Flume Shakes the Earth and Eardrums at Roadrunner
Photo by Lauren Larking
The floor is packed to the brim with frat boys and rave girls alike, squeezed towards the barricade all waiting for Australian electronic music producer Flume. Elbows are thrown and hair is whipped around as the lights finally dim for Flume after head bopping to two hours of heart thumping, bass bumping mixes from the openers Prospa and I. Jordan. But it’s worth it.
Flume gallops on stage sporting a racing suit with what look like neon yellow snow boots to tease with a build-up into fan favorite song “The Difference.” The crowd melts into one unit and the energy shakes the venue. Smoothly, he transitions into one of his most popular tracks “You & Me,” a remix of a Disclosure song featuring Eliza Doolittle. Everyone’s hands wave back and forth as this 2013 hit transports the venue back to a time when we were all simpler. This is followed up with a fast-paced mash-up of his songs “Holdin’ On” and “Drop the Game.” Roadrunner is filled with drum and bass that bounce off the walls as Flume expertly slides between his DJ panels. All eyes are either on him or up above, where projections of flowers and plants paint the ceiling.
The next few songs happily blur together to match the movement of the mob looking up at Flume. The stage design features a tiered arch above the DJ that breaks off into pieced levels and moves around behind and to the sides of him. Trippy visuals with distorted flowers, colors, and other unintelligible videos are projected onto the arch. The hands waving in the air are shadowed onto the bottom of the stage. Flume descends into a ten minute breakdown where he mixes between techno, distortion, house music, hyper-pop, and basically every electronic genre he’s covered in his history.
Giving the audience’s eardrums a slight break, Flume switches into “Sleepless,” a track with a steady vibe driven by manipulated vocals. The show is nearing the end and Flume still hasn’t given the audience the exact track they’ve been yelling for since before the artist even came on stage:a six minute remix of “Tennis Court” by Lorde that he debuted at Coachella in 2014. The song is only available on SoundCloud, where it has garnered over 60 million listens. When he starts playing it, the mosh goes even crazier with each beat drop and doesn’t stop until the mix is over. Drinks are spilled and shoelaces are untied but joy is radiating at Roadrunner.
Flume comes back quickly for an encore a few minutes past midnight. The college students that pack the crowd seem visibly grateful because, after all, it is a Sunday night and at least a few have morning classes to make. The encore is an electro pop conglomeration of “new stuff,” per Flume. It’s magical and the perfect send off for a late night show.
Bubble braids blend into button-ups as everyone beelines to the Ubers outside. The wind is chilly but the exhilaration from Flume’s set is still in the air. And it’s keeping us warm.