- Faithless and Way Out West on the same bill; sounds almost too good to be true? Well I certainly thought so as I entered the Vodafone Arena at Melbourne Park to attend the Melbourne leg of Faithless’ Australian tour. I got through security at the gate with minimal hassle, followed the directions on my ticket and found my seat in the yellow section.
While I am familiar with the more dance oriented tracks by Way Out West and Faithless, this was the first time I have seen either of these groups perform live. At 8pm, the cavernous indoor auditorium was almost empty, with the crowds still slowly trickling in. The general admission ticket holders were given wrist bands and allowed into the main free standing area that faced the stage.
By 9pm, the auditorium was packed out, with still more people trickling in. The lights dimmed as Nick Warren and Jody Wisternoff made their way on stage amidst cheers from the crowd. It was rather intriguing to watch both of them, standing on stage, each with nothing more than their Macintosh Powerbook G4 computer as their instrument of choice for this performance. The opening track was mellow, melodic breaks and towards the end of it their vocalist Omi was introduced to the stage. Classic tracks like “The Gift” and “Mindcircus” were performed by Omi beautifully. Although “Mindcircus” was originally done by Kristy Hawkshaw, Omi did a fantastic job of interpreting the track in her own way. The rest of their performance was nothing short of captivating and new tracks like “Killer”, “Anything But You” and “Don’t Look Now” were delivered live to the crowd.
All too soon, their hour long performance came to an end. The half hour intermission that followed next was a rather abrupt interruption to the earlier proceedings. People shuffled around in the bright lights trying to find friends that have wandered off.
Right on cue, at 10.30pm, the lights dimmed and the members of Faithless came on one by one. Whereas before when Way Out West were performing, the music stopped after each track, it was different with Faithless. From the introduction of a rumbling bass line at the beginning to the way each band member added their music/sound into the wall of sound, it was a continuous mix.
By the time Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz came up on stage, the atmosphere in the auditorium was electrifying. The crowd moved and danced to every beat that was played. Rapping and singing with extraordinarily powerful lyrics, Maxi Jazz had a commanding stage presence coupled with charisma just oozed all over the crowd.
“I’d like to dedicate this song to all the warmongers out there, including my Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair, George W Bush……” Maxi crooned amidst applause: “Remember….. Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction!” he then launched into the new Faithless track “Mass Destruction”.
Given the current situation of the world, I probably couldn’t agree more with the lyrics which struck a chord in everyone in the audience that night as they danced to the important message that was being delivered.
New tracks like “What About Love”, “I Want More” from their No Roots album were performed. Classic Faithless tracks like “Insomnia”, “God Is A DJ” were also performed and given the live make over, to which I thoroughly relished every moment of.
Probably the best rapport between artiste and crowd happened when they launched into “We Come 1”. Maxi instructed the crowd to raise their hands, point their index finger and shout “One!” The resulting effect had the hairs on my neck standing as several hundred people jumped and pointed in unison while shouting “One!”
By the time they did the encore and two additional tracks, it didn’t feel as if an hour and a half went by. Faithless gave it their all: powerful, political, inspiring. Incorporating live instruments, vocals and electronics, it was definitely amazing to watch so many people on stage playing continuously and so effectively at once. The stage setup, sound and lights for both performances were world class.
Thanks to the people at Michael Coppel Presents for a well organized event.