Calvin Harris created disco… Yes he did… He also can shoot laser beams from his eyes, make diamonds by squeezing coal together with his bare hands, and deliver roundhouse kick better than Chuck Norris… Yes I went there. Calvin Harris can do whatever the fuck he wants to because he is plays ridiculously awesome music and a cheeky scotsman to boot. When I put my hand up to review this night, I was torn from the get go. I despise pop culture and all things associated with it, including (but not limited to) fluoro, super tight jeans, over sized sun glasses and more. As you can imagine, my life at the moment is very angry as a result of this. Calvin Harris plays the sort of music that caters to pop culture and on principal alone, I should not have even offered to review the event. But, I like Calvin Harris, a lot and I find I am constantly visiting his MySpace page and grooving at work as he ‘merrymakes at his house’. His music sneaks past my anti pop defense systems and makes me smile, in the sort of way that a girl smiles at her first school crush.
So I rock up to Calvin Harris live show equipped with my Rage Against the Machine shirt (god im such a rebel). I caught the last 30 minutes of local Melbourne outfit Gameboy/Gamegirl who were, well…. Like a pop disco group that grew up in an op shop, singing out of key and busting out dancing that I had not seen since Rick Roll... And yet I couldn’t stop watching them. After a lengthy interlude filled with numerous sound checks, the main event arrived with his live 4-piece band.
Calvin Harris played an unforgiving and uncompromising set starting by jumping straight into an onslaught of his big anthems: Acceptable in the 80s, Merrymaking at My Place, The Girls, Colours were all evolved into live goodness. You can bet your cotton socks the audience loved every second of it, and I was there with them throwing my hands up in the air like the groupie that I am. Within the first minute of his set, I was sold and he did not stop there, he unapologetically took the energy to the next level with each track and subsequently pushed us to our physical limits throughout his entire set. Here is a basic time line:
Evening’s Start: attitude and chip on shoulder, wallowing in how much better I am for not wearing fluoro. Getting a little tired and bored due to long sound check.
1 minute: dancing.
5 minutes: dancing like I meant it and throwing my hands around like I just do not care.
20 minutes: Dancing and dripping sweat whilst surrounded by a whole bunch of people all doing the same thing.
30 minutes: Screaming “I get all the girls!” As loud as I can and jumping around with EVERYONE.
By this point, the dance floor looked more like a mosh pit with the crowd jumping till the point of collapse, then jumping around more for the last 25 minutes of his set. By the end, he was playing this tracks with hard hitting basslines and savage beats that would have shaved a few years off the drummers life, and Calvin Harris was still jumping like the energizer bunny on crack. And somehow we were all still jumping too. Calvin Harris did not just play music, he was the music. He rocked out as hard as the best of us their, and yet he still found breath to pump his voice through the microphone. He was not just disco, but a legend of rock, working the stage and audience like a true rock star. Calvin Harris had the whole crowd exhausted by the end yet wanting more. Part of that was because Calvin Harris only played 55 minutes, but to be honest though, I do not know if my body could have taken another minute. Even so, I bloody damn well wanted more!
The performance was fantastic, the atmosphere was electric, the night was perfect! If you have the opportunity to see him live, do not miss him! Calvin Harris will see me at his next gig in Melbourne, that’s for sure.
dannij says...
so true!!!