- One wouldn't be blamed for feeling a little underdressed at the Opera House for Club Kooky's Vivid Live appearance. It's hard to know where the costumes came from, but to call them over-the-top would be an understatement. While the dress was obviously a little different from that of the highbrow society types that the Opera House usually play hosts to, the waterside venue was taken over by clubbers ready to say goodbye to the Vivid festival in vibrant style. This is, of course, a good thing for Club Kooky, a long running Sydney gay party where disco is the name of the game and, on this occasion, full of non-musical elements too, with a burlesque performance, hula-hooping show and a tribute to model Agyness Deyn all scheduled.
Azari & III opened proceedings with an impressive set. For what was their first Australian performance, Dinamo Azari and Alixander III played live with singers Starving Yet Full and Fritz Helder, opening with their latest single "Into the Night" after which going on to play fan favourites like "Reckless with Your Love" and "Hungry for the Power." Such was the atmosphere that, at one point, Full and Helder parted the crowd to create a catwalk-style dance floor, where they each came down off the stage and strutted their stuff. It turned more serious at the beginning of the second half of the set when the group started pumping out straightforward house. If you didn't know any better, you would've thought they were spinning records, but the musicianship on show—Alixander III on keys and Dinamo Azari on electronic drums—was amazing to watch.
Going from such solid house music to disco would be a hard task for most, but for Horse Meat Disco's James Hillard and Luke Howard, it was a piece of cake. The English disco veterans kicked things off with Teddy Pendergrass's "You Can't Hide from Yourself," which seemed very fitting. The rest of the set was a string of disco anthems in the vein of Candi Station's "Young Hearts Run Free," Sheryl Lee Ralph's "In the Evening" and Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way," the crowd lapping up every minute.
Daniele Baldelli closed the party upstairs with hundreds trying to squeeze on to the lit-up dance floor in the Opera House's lounge area. As you might expect, the Italo disco heavyweight played a rather cosmic set, moving away from the hit-driven performance that preceded him. But the crowd enjoyed it, and so did some of Vivid's roster incidentally—Horse Meat Disco and Starving Yet Full spent the set camped at the front of the stage, while even Stephen Dewaele from 2 Many DJs was caught having a dance.
The night was an overall winner for Club Kooky, and the fact that it was held in unusual surroundings didn't affect the vibe in the slightest. It was great to see the Opera House utilised for a club-orientated event like Club Kooky and, although I was skeptical at first, the venue's polished interior provided a great setting for the Vivid Live closing party.