The swelling crowd gathered in the intimate club setting to milk every last drop of The xx’s Australian visit in the form of a DJ set from the band’s beat master, Jamie “xx” Smith.
Fans who were lucky enough to snap up tickets to the UK trio’s two sold out shows at Melbourne’s Festival Hall were already treated to a high dosage of the producer’s craft, featured heavily across the setlist in remixes of tracks from their cult-status debut album.
There were also appearances from Jamie xx’s releases from his solo ventures with “Far Nearer” and the Coexist B-Side “Reconsider” being weaved seamlessly into proceedings.
However, in true nature to the works he makes outside of The xx’s minimalistic realm, his solo show proved to be predictably antithetical compared to his group’s; a sweaty, upbeat DJ set more about dancing than taking Instagram snaps.
Naysayer and Gilsun provided an aptly booming opening set, with their bombardments of heavy electronica instilling a densely buzzing atmosphere that carried out until Jamie graced the stage.
It didn’t take long before the crowd hovering around the edge of the room gave into their high-intensity mixes, spilling out to form a now packed dance floor.
Taking to the stage shortly after 12.30am, Jamie xx walked on the stage discreetly, and it probably took a few seconds for some to realise he wasn’t a humble sound technician; trying to do his job without drawing any attention to himself.
As he had just made the mad rush from Festival Hall, presumably along with a large portion of the crowd, the percussionist aficionado was still in his trademark xx uniform – all black, head to toe.
However, as soon as his first record began to spin and a flourish of tropical steel drums sizzled through the speakers, everyone knew it was going to be a much more colourful affair.
Sifting through his thick albums of CDs, plus a record collection positioned on the ground behind his station, it was obvious the set was truly spontaneous, with Jamie working off the (inebriated) audience’s energy, rather than depending on his infamous boiler room sets and BBC Radio 1 Essential Mixes.
Reflecting the wide range of reference points that inform his mixtapes, and even his contributions to The xx, Smith took the crowd on a disco-house tangent, then down to rumbling drum and bass, then at times even bordering on modern trap.
The set was almost entirely instrumental, though filled with enough changes of pace to maintain the electricity in the room. He constantly changed direction and turned a sudden corners, playing between the forces of tension and climax like a puppet master, the venue completely under his instructions.
Naturally, the pulsating two-hour long set peaked when Jamie xx’s own material blared through the speakers. He cheekily layered “Reconsider” for a brief moment, causing the crowd to scream at the sound of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim’s oozing vocals before they were cruelly drowned out by another entrancing electronic track.
The oscillating synth line of “NY Is Killing Me” immediately pierced the room, taken from Smith’s 2011 collaboration with Gil Scott-Heron We’re New Here, it ignited the crowd’s most frenzied reaction of the night.
It was eventually followed by his edit of “Sunset”, taken from The xx’s sophomore album Coexist, which closed the set with an appropriately cathartic comedown, leaving the crowd rapturously applauding a modest Jamie xx who looked genuinely uncomfortable in their showers of praise.
Jamie xx’s show was a brilliant insight into the paradoxical, bipolar nature of his musical career. By day, he’s the minimalistic producer at the helm of The xx’s aural soundscapes, and by night, he bewitches club crowds with his effortlessly mesmerizing and magnetic solo sets.
