Monday 7th March 2011- Review by Luke Trollope

The most anticipated party of the summer, Future Music Festival 2011, shone down on Arena Joondalup on Sunday March 6, bringing with it some stellar talent and 41,000 fans. The Arena filled to capacity and beyond early in the day, with GYPSY AND THE CAT playing to a massive crowd eager to hear hits  ‘Time To Wander’, ‘Jona Vark’ and the rest of their amazing album ‘Gilgamesh’. They did not disappoint entertaining the crowd who engaged in a sing-along to ‘Running Romeo’.

It was clear that everyone was there for a good time and cramming over 40,000 people into the relatively small grounds was a bit of a hassle, however, both main stages overflowed with eager music lovers. It’s a wonder that the die hard fans that were confined to the back of giant crowds could even hear their favourite acts drop a beat.

All six stages had something for everyone, whether it was The Like of You stage’s undercover DJ sets, boasting the likes of SVEN VATH and LEFTFIELD, or the pumping Schmirnoff Dim Mak stage never missing an electro beat with STEVE AOKI’S mega set.

Future initially caused a stir when they released their line-up announcing Americana Trash pop queen KE$HA as one of the headliners. With a bizarre set up, such as a giant penis dancing on stage or her drinking from a fake human heart, she seemed to entertain the crowd. Her on stage theatrics masked less than adequate vocal talents with her heavily relying on backup singers.

Another stand out performance of the day had to be MARK RONSON AND BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL, teasing his crowd with an ambitious seven minute mash up of tunes before giving in to what the crowd clearly wanted, finishing with ‘Bang Bang Bang’. He was the Master of crowd hype-up, giving punters a fresh and vibrant set.

MGMT had a good run with crowd favourites ‘Electric Feel’ and ‘Kids’, but faltered with the material from second album ‘Congratulations‘ possibly due to the bad press it received over the past year.

DIZZEE RASCAL performed to his usual cheeky standards commenting on his love for Aussie women before leading in to ‘Holiday’ and then made the crowd go crazy with ‘Bonkers’.  After Mr Rascal, it was clear the massive crowd was making their way toward the awkward location of the Mazda stage for Perth supremo’s PENDULUM. Crowds reached far past the capacity of the small field but no one seemed to care, as Pendulum played their stage show with signature lasers, thumping beats and killer electro sound. It has never been clearer why Pendulum are one of the most popular and outstanding acts from our fair State.

As Pendulum drew to a close it was time for the main event and the main stage was filled to the brim with excited and vibrant fans for London duo, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS. They took to the stage with a slow build-up before kicking it off with ‘Galvanise’, playing the strong card towards crowd needs. They dished up an hour and a half of the best live electro in the world. Whether it was recent summer track ‘Swoon’ or any of the tracks from their illustrious career, the crowd absolutely lapped it up resulting in a powerful end to the biggest festival of the season.