A Rudimental show is more of a static parade than a performance. Trumpets, drums, Perspex boxes, keyboards, electric guitars, it’s all there (cheering and excited crowd included).
The usual quartet has multiplied tonight and explodes onstage as a nine-person troupe. With an injection of reggae and dancehall elements into their performance, they take the crowd to the Caribbean via UK industrial drum and bass sounds and manage to turn Festival Hall into a sweaty, heaving pit of energy. It’s about the only time it’s appropriate as a venue.
This tour marks the third time Rudimental have toured Australia over the past 12 months and they’ve got their set list sorted blending smaller tracks with high-impact hits. Three songs in and MC Kesi Dryden, in grey trackies and a trucker cap, yells “I love to Spoon!” before playing the spoons and launching into an actual rendition of their own hit Spoons.
Sinead Harnett and Ella Eyre, vocalists for Hide, Baby and Waiting All Night on the debut album Home, are present to lend their pipes to most of the performance and they certainly deliver. It’s no easy feat rising above a cacophony of horns and drums in an acoustically awkward venue but their vocal pulling power is highlighted as an unforgettable talent.
Feel The Love and Not Giving In are major performance highlights as revelers jump on each other’s shoulders and belt out the anthems before the music stops and the band leaves it up to the crowd to give a cappella renditions of each chorus.
With a performance as uplifting and energetic as theirs it’s no surprise Rudimental performed at this year’s Glastonbury and V festival and will be returning to Australia for next year’s Future Music Festival.
BY ISABELLA UBALDI pic by Anna Kanci
LOVED: Feel the love
HATED: All ages shows where parents bring young kids, shove earmuffs on them and hope for the best.
DRANK: Beer
