Live Review: Rudimental, Jess Glynne

We can already hear the loud bass coming from Margaret Court Arena as we approach from the opposite side of Yarra River. English support Jess Glynne stuns the crowd with her vocals, performing in a flashy polka dot suit and neatly braided auburn hair. Two back-up singers stay close to her side, projecting a serious amount of sass through a lot of finger-shaking choreography. Crowd favourites include her famous collab Rather Be (played without Clean Bandit) and Don't Be So Hard On Yourself.

Rudimental double in size thanks to extra touring members and eight musicians assemble on stage. From the start of the first song, the group is a very cohesive unit. Without straying too far from their drum'n'bass core, they showcase an amalgamation of heavy influences from different genres, as unique elements shine through the electronic mix. These include the steel drum intro to Right Here, dub-style vocal echoes, reggae guitar chops, the soulful inflections of vocalists Bridgette Amofah and Thomas Jules and trumpet solos from Mark Crown. This is all projected through a killer sound system, which utilises 18 speakers on stage as well as suspended arena monitors. Although the amplitude is intense at times, a full frequency spectrum ranging from hi-hats to sub-bass creates a dynamic atmosphere that feeds into the crowd. Halfway through the set, upcoming solo songwriter Anne-Marie makes a cameo to play her single Do It Right and later returns to sing Waiting All Night.

A drum shield fails to contain the intense energy of Rudimental's drummer. Performing with head-banging steeze, he plays with a precision that could easily match a computer. The bodies of the snare and kick sink well below sub-frequency levels, but miraculously don't drown out the rest of the band. The incredibly fast tempos (some songs hitting the 180 BPM mark) leave the audience with no choice but to break into a frenzy as each bass drop highlights the climactic point in a track. Naturally, Rudimental end the set with their breakthrough hit Feel The Love, inspiring all of us to form heart shapes with our hands and raise them skyward.