Weatherwise, it was a shit day for a festival. The rain, dark clouds and cold weather made it hard to drum up the energy to even get there. But mighty Zeus couldn’t keep those crazy dance music folk away if he tried and their devotion allowed me to conclude the following:

1. Future Music punters love dance music. A lot.
2. They say the darndest things when under the influence.
3. Most have short attention spans for anything non-dance related.
4. They take too long to decide what they want to drink resulting in some of the longest queues I have ever been in. Ever.

Arriving at the Garden of Unearthly Delights and heading straight to the “indie” stage (or as indie as a stage can get at a dance festival) Adelaide DJ duo Def Starr pulled out the big guns with a bunch of dance floor fillers. The crowd’s love of all things dance music became apparent when a remix of Puttin’ on the Ritz was played and the kids loved it.

When the guys from Operator Please followed straight after they appeared tired and bored. Going through the motions of their new tracks and at one point even thanking the crowd for “being patient”, they did manage to get people semi-fired up with their tracks Get What You Want, Logic and Just A Song About Ping Pong. Although it was their take on a Beyoncé /No Doubt medley that got everybody singing along, which allowed singer Amandah Wilkinson to step away from the guitar and focus on entertaining the crowd, even if it was for only a couple of minutes.
Classic punter quote: “Do the song about playing pong!” – Intoxicated patron, Future Music Festival (2010).

While Erick Morillo satisfied the crankers with fail remixes of Heads Will Roll and Are You Gonna Go My Way, many flocked to Does It Offend You, Yeah? where what occurred was surely the set of the day. After being unable to perform in Melbourne (strangely due to their set being declared a wash out), it was as if the guys saved it all up for Adelaide. Lead singer James Rushent walked on stage and the first words out of his mouth were “wakey fucking wakey”, before starting straight into With A Heavy Heart (I Regret To Inform You). Their guitar heavy electronica vibes had the ability to not only get people jumping about, but to throw their jackets, shoes and hats in the air. Shit, at one stage a small tree was uprooted and somebody decided to wave it around. The crowd’s reaction to Battle Royale was amazing and it cements DIOYY as a superior Art Vs. Science – they’re louder, catchier and put on one hell of a live show.
Classic punter moment: David Letterman and Kid Rock (or two people with a serious case of doppelgangeritis) smashing it up to We Are Rockstars. Ironic and hilarious.

As mentioned previously Future Music patrons have short attention spans. If only Franz Ferdinand knew this. With an hour to fill Franz came out of the blocks hard and decided to get their commercially recognisable tracks out of the way (Do You Want To, No You Girls and Take Me Out). Once the latter was over, girls climbed down from shoulders, people spoke loudly amongst themselves and everyone flocked to the bar. It’s safe to say that the majority of their tracks were definitely wasted on the crowd there.
Classic punter moment: During the performance of Auf Achse, one bloke remarked that he didn’t think much of “this Frank Ferdinand DJ”.

Not lost on the crowd was anything David Guetta dished up who easily drew the biggest crowd of the day. He churned out all his hits (When Love Takes Over, Memories, Delirious, Sexy Bitch) and although the sound itself was a bit soft the dance crowd lapped it up.
Classic punter quote: “So do ya reckon T-Pain will be here to perform Sexy Bitch with him?” – Intoxicated Patron, Future Music Festival (2010).

As night fell a few people left Guetta early to catch the start of Empire of the Sun. This however proved unnecessary as the crowd were left waiting almost an hour whilst the guys apparently prepped themselves backstage. When they finally did take the stage they looked spectacular in a combination of spiky headgear, blue metallic bodysuits and what appeared to be aluminium foil, but in hindsight it probably wasn’t worth the wait. Surely most would’ve preferred a performance in a tweed jacket and jeans if it meant they could’ve scored a closer position for The Prodigy. After hearing a few tracks, namely We Are The People, Standing On The Shore and half of Walking On A Dream, the epic band on the next stage over started up and many were faced with a difficult choice.

The atmosphere for The Prodigy was almost breathtaking; a great mix of deep red lighting, thumping bass, pouring rain and a massive crowd. To be amongst it all while those English lads smashed out great tracks such as Omen, Poison and Out of Space was something extraordinary. But it was always going to be their classics (Firestarter, Smack My Bitch Up and Breathe) that got everyone stomping about in the mud.

By the end of it all most were tired and covered in dirt, with our beer buzz long since gone but to be entertained by at least a couple of class acts made it all worthwhile. Besides, it’s not everyday that you get to see Letterman and the debut of DJ Frank Ferdinand.

Sophie Siciliano

leave a comment:

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER!