The Chemical Brothers have a decade-long reputation for dazzling and original live shows. Their Australian tour this month, coming on the heels of the release of seventh album Further, promised their widest range of music yet, along with a much-talked-about new live show.

The atmosphere at Rod Laver seemed very intimate for a stadium gig, despite a busy crowd on the dancefloor. The whole show was very smoothly run and comfortable: there were no lines for getting in, toilets or drinks, security was friendly and helpful and the vibe was amazing. James Holroyd warmed up the crowd with slow, melodic tech-house – funky enough to necessitate dancing down the stadium stairs, but nothing more than a warm-up, maintaining the energy and excitement palpable in dark purple reaches of the stadium.

The sound was good; crisp and definitely loud enough, making me glad I’d bought earplugs along. The shadows across the darkened stage hinted at of large amounts of electronic equipment waiting to wake up. Holroyd stopped playing and disappeared, as shadowy figuresbegan moving on the still dark stage.

Suddenly the very air shook with vibrating deep bass as The Chemical Brothers opened with Galvanize. Simultaneously, a light display – made of many vertical strings of lights hung in a cylindrical shape – began to unfold from the ceiling. This display allowed multicoloured dancing bands of light to move up and down and spin around the display, a three-dimensional equaliser beyond compare. A massive LED screen lit up along the entire back of the stage, with a massive image of a blue striped face, and then silhouettes of blue and red men, dancing.

The intense beats turned more acid, and the huge face of a male clown stared down at the stadium floor, a relic of their last tour trippy enough to be featured again. Horse Power from Further maintained a level of slightly hectic intensity, as an animated ‘horse’ made of rectangular blocks galloped onscreen.

The sheer loudness of their sound only really became apparent when the Brothers dropped a bass-heavy number or two: Chemical Beats and Swoon were both chest-shakingly delicious with low frequency goodness. The show was big mix of melodic, experimental, quite slow electronica, and older breakbeat and big beat hits, combined in a way that worked quite well and kept the energy of the show and the crowd flowing.

Saturate went down massively, with red and yellow droplets splattering massively across the screen, lava-lamp-like. Block Rockin’ Beats, also set the crowd off, the energy in the stadium was electric. At the end of this track lights dimmed, and there was a short toilet/intermission break for five minutes or so, the crowd feeling sweaty in the sudden dark, before the music started again for the encore, with the slow intense build of Surface to Air, accompanied by the silhouettes of three leaping girls spinning end over end across the screen.

The last 15 minutes or so of the show were intense, full of bass and multi-coloured flashes of light from the visual paraphernalia, but the energy in the room was now decreasing, coming down…probably deliberately done to calm the punters down before releasing us back into the quieter real world outside. I thought a strong, exciting finish with one of their more epic tracks would have brought the night to end on a more thrilling note, as the slower tunes dragged on a little. The Brothers were enthusiastic and waved to the cheering crowd after the show.

Overall, the gig was a well-timed mix of many different genres and beats, showing the true versatility of The Chemical Brothers live. The visuals especially lived up to expectations: the unique set-up fit the show in a way that was original and interesting, leaving us enchanted and fascinated even after the beats stopped.