Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday March 6, 2013 :
The sub-bass could be heard on Enmore Rd as Azealia Banks’ Future Music Festival Sydney sideshow got underway and supporting DJ Nina Las Vegas prepared the crowd. After disappointing reports of a short twenty-minute performance at Splendour in the Grass in 2012, it seemed that Banks had something to prove with the headliner taking to the Enmore Theatre mezzanine to dance during Nina Las Vegas’ set.
The young crowd was sufficiently prepared after waiting through a forty-minute warm-up set from Canadian DJ Cosmo, before Azealia Banks finally joined him on stage. Flanked by two energetic dancers, and dressed in a flashing LED light bra, she launched into her much-hyped brand of New York high-energy rap.
Endearing and gracious, Banks rapped and sung through a mix of songs from her 1991 EP and mix tape, Fantasea. The theatre floor shook violently as she performed ‘Harlem Shake’ and the crowd screamed in unison with a subtitled video screen to her Internet hit ‘212’.
Astonished at the amount of gifts that had been projected onto her stage, Banks lunged into a frenetic cover of the Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ to complete her short forty-five minute performance. She thanked the enthusiastic crowd and vowed to return to Australia with her upcoming debut album. Hopefully she remembers to pack enough material to fill a headline slot next time.
Reviewer and photographer: Sean Roche
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