Live Review: The Chemical Brothers, The Avalanches

A cool windy night greeted fans of The Chemical Brothers, mostly of the 30+ age group and with the odd accompanied child, as they made their way to The Dome in Sydney’s Olympic Park, the venue formerly referred to as the Boiler Room at the now-defunct Big Day Out.

Warm-up act The Avalanches played an upbeat and tight DJ set, mashing and mixing everything from Led Zeppelin to Gerling and INXS, with works from their last album, Wildflower. This included reworked versions of Because I’m Me and Subways, but nothing else familiar, and certainly nothing from their classic first album. Nonetheless, it was a polished, spontaneous and otherwise great set that showed Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi still know how to throw a decent party.

After a short interlude, one of the most iconic '90s electronic acts to come out of the UK took to the stage to rapturous applause. The Chemical Brothers' set was part new and part retrospective, and featured many of the anthems that made the duo a household name, including Hey Boy Hey Girl, Block Rockin’ Beats and Galvanize. The set also included songs off this year’s release, No Geography, such as Eve Of Destruction, Free Yourself and Got To Keep On. The crowd seemed into the new stuff, but the old stuff had most sections reliving their youth and screaming at the top of their lungs, smiling, laughing and really getting into it. 

Propelled by top-notch sound for such a massive space, the visuals were equally impressive, including red and blue fighting robots, pink faceless Michelin men (accompanying Got To Keep On and Hey Boy Hey Girl) and enough lasers to rupture the core of several small planets. Many dance acts have graced The Dome in decades past – it's a place that had many in the crowd reliving their first experience of stadium beats. As such the night felt like the tail-end of a summer music festival rather than a solo show. It was also cracker to see the majority of the audience representing middle age and enjoying some respite from middle-aged responsibilities like mortgages, jobs and kids.

There wasn’t really a dud moment the whole set and Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons showed they certainly haven’t mellowed with age.