Basement Jaxx ignites Fremantle Prison with a high‑energy, carnival‑style comeback after 15 years

Thousands of parents were MIA on Wednesday night as noughties dance juggernaut Basement Jaxx liberated their pre-children wild spirits at Fremantle Prison. But as they muddled through the school drop-off on Thursday or wondered why they had scheduled that Zoom meeting for 9am, they may have been wondering where their heads were really at. Quite possibly still wishing they were busting a move in the gravel prison yard to the irresistible jungle beats of that particular Jaxx anthem which lived up to expectations complete with dancing simians on stage. For the first time in 15 years Basement Jaxx has brought their full live show to Australia and New Zealand for March, following their Coachella set in 2025. Featuring 30 years of club anthems, the set was an immersive spectacle of sound, vision, dance and unapologetically, outlandish costumes which had the audience of Millennials and Generation Xers jumping from the opening track Good Luck. House music duo Simon Ratcliff and Felix Buxton — who make up Basement Jaxx — have been dropping high-energy club bangers since their breakthrough hit Red Alert on their Remedy album in 1999. Rooted in house and UK Garage they seamlessly blend global musical influences into highly-danceable, uplifting tunes. From the two-step beat and Bhangra melodies of Romeo to the Flamenco rhythms and Arabesque tones of Redez-vu, Basement Jaxx infuses their dance tracks with the soundscapes of the world. The set started on a high and stayed up there with Good Luck belted out by feisty female vocalists Sharlene Hector and Vula Malinga, who were draped in heavenly glittering gowns and tiaras. Then it went back to where the Jaxx musical journey began for most of their fans with the hip-shaping Latin vibes of Bingo Bango and the frenetic Afro beats of Jump n’ Shout. But this was not going to just be a DJ set. While Ratcliff and Buxton got down to work in a sunken central section of the stage, a theatrical spectacular exploded into life around them. The performance had a Cirque de Soleil feel with dancers in larger-than-life costumes taking to the stage in front of hallucinogenic visuals — such as rotating pyramids, falling stars or aquatic scenes. The neon lights of the visual display washed the sandstone walls of the prison yard in soft, technicolour tones. Some visual standouts were Raindrop where a dancer rotated, dressed as an enormous diaphanous emerald flower or Red Alert where a giant spiky ball bopped along in front a radioactive red visual feast. The set followed the tried and tested formula of any Basement Jaxx tune, with each track building on a rising energy before the high-impact drop of their biggest banger of all. Where’s Your Head At brought the celebration of sound to a close with dancers in monkey suits taking to the stage in simian abandon. Then it was back to earth with an encore of Take Me Back to Your House, Mermaid of Salinas and new single Bambina. Like clockwork, the concert came to a close at 9.30pm shuffling the crowd out of the grounds with an orchestral version of Bohemian Rhapsody. The heady raver madness was over — now back to planet reality of the working week.