After flight delays from Wellington on Friday, folks in Melbourne had a long wait into the early hours of Saturday morning for their highly-anticipated live Flying Lotus experience.
By the end of his show that long wait seemed worth it for both the die-hard FlyLo disciples with their arms stretched out towards him on the stage during most of his set, and the curious appreciators of his music artistry alike.
Flying Lotus live at 170 Russell St, Melbourne
With the use of some live tools, the art of making his studio music sound fresh, alive and entertaining on stage with just a laptop and some controls, is one that Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison) appears to have mastered well.
Live Tools of the Electronic Art
A Visual Extravaganza
The most fundamental of those tools in bringing his music to life was the mesmerizing live 3D lighting and animation that surrounded Flying Lotus throughout his performance. That spectacular alone, made the live show worth experiencing.
Add to that the mask of glowing eyes worn by Ellison for the first part of his set, and the audience was well and truly in fantasy-land.
Movement
Witnessing Flying Lotus behind his laptop moving his body, raising his arms high to the sky and getting off on the music he was playing, helped the audience to get off on it themselves.
Diverse & Fresh Sounds
Creating a set of music melding older beloved tracks from the Flying Lotus discography, songs from his most recently released album You’re Dead! as well as some new ones all together, seemed to satisfy the tastes of everyone. His alterations to the original sound of those tracks, made them sound fresh in the live arena.
Sing It / Rap It
Picking up a microphone to sing or rap those parts of tracks recorded in the studio obviously adds that sought-after extra-special living element to the music. Flying Lotus did this a number of times at his Melbourne show – including singing his ethereal accompanying vocals on ‘Coronus the Terminator’ and rapping Captain Murphy’s part on ‘Dead Man’s Tetris’.
Relate
For an artist to observe some native idiosyncratic thing about the people of the place they’re performing in, helps an audience to relate and feel connected to that artist performing in their place. At his Melbourne show Flying Lotus achieved that by expressing both bemusement and amusement about the Australian way of pronouncing the city as “Melben” rather than “Melburn” or “Melborn”.
Tell a Story
An artist relating to the audience some more by telling a story about an experience they had when they last visited that place, makes that connection stronger again. Flying Lotus’ Melbourne story was about the gift of DMT given to him by a punter last time around, pre-empting an on-the-spot gift to him of something from an audience member this time around.
Make More Music
After making those live connections with his Melbourne audience, Flying Lotus got back behind his laptop and knobs to finish the show with more audiovisuals of the fantastical kind – and the job was done – the electronic art in the live arena mastered – and the people moved.
Check out these video snippets of the live Flying Lotus experience in Melben + samples of his studio works below if you’re not already familiar with them.
You’re Dead! (2014)
‘Siren Song’ – Flying Lotus feat. Angel Deradoorian – You’re Dead!
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Until The Quiet Comes (2012)
‘Phantasm’ – Flying Lotus feat. Laura Darlington – Until The Quiet Comes
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