Review: Synthony brings together an orchestra and all the dance classics

SYTHONY | RAC Arena | 5th Nov | ★ ★ ★ ★ 

After a few hours of warm up from DJ’s 33 Stripes and Mind Electric, the Perth Symphony Orchestra took to the stage and joined hypnotist Matt Hale who served as the evening’s host. In a non-stop presentation we worked our way through the big dance hits of the last 30 years.

From trance numbers like Darude’s Sandstorm and Paul Van Dyk’s For an Angel, to Fatboy Slim’s call to party Right Here, Right Now, every single song was a recognisable mega-hit. Along the way a rotation of talented local singers provided the vocals including Ella Bee, Chris Murphy, Rozy Lebeasse, Clay Darius and Chrislyn Hamilton. 

Insomnia originally by Faithless is one of those tunes you know is going to be included, Maxi Jazz’s ominous rap played over the sound of a bustling orchestra, but other inclusions such as The Eurythmics Sweet Dreams and Eric Prydz Proper Education were less predictable. 

The show was lifted by a brilliant lighting design and digital video that brought the entire auditorium to life.

Matt Hale provided some short and sharp commentary reminded of which year a sing came out, and who the original performers were, as he bopped and twisted knobs behind the DJ console – distractingly I did wonder if it was connected to anything, but it turns our prior to being a hypnotist Hale was a successful DJ.

Impressively, the artists had the entire crowd on their feet and dancing along, something that many leading international acts have struggled to do in the same space. Synthony was a fun party, and I left wondering why I didn’t have a playlist of dance classic on my phone for the trip home.

Graeme Watson

An earlier version of this article accidently credited Eric Prydz as performing Positive Education, I meant Proper Education, and have now gone off to play Slam CD’s for a good hour or so.  

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