Live Review: Tourist, Swell

British producer Tourist brought along Melbourne local Swell to share a huge night of crisp, electronic beats before a sold out crowd.

Swell kicked off the night with mellow house remixes of crowd-pleasers including George Maple's Talk Talk and a swanky retake on Ciara's 1, 2 Step. As the crowd began to trickle into the dimly lit venue, Swell turned it up a notch, moving to dirty grime tracks, footwork and even hip hop, in an effortless manner. For a low-key opening set with no audience conversation, the Melbourne youngster facilitated a cutting electric energy that left no person standing still.

The crowd roared as the drawn-out synths of title track, U, softly echoed through the room. Emerging from the dark and misty haze, Tourist (aka Will Phillips) bounded on stage to take his place behind an extremely long table of electronic equipment, positioned in the centre of LED lights that appropriately formed the shape of a 'U'. Gradually building on every element of the track, Phillips bounced from one side of his LED 'U' to the other, with the audience watching every hand gesture and key change. Boom! He finally hit the bass, strobe lights connected and the 'U' flashed blue and red, as a stampede of sweaty bodies eagerly jumped towards the stage.

As the song slowed down, Tourist grabbed the microphone and celebrated. "This is my first time in Sydney... and when I see all these people [pause] — that flight was worth it, man."

Throughout the show, Tourist showcased his enduring ability to recreate his own tracks through sporadic, emotional lyricism and a progressive, deep-house edge. The production moved between emotional ballads such as Waves and momentary London underground vibes of Foolish in a chaotic-yet-contagiously bouncy manner.

From the first note of Run it was clear this track would earn the peak performance of the night. Layered drones of lush synth developed into what felt like an infinite build-up before a complete eruption of erratic dance moves, people perched on shoulders and that unmistakable melodic bass line.

After playing his final encore, I Can't Keep Up from the 2014 archives, Tourist applauded Sydney's efforts and took a photo with the crowd: sweaty foreheads, topless men and a flailing sea of Sydney arms.