Sydney's big holiday season kicks off with the sound of music

Some of the world’s biggest bands and DJs all descended upon Sydney at once for the city’s first big weekend of December.
Clubs were packed and dancefloors popped up everywhere from Redfern to Sydney Olympic Park.
One of the world’s biggest bands, The Killers, performed two five-star shows at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena.

The first big weekend of Sydney’s summer season has come and gone, with numerous events happening around town, particularly in the live music space.

What do The Killers, Jamie XX, Zapp, Korn and rave institution Boiler Room all have in common? Each propped up one of the first really big weekends in the lead-up to Sydney’s busy Christmas holidays.

Pulling in big-name international acts consistenty has always been a major drawcard for Sydney’s nightlife. And this year has certainy been one of the more significant since the pandemic, restoring a sense of aliveness and fun that opposes any rote claim that “Sydney is dead”.

For proof, you only needed to head along to Sydney Olympic Park, where Qudos Bank Arena welcomed capacity crowds on Friday and Saturday as Vegas rockers The Killers celebrated 20 years since their debut album, Hot Fuss.

Stadium-sized anthems like “Mr Brightside” and “When You Were Young” not only filled the indoor arena with gigantic singalongs but validated a 20-year love affair The Killers have had with Sydney since they first toured in 2004.

There’s clearly a reason why the impossibly charismatic Brandon Flowers and his band of prodigiously talented musicians keep coming back for more. And to show how much Sydney means to them, all four original members even made it out for the special Hot Fuss 20th anniversary show on the Saturday. Given lead guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer rarely tour internationally, it was a landmark moment for die-hard fans of the glitzy rockers.

Or you could have simply walked to the other end of Sydney Olympic Park and found thousands of raved-up Sydneysiders and visitors packing out a warehouse space for dance institution Boiler Room. No less than 17 top-billing DJs packed into the Sydney Showgrounds for a sweaty night of pulsating bass and soaring laser shows.

On a much different side of the scale, annual rockfest Good Things popped up deep in the heart of Centennial Park with rambunctious performances from nu-metal headliners Korn as well as Violent Femmes, The Smashing Pumpkins’ lead Billy Corgan, and local heroes like Northland, Killing Heidi and Alex Lahey.

Back in the CBD, the City Recital Hall welcomed funk legends Zapp who turned the beautiful concert hall into a wild party, performing hits like “More Bounce to the Ounce” and “Computer Love” to an older crowd who took full advantage of the chance to see this highly influential group run through their effect-heavy, synth-driven brand of funk and disco.

The breathless run of live music didn’t stop there. Dependable tour promoters Astral People brought one of the most popular DJs of our time, Jamie XX, to Carriageworks for the first of two sold-out shows on Sunday.

Despite the masses needing to pull themselves to work on Monday morning, the behemoth warehouse space of Bays 22-24 turned into a full-blown Sunday night rave with spellbinding strobes and a kaleidoscopic light show while Jamie XX melted hits like “Loud Places” and “Gosh” into one massive soundscape.

Sydney is clearly just getting starting with a packed holiday season in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve. The action will then spill over into January, with just the first week of the New Year peppered with action from traditional New Year’s Day music festival Field Day to concerts from The Roots and Black Coffee, as well as the many events that sit on the Sydney Festival program.

Feature image supplied by Frontier Touring and credited to Chris Phelps.