- One tonne of costumes
- A feature film’s worth of visuals
- 1.21 jigawatts of lighting
- Dancing swordfish
- Part-Pantomime / Part-musical
- Evangelical narration
- Four pink guitars
- 28,000 crazed fans
- … And one Emperor
“Brisbane undoubtedly was where the party was at tonight and Empire Of The Sun played the perfect host. Tonight’s first public hit out was a triumph, with theatre and costume changes that would make Kylie proud.”
Lars Brandle, Billboard Magazine
The sold-out crowd congregated around the main stage to absorb the magic of Empire Of The Sun performing surrounded by dancers (with six costume changes at last count) and a gigantic screen radiating bespoke visuals created by the Empire’s own video director.
Triple J’s Zan Rowe gave the Empire show a big thumbs up in her Parklife blog.
I knew it’d be a fight to get over to the Riverstage to see Empire of the Sun’s debut performance, so I trekked over early and saw them setting up gradually, to the banging beats of Kaskade. Hot pink square guitars and men in full laboratory jumpsuits were what I spotted on stage, and I knew we were in for something special. Sure enough, when Luke Steele hit the stage his world of dreams exploded with him and I witnessed one of the most stunning debut live performances ever. Beautiful lights, otherworldly video projections, and Luke with his spiky headware and flanked by four costumed dancers, taking to the stage. Pitch perfect, he ran through Empire of the Sun’s debut album with costume changes, heavy Parklife friendly beats, and a world of intergalactic colour and light filling the Riverstage.
Banter was limited, each song flowed into the next and when it didn’t there was atmospheric sounds or spacey voiceovers to add to the atmosphere of this dreamy landscape. The dancers changed costumes almost every song. I pondered to a friend if this was the work of a genius art director but no, this is what is inside Luke Steele’s head. Empire of the Sun put so much into their maiden voyage into live performance, and it blew me away.
Larger than life, hyper-colour, pics are coming soon!
Tags: costumes, empire of the sun, live, parklife, photos
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