REVIEW: Fatboy Slim stole the hearts of Wellingtonians on Friday night at Anderson Park. I’ve got nothing but praise for him – and now I’m ready to Eat Sleep Rave Repeat.
It was smoggy, the full moon was out, there was a mix of classic hits with new age dance. We came a long, long way together.
The crowd was absolutely pumping at this nearly four-hour dance rave.
Fatboy AKA Norman Cook played for almost two hours, to the crowd’s delight outside.
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Many thousands gathered, the set-up was incredibly well-organised and Anderson Park is a popping venue that needs more attention from artists visiting the capital.
People were even watching Cook perform from the periphery of the park, enjoying the D-floor from outside.
He opened with Queen, closed with the Beatles, he played a Born Slippy cover – made famous in the movie Trainspotting – and got through it all with ease.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Fatboy Slim is in the home stretch of his 2023 NZ tour.
The toilets weren’t too bad – there was at least twice as many as usual at these things, but the bar shut a little earlier than expected. It would’ve been great for a three-hour act for the money that was paid, even though the opening acts were good too.
This party should’ve gone from mid-afternoon on a Saturday. It was epic and there wasn’t enough. They could’ve had two stages, built up to it and the crowd could’ve been frothing.
Some of Fatboy Slim’s hits were skipped through, with bits played but leaving the crowd hanging for the full Monty.
Eric Bender, an American expat, said afterwards that the concert was epic. Others didn’t even want to leave at the end, huddled in groups on the lawn debriefing the events of the night.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Fatboy Slim is performing in a few different locations across the motu, including Christchurch’s QEII Park last week.
As a reviewer, the night went pretty seamlessly, save for one woman who didn’t let me into the exclusive bathroom for having a lanyard – whoops!
A range of ages and subcultures of people came out to see the 59-year-old British DJ play – it was nice to see such a cross-section of society celebrating one of the godfathers of dance music.
Having not been in New Zealand for a few years, Fatboy did not disappoint his eager fans.
The show was technically perfect with strobe effects and other light tricks creating a layer of mysterious layer of smog hanging over the crowd which illuminated under the low moon.
Andre Chumko/Stuff
Fatboy Slim stole the hearts of Wellingtonians on Friday night at Anderson Park.
Fatboy Slim left at 10pm, blowing kisses to the crowd with a genuine look of gratitude in his eyes to still be making people happy all these years later.
We’d be happy to take him back right here, right now.
The latest on the tour
Fatboy Slim, the critically acclaimed 59-year-old British DJ, producer and musician, is on his largest-ever tour of New Zealand, having already visited Christchurch’s QEII Park, Auckland’s Spark Arena and the Sky Tower in separate shows, and Stonyridge Winery on Waiheke Island – which was postponed by two days after the Auckland flooding.
Another show at Napier’s Tremain Field was cancelled due to severe weather.
Anderson Park in Wellington was his third to last show on his tour of the motu.
He’ll be heading south briefly to Queenstown’s Gibbston Valley on Saturday, before a final show at the Taupō Amphitheatre on Sunday. See dates here.
Support acts on Friday night included the British dance-electronic duo Solardo and New Zealand’s own Sin, who has appeared on some of New Zealand’s biggest festival lineups including Rhythm & Vines, Hidden Valley and Homegrown.
