Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineOctober 15, 2019gallery, live, melbourne, Gallery, review, Spotify Front Left Live, forum melbourne, Tove Lo, Benee, Dominic Fyke, tones and i, Electric Fields, Girl In Red

Spotify Front Left Live @ Forum Melbourne 09-10-19

words & photos: Daniel Hanssen @danthegigman

Review

*“..giving even the most conservative of music listeners a reason to expand on their music horizons, something Spotify as a company strives to develop..”*

Through the week Spotify Front Left Live; an event to explore the Indie sounds of the world took off at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre. It was a long night, somewhat compounded by the prolonged wait to get into the venue, but the frustration many felt in the line was quickly resolved when the crowd flooded into theatre’s bandroom. The lineup had some of the biggest up and coming internationals of the indie scene alongside a couple of locals Electric Fields and Tones And I.

The crowd was frazzled after a long wait, looking to the bars and the opening performance to ease their frustrations, thankfully Benee opened for the evening and set an exciting tone for the rest of the night. Filled with a youthful exuberance Benee bounded over the stage for an incredibly short set. After releasing her debut Fire On Marzzz, Benee focused on it for the twenty minute set alongside her recent release “Find An Island”.

Girl In Red was up next, the Norwegian musician had a flair that many of the others didn’t coupled with a heavier, more aggressive sound waking up everyone in the theatre. Marie was a fierce presence on stage with a seemingly bottomless energy Marie played the most popular tracks under her recording moniker “we fell in love in october”, “I wanna be your girlfriend” and “bad idea!”. It would have been fortunate for her to flesh out more of her set, but the taster would have quickly found her more fans in Melbourne through the memorable set.

Up next was Electric Fields, this act was something special with the duo made up of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keys player Michael Ross emphatically silence the room with their traditional and electronic fusion sounds. This act was both exciting and enthralling with vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding putting on a vocal and dance masterclass, singing in her native aboriginal tongues of Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. The performance was something completely different over the course of the evening and stuck in the mind as their mix of culture and music shook the dancing crowd.

Australian artist Tones And I followed on from this, bringing the best of her AFL grand final performance along to the Forum. Using only her trusty keyboards and a self taught knowledge of production she wowed the crowd for half and hour with hot tracks “The Kids Are Coming” and popular number “Dance Monkey” that set the crowd into a blind dance rage while they sang along with the catchy number.

Sadly, many of the acts only had a brief stint on stage, unable to really get into a proper groove. While all of the artist would have won themselves new fans, the compressed nature of the night still meant a lot was missed during each set. Thankfully, the two major international powerhouses in Dominic Fyke and Tove Lo had a bit more time on the stage with both artists staying in front of the crowd for close to three quarters of an hour each. Both artists came from incredibly different music backgrounds and genres with the uncompromising rap of Dominic coming before Tove Lo’s dance anthems.

Dominic controlled the crowd with a flowing list of tracks including “Acai Bowl”, “Phone Numbers” and a number of tracks off of his debut EP Don’t Forget About Me, Demos. His personality was honest and it came through in his writing being the first and only ‘Front Left’ Hip Hop artist for the night. This meant that Dominic’s set was refreshing and something a little different genre wise, while his set was still more forulative that the memorable Electric Fields, Dominic’s sheer willpower and musical talent thundered like a roar over the stage easily stamping his authority at the Forum.

Finally, Tove Lo closed out the night. Tove’s performance could only be considered a complete 180 degree turn after Dominic Fyke’s smooth hip hop moods, taking the mood in the room and turning it up to 100. Her pop anthems stood out on stage for the final act but it was still behind her large open personality. Her music left little to the imagination with “Bad As The Boys” opening a pop demonstration that could teach even some veteran’s of the scene as the Swedish pop sensation danced, sang and grooved her way into the hearts of her fans at the Forum. Continuing the party, Tove’s setlist was full of ‘bangers’ as the singer songwriter ran through “Habits”, “Sweettalk My Heart”, “Glad He’s Gone” and “Jacques” through her close to an hour long set.

Spotify’s venture into taking their playlists live was an interesting one and could only be considered to be successful. Hopefully in the future this idea can be expanded further where Front Left Live or potentially other playlists could be spread over a whole day rather than a short evening giving the artists a little more time to shine in front of the adoring crowd. Nethertheless, the evening was memorable and rather fun, giving even the most conservative of music listeners a reason to expand on their music horizons, something Spotify as a company strives to develop in it’s listeners.