Naysayer And Gilsun brought their famous NGTV to Melbourne’s The Hi-Fi for a Friday night party.
Even for a DJ headline it started pretty late. Doors opened at 10:30pm with support Two Bright DJs providing a more subdued and ambient soundtrack as people made their way into the venue and gathered their drinks. Advertised to begin at 12:30am, it was probably closer to 1am when Luke Neher (Naysayer) and Sam Gill (Gilsun) made their way onstage.
Most of the stage was taken up by a massive silver screen right at the front of the stage, which was used to project a huge image onto. The headliners themselves took stage on the far left. Compared to other mash-up acts such as Yacht Club DJs, the duo were very much down to business. Instead preferring to let the visuals be the main attraction.
Much of the footage was from ’80s movies, many of them teen flicks, some instantly recognisable, others clearly just chosen due to their iconography or sheer awkwardness. Having seen footage of one of their NGTV gigs before, this reviewer must admit to expecting the footage to be more cut up, quickly chopping and changing, similar to their online 20-minute NGTV Vimeo releases.
However this time they went with longer scenes that were sort of melded into one another, avoiding jump cuts nearly altogether. The music that accompanied the visuals was more house than house party. For much of the evening; gone were the recognisable songs thrown together at a million miles an hour, with more seemingly original beats and textures opted for.
While the technical ability could not be questioned, having listened to previous mixtapes, the aforementioned NGTV downloads, this reviewer was expecting more nostalgia and instantly recognisable tunes. The crowd on the evening seemed to largely be enjoying themselves, so perhaps it was just purely personal preference.
Mixing art house, ’80s cheese along with nearly every other type of cinema in between together with well-made music onto a 20-foot screen in high definition to a nearly sold-out medium sized Melbourne venue is no mean feat. It is ambitious, daring and should be commended.
