New Young Pony Club, Friendly Fires, 2manydjs, Simian Mobile Disco (DJ Set), The Avalanches Djs, and Erol Alkan

Wow, hearing New Young Pony Club perform live truly makes music a whole different experience. Being a huge fan of New Young Pony Club, I had listened to their music religiously but it wasn’t until I was able to hear them play at a live concert.

The music experience was just on a totally different level with the feels, chords, bass all ripping through my body. NYPC play synthpop, but they draw heavily from post-punk and new wave. Live, they remind me a lot of those other brilliant women-led groups like Cansei de ser Sexy and Le Tigre.

The crowd was just in awe as we kept swaying back and forth to the amazing drums and soothing vocals from the performers. I just felt a feel good vibe throughout the whole night and I just couldn’t stop smiling. The venue was extremely nice with adequate lighting. One of the biggest pros of this venue would have to be the audio setup, it really made the music much more “crisp” and “vibrant”. It just elevated the whole experience to another level and it was a great experience for people in the crowd.

Going to this music concert and hearing the music live for the first time made me feel like I was missing out big time. This whole time I was listening to music at home through my headphones or speakers but hearing it live was just amazing. It really gave the music much more emotion and meaning, I cannot wait till I go back!

Touting one of the finest collections of indie-pop in UK history, Hertfordshire trio Friendly Fires are a treat to behold live. Fans of rabble-rousing, dancefloor infernos and cutting meticulous shapes will swoon at mainman Ed Macfarlane's ringleader approach to gigs, manipulating audiences into pools of boogie-ing mayhem. With a pelvis like Elvis, Macfarlane's hip-game is on fire – and that, in itself, is a magnetic force sure to draw throngs. His penchant for floral shirts is pretty impressive too. Doozies like “Paris”, “Kiss Of Life”, “Hawaiian Air”, “Jump In The Pool” and “Skeleton Boy” are frequent set highlights. Doused in the kaleidoscopic chaos of spotlights and strobes, the three-piece are insistent when it comes to crafting a party atmosphere. There's no room for standing, beard-stroking, or pensive poserism; if you arrive at a Friendly Fires show, you'd better be prepared to sweat. You'll ache in the morning, but boy, you'll have had the time of your life the night before.
They've been a quiet storm over the past couple of years since the release of 2011's Pala, but in recent talks with NME and other outlets, they've begun to discuss the prospect of a newfangled psychedelic direction, which is an exciting notion. Electro-indie-dance-psych? Phwoar.

DJs, I find, get away lightly with their live performances, as a lot of their work is pre-prepared and pre-recorded, so I was extremely excited to see Erol Alkan when I heard that he predominantly plays his music live, using sample pads, his laptop, kaoss pads, and synths. From the moment he walked out on stage, it was evident that he had years of experience behind a DJ desk, as he looked totally at home as he played a funky riff on his synth and inserted a sample to get his first track going. It was incredible that he managed to hold an audience with a track that we’d never heard for his first song, in fact, it was an improvisation on the spot we later found out, and if had everyone dancing and cheering, and he even replayed the hook several times as everyone was enjoying it so much.

After Erol launched the club Trash, he made a huge name for himself as a DJ, as it’s now one of the most influential clubs around, and he managed to get huge names to Dj and perform there. He was great at getting the audience involved in his show, and when he wasn’t busy mixing and creating music, he was dancing along and shouting out for us to do the same. He played his incredible Daft Punk remix, and held out a microphone to symbolise that everyone should join in, which of course we did. The atmosphere was incredible from start to finish, and his talent blew me away.