Basement Jaxx @ The Enmore Theatre on Tuesday 3 March, 2009

After headlining this years Future Music Festival tour, it was revealed quite late that the phenomenon that is Basement Jaxx would give their fans some sideshow loving in Sydney and Melbourne exclusively. I had just seen them at the Sydney Future Music Festival at Royal Randwick Racecourse but I was more excited about seeing them in a small intimate venue and what better place to be than the Enmore Theatre in the city’s Inner West.

After battling the queue to get in and to get a drink from the bar, I finally found my way to the dance floor securing a good viewing position for the show. The stage had all the elements of both a rock show and a club dj’s booth with guitars, a drum kit and plenty of percussion surrounding a set of turn tables all for the Basement Jaxx live performance.

To start off the night the crowd was getting warmed up with a house/electro dj set by the half Aussie, half Irish support act The Potbelleez. Even though I personally find The Potbelleez somewhat cheesy, I must admit that I did enjoy their set which featured their three well known hits Trouble Trouble, Are You With Me and a combine electronic/acoustic version of Don’t Hold Back.

Shortly after the support act left Basement Jaxx emerged. With strobe lights flashing and one of the female vocalists dressed in a white wedding dress they launch straight into the opening track Good Luck building the crowd into a frenzy. From that point on it was clear that we were all in for a treat with an extravaganza of dress up costumes, powerhouse vocalists, various musicians, crazy dancing and high levels of energy both on the stage and in the crowd.

After playing a few new tracks they then ripped out an old favourite Red Alert from their debut album Remedy which literally got the place jumping. Following on from this obvious crowd pleaser Ratcliffe and Buxton in their own little dj mix dropped in an unexpected tune, The Kings of Leon’s recent chart topping hit Sex on Fire. At this point everyone was going wild because every track that was being played was brilliant.

Coming to the half way point the tempo was slowed right down with an acapella version of Romeo from the shortest female vocalists with one hell of a big voice. Not only did this allow for a costume change but it also calmed down the highly electrified crowd ensuring some energy was saved for the last part of the exciting show.

The last half hour of the entertainment was spectacularly huge. After the softer part of the evening everyone from the guest vocalists to the room full of Jaxx fans were jumping around to the sounds of the MC belting out the tunes Jump N Shout and Plug It In followed by an interlude dj set with the MC singing a verse of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.

Then just when you thought it could get no better there it was, that famous question Where’s your head at? Despite the fact that most people think this track is overplayed seeing it live is pretty amazing. With flashing lights, big bass lines and lots of jumping and dancing around this was obviously the song everyone was waiting for and it totally blew the roof off the place.

For the encore they played their playful Broadway jazzy number Do Your Thing and then moved back into more funky territory with the congo’s, drums, piano keyboards and trumpets for the final booty shaken’ showdown with the track Bingo Bango.

All in all it was definitely a fun-filled and entertaining live show that any fan of electronic house music should experience once because Basement Jaxx are not just glorified dj’s. They have truly cracked the interactive music and live performance thing.