25 May 2019 (gig)
28 May 2019
The May Bank Holiday weekend kicked off with a banger – and a lot of rain – over London’s Victoria Park on Friday 24 May as Chemical Brothers headlined All Points East festival. With a crowd of Hoxtonite’s, fashionistas, hippies and 90s ravers – Primal Scream were in the house – there wasn’t a sad face in the place.
And when the crowd are more in love with Screamadelica for Andy Weatherall’s contribution than Bobby Gillespie, it was bound to be a rave of an evening – though Bobby’s cerise pink suit and catwoman guitarist set the all-night tone of camp glamour and blistering tunes.
Sheltering from raindrops as large as the giant up there’s tears and as hard as his fist, the Friday nighters’ took shelter under Peggy Ghou’s criss-cross Faberge egg dance dome. To the old school mix of rhythm is rhythm and do our ears deceive us or did she throw down Pat Sharp’s let’s all chant – oooah oooah – the party atmosphere was camp, ironic and well why not, just up for it.
From that eclectic warm up, the long walk to the main stage felt epic and full of exciting drumroll anticipation. As it loomed far above you could feel the energy and the sea of cheering.
What a stage.
Gargantuan visuals communicated down to the thousands – giant silver electro heads – span and spoke prophetically, smoke billowed out to create a sea of mystic, while strutting, voguing, neon-orange fertility dolls catwalked the screen with hand on waist confidence at 80 foot high and more.
Chemical Brothers were never going to be light on beats – block rocking out an impressive 20-song track list opening with Go, and Hey Boy Hey Girl and Chemical Beats pounding off in the opening 20-minutes alone.
Presiding over MAH was a tribal dancing devil while spinning Anonymous heads signalled an eerie post Brexit new-future vibe. New Order’s Temptation was mashed up with Star Guitar – linking the beauty of Bernard’s “you’ve got green eyes, blue eyes... and I’ve never seen anyone quite like you before”.
My song of the night had to be Galvanize – those whizzy Indian sounding snyths still reverberating around my head 48 hours later.
With a set ending on the explosive Block Rockin Beats, it doesn’t get much better than that.
What a night.
Set list
Go
Free Yourself
Chemical Beats
MAH
EML Ritual
Swoon
Temptation / Star Guitar
Got to Keep On
Hey Boy Hey Girl
Eve of Destruction
Saturate
Elektrobank
No Geography
Escape Velocity / The Golden Path
Hoops / Get Up On It Like This
Wide Open
Galvanize
Leave Home / Song to The Siren / C-H-E-M-I-C-A-L
Play Video
Block Rockin' Beats
