Perth is the home of drum and bass in the southern hemisphere so it’s no surprise when one of the genre’s icons – Sub Focus aka Nicolaas Douwma – brought his Circular Sounds tour here tickets were snapped up so feverishly organisers scrambled to find a new venue than the original Ozone Reserve.
We’re going to need a bigger park.
Thousands of dance music fans streamed into the bigger venue at Wellington Square on a cool Saturday evening and were treated to a smorgasbord of high BPM and deep wubs.
It’s the first time the English DJ and producer has played Perth since Wildlands Festival in 2023.
With the event bearing his name so this time, he came with plenty of audiovisual goodies to accompany his fast-paced set, including a large light ring that lowered above him at several points.
He opened his set with his breakout 2009 hit from his eponymous album Rock It and from there launched into hit after hit across his impressive 17-year discography.
Highlights were the air-punching Illuminate from his 2020 album Portals produced with his fellow UK drum and bass pal Wilkinson, which was mixed into a rework of 2000s dance anthem Toca’s Miracle by Fragma.
Sub Focus’ sound is driven heavily by big atmospheric female vocals.
Tracks like 2018’s Desire and Wildfire from his latest album Contact whipped the Wellington Square crowd into a heaving mess.
A personal favourite was the boppy earworm On & On with British singer bbyclose.
Earlier in the evening, dubstep royalty Nero started with a bang – dropping their heavy anthem Innocence from their iconic 2011 album Welcome Reality. What followed was a fairly subdued set with some standout bangers like Promises, Me and You and their remix of UK rapper Plan B’s The Recluse.
Wellington Square was a great venue and a smart choice to give a drum and bass evening like that the grandeur it deserved, but lost points for a lack of toilets resulting in some very desperate people spending more time looking at a closed portaloo door than their favourite artist.
3.5/5
Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X or email.