by Holli Stephens

When I was a freshman in college I found myself asking my new friends what EDM music really was. To my previous knowledge you went to a rave, would do a lot of drugs beforehand, and would dance to bass-booming instrumentals for over four hours until you passed out. These are standard misconceptions for anyone new to the culture and commonly overshadow the artistry and skill that it takes to be a DJ or produce music. Harley Edward Streten (Flume) does both.

With Noah Breakfast as an opener, Flume’s Friday night sold out set was a reminder that even though electronically produced music isn’t as visually captivating as watching a live rock band (not including the visualizers, lasers, etc ), listening to it is just as innovative and beautiful.

Noah Breakfast (photo by Holli Stephens)

I’ve been to my share of EDM shows, but this particular crowd was something that I wasn’t too accustomed or fond of. From my past experiences everyone would be in a crazy outfits and just so full of love to the stranger next to them. Grinding was always at a minimal and everyone was just dancing their faces off. Flume’s crowd is something that people my age would call full of “bros and basics” and at certain points in the show I would find myself surrounded by couples grinding and groping each other. But the crowd is besides the point!

Philadelphia producer Noah Breakfast put on a very hip-hop influenced hour set, mixing everything from Destiny’s Child to Kendrick Lamar. He was able to intertwine so many instrumentals that are familiar to me in such a way that his transitions between songs were flawless. He left the stage just as mysteriously as he appeared and by this point the crowd was really riled up for the DJ to come.

Flume had a brilliant 3-D hexagon that flipped from being a mirror to being translucent with clusters of luminescent lights shining through. Behind him was a white screen that projected everything from psychedelic patterns to montages of people. The set was on the shorter side, but he was still able to play all of his hits like “Holdin On”, “Insane”, “Drop the Game” and of course his remix of Disclosure’s “You and Me.”

The Australian native spoke a few times and all were to reiterate how much he was loving the crowd’s energy and how happy he was to be in Philly. I do have to admit the crowd’s behavior did improve. During Flume everyone was in a mutual awe of how glorious every song sounded live and even more when he asked if could play some tracks that were new and “weird”. I have never seen Union Transfer’s floor so packed and the encouragement from the audience for Flume to do an encore was unreal. For about 20 minutes there was a synchronized body wave of crowd members dancing to the beat. My ears continued to ring of his music late into the night.