Le1f, Oscar Key Sung, Baby Face Thrillah Oxford Art Factory 21/01/16

Le1f has always gotten me a lil wet, but with the heavens opening wider than Miley Cyrus‘s mouth last night and drenching our fair city, he didn’t need any help.

Arriving late due to the rain and missing dream boat Oscar Key Sung (who I heard was great, as always), the Oxford Art Factory was a sweaty mess by the time I got there. With Sydney’s own duchess of flex Baby Face Thrilla churning a heaving mix of sensual trap beats in her usual evanescent style, the vibe was large, the crowd clearly eager for Le1f to take the stage.

He did, and everyone promptly lost their shit with most being unable to find it til he left the stage and hour or so later. Strutting out with the poise of a pharaoh and the hair of a pineapple, he proceeded to deliver the most energetic, dynamic and just straight sweaty set I’ve seen in a while. Seriously, it was like a fucking Bikram yoga studio in there it was so hot.

Performing solo for the first few tracks, when his latest single Boom started up he brought out some super steamy make back up dancers for some grade choreography, the three of them throwing shapes as the painfully white crowd did their best to keep up. With some incredibly hilarious moves going down in the crowd, Le1f did a damn fine job of getting an apathetic Sydney crowd bouncing on a Thursday.

Whoever was doing the lights however did a great job using bright orange light and smoke to make the whole venue feel like the steel mill at the end of Terminator 2, with Le1f some sexy fluid T1000 entertaining us on the stage. I mean I joke, but I literally think parts of Le1f may be made out of liquid metal his moves were so smooth, his dancing as fluid as his sexuality.

I cant’ tell you how great it was to go to a show with dancers again. Why so many producers spend all their money on putting live band together instead of just playing a backing track with dancers I’ll never know, but as Le1f made it incredibly clear to me, dancers are way more entertaining than any musician. Maybe not drummers, but that is pretty much just dancing with hitting things.

He sent the dancers off after Boom, but they were soon back on the stage again backing up for his breakthrough single Wut. One of the highlights of the night, the tracks infectious horn hook had the crowd convulsing in cheers as Le1f commanded the crowd to ever greater height of festivity from the stage.

From here til the end of the show everything turns into a bit of a blur as the dancing began to finally get just the right amount of out of hand. Finishing with Rage, it felt such a shame to be leaving the venue so early and that the gig was on a Thursday, as with a couple of extra hours and um, drinks, the show felt like it could have been one of the best parties of the year, mind you Le1f’s performance alone was enough to put it pretty high on my list for the year so far.

I just hope next time to see him on a bigger bill, later at night in a venue with better air conditioning so I can properly get my flex on next time.