» Flying Lotus in Sydney for Vivid LIVE – review and photos Something You Said

Flying Lotus in Sydney for Vivid LIVE – review and photos

May 30, 2026

Flyo brings spectacular visuals to accompany ridiculous production at Sydney Opera House for Vivid. I went with a friend whose taste in music is similarly whack as mine (shout out to kids who grew up in Ōtautahi with great music taste). The last time I saw Flying Lotus was in Aotearoa/NZ in 2020. Anyone who knows me knows I froth wonky, off-kilter tunes.

He eased us in with more ‘palatable’ tunes to the normie ear. We called it though. “He’s just warming us up.” The heat turned up when he introduced some disgusting Hip-Hop bass lines. The amount of times I turned to my mate with the stankiest bass face was a potential world record. I’d had a shit couple of weeks, so containing myself was very difficult because Flying Lotus’ defiance of genre is so f*cking inspiring. My creative energy came back in full force during this show. Followers know his production is out of this world, but Joan Sutherland Theatre – with its acoustics – took his crazy craftsmanship to a whole new level. A space like that requires musicians & sound engineers to really know their shit and paired with the trip-inspired visuals, we were transported through the fabric of reality.

Sonically, there was homage paid to many of the greats including: Cosmogramma Bassist and one of Flylo’s musical besties, Thundercat. There were also collab tunes played featuring Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, and I swear there was even a very subtle sample from an old Skream tune (Midnight Request Line?). His music sample use is broad, his choices are unapologetic, and everything he does serves well for when Pandora’s box of gremlin-mode gets unleashed.

Paired with the audio were multi-dimensional visuals. The background screen was a projector behind the CDJ setup, but a veil between audience and Flylo was another thin screen where a second set of visuals played. It looked as if the man, in his zany black and white striped headless morph suit, was between realms. Everything reminiscent of hallucinogenics, from giant green mushroom forests to the camp & nerd-chic 90’s music video for Dragonball Durag (dir: Zack Fox) to a collage push-pull Winston Hacking animation for Post Requisite.

Near the end, Flylo got people up to dance, as expected, but unexpectedly to house music. I said before I like wonky, off-kilter tracks, but house definitely does not have my heart. With the exception of this guy. Ego swiftly aside, I got up asap to make the most of a boogie opportunity. As I was dancing, I remembered him opening up a cypher circle at the end of the 2020 NZ show, which I immediately jumped into. I got to dance face to face with the man himself because everyone was too cooked on acid to know how to dance to The Astral Plane. Did I grab his butt during it? Maybe. Was that totally inappropriate? Absolutely, hindsight is a gift. But he did comment on it at the end of the show with a giant grin on. Apparently during his tour to NZ this year, he cancelled the Auckland show because people “didn’t dance enough last time.” I’m stoked that I was in Sydney. Flying Lotus is not one to miss, and I’ll forever be doing Dance of the Pseudo Nymph.

Review by Amber Liberte. Photos by Green Squirrel Visuals.