- The Chemical Brothers' recent Further tour had been awaited with anticipation since dates were announced in the middle of last year, not least because it's not often that they venture out to Australia. The last time I saw the British duo was in a sweaty little tent at Creamfields in the UK in 2001, so I was looking forward to seeing their show on a larger stage with the full complement of lights and sound.
We arrived at the Entertainment Centre at about 8:30 PM, catching the final strains of local indie-electro group Art vs. Science. The place was already packed with out-on-a-school-night revellers, all eager to see what the headliners, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, would throw at them. From the onset, they weren't disappointed, as the Brits came out and proceeded to set an energetic tone for the night with the opener "Galvanise."
The light and visual show was stunning, the highlights being a cylindrical light show above the stage, which gave the effect of raining light down onto it, and an exploding paintball visual during "Saturate." Ultimately, though, the lights and visuals were only support for the impressive bass and tearing highs, as the headliners demonstrated how to put on a show that unites hardened clubbers and nu-rave teenyboppers.
The set itself was a decent mix of new material from Further with staples like "Block Rockin' Beats," "Brothers Gonna Work it Out" and "Hey Boy Hey Girl" all dropped throughout the night. It was good to see that Rowlands and Simons didn't feel they had to only play their recent work, and weren't afraid to pull out tunes that were older than some of the kids in the crowd. It was evident that there were (unsurprisingly) many younger fans present, who seemed unaware of classics like "Exit Planet Dust" or "Dig Your Own Hole, as I got some strange looks jumping around like a loon as soon as the opening vocal sample on "Leave Home" was played.
After around 80 minutes, Tom and Ed suddenly disappeared from the stage, only to reappear to the exaltations of the assembled masses for something of a rock-god encore. We were then treated to three more, including the uplifting "Surface to Air," before the stage was vacated again. More optimistic sections of the crowd continued to chant for "one more tune," but instead of coming out for another encore, The Chems left us all wanting more.