Author: Mia Heim

RÜFÜS Adelaide Concert Review
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
April 29, 2016

RÜFÜS, alternative dance band from Sydney, kicked off their Australian tour at Adelaide’s Thebarton Theatre after performing throughout Europe and the US, including a stellar performance at California’s legendary music and arts festival Coachella.

With a warm up performance from their friends, Canadian duo Bob Moses, the room was heated up to the perfect temperature with their steady cadence and honeyed tones. The audience was slowly but surely amassing to the centre of the pit and, after a short interlude, RÜFÜS took to the stage.

Lead singer Tyrone Lindqvist pledged to the crowd to “bring some sunshine into this room” and the band unequivocally delivered, breathing life into the theatre with their euphonic track Brighter.

With other tracks including Like An Animal, Say A Prayer For Me, and Be With You rippling through the space to the outer edges of the hall, the audience was pulled out of the worries of the preceding week and left to fall into a state of uninhibited and visceral rhythm. Jon George rocked it on keyboard and James Hunt’s drumming charged the music with a robust beat.

The band’s hypnotic 9:40 long song Innerbloom saw the crowd almost spellbound by the track’s pulsation and melody. Dynamic in pace and tone, the tune is an almost hallucinatory experience and the audience felt the full force of it. An ecstatic wave heaved through the small arena, elating the atmosphere to an even greater extent.

Despite the trendy ‘20somethings’ dominating much of the crowd, speckled amongst the pack were some more mature fans lapping up the electronic dance music with gusto, with some teens having to watch their step as to not be knocked to the ground by a vivacious 50 year old, showing that music truly knows no age. Zest and enthusiasm could be found throughout the audience, feeling an occasional shove to the left and push to the right by your fellow concertgoers.

Australia’s Dance Academy star, Dena Kaplan, made an unexpected but welcome appearance on stage to perform an inspiring and impassioned duet with Tyrone for Hypnotised.

The night coming to an end, the trio came out for a strongly desired encore of You Were Right, leaving us to return home eager to put on our headphones and relive their dulcet harmonies.