Live Review: Soulwax at London Wireless Festival - Thursday 30th June 2005

Author: Dollyrocker

Surprisingly, I had never actually seen Soulwax live before this gig, but had followed them around when they started out as 2manydjs, their dj side project which focused on mashing up electro, pop music and the odd bit of rock to dancefloor tearing effect. Soulwax were third down bill to Babyshambles and Kasabian at the final leg of the four day wireless festival and to be honest, with no disrespect to the organisers, the atmosphere when I arrived at about 6pm was pretty dead. However, huge tense rainclouds hovering over Hyde Park may well have been a factor, more about them later. I had been lucky enough to score some free tickets for this gig, so after meeting my friend and getting some drinks, it was just a case of waiting for Soulwax to come on at 6.30pm. Originally, I had got confused and thought that they were playing in the smaller xfm tent, but they actually were out on the outdoor main stage which was much better for a band with a sound as immense as Soulwax's.

They opened up with 'E Talking' and I couldn't resist getting down the front, as where it wasn't very busy the only people dancing were at the front. Soulwax looked great onstage, better than I imagined in fact. The first track was broken up with 'Rocker' by Alter Ego and it sounded AMAZING. 'Miserable Girl' followed and kept the crowd dancing, it was getting quite a lot busier by now as it became obvious that a lot of people must have decided to come down late. Text from my friends; 'BDD, we're in the Ladytron tent'. Oh well, would have been nice to see them as well, but Soulwax have got SO many anthems, I can't possibly leave now.

'Conversation Intercom' followed, we got all the other singles off the first LP too, 'Too Many DJ's' was cut into Daft Punk's 'Robot Rock' and then of course we got 'NY Excuse' at the end cut into Lipps Inc. I couldn't recommend seeing Soulwax enough, if you are a fan of the band, they give it their all live and their ability as DJ's really shines through too. Excellent stuff.