed unfamiliar with the territory they were re-exploring, it didn't take long before a few girls took to the stage for the club favourite ‘Do to you (in '82)’, and hands were in the air when the familiar guitar chords came in for ‘Girls Can Be Cruel’...(WARNING: track name only, not to be taken literally).
Manuel did some great work on the vocoder and theremin for a stonking version of ‘The Careless Kind’, with an empty-bottle-passing hipkat leaving his Blueprint on the night with some tidy moves around the stage.
After a brief encore, Infusion returned with one of the highlights from their latest album, ‘Natural’, and a crowd that was more than a little up and down in the wrong way started getting a little up and down in the right way. ‘Rattlewasp’ went down well with the grating guitar lines but ‘Legacy and Spike’ was a noted absentee.
With little left to prove to their massive Australian fan base these days in terms of delivering a live punch to the ear section, one could sense the satisfaction with those left at the end, but there were more than a few gaps in the venue as Infusion left Melbourne behind…at least for a little while. Safe returns.