Cardiff Castle has never bounced so hard. With a line-up featuring No Fun, Alex Mills, the Mercury Prize-winning Ezra Collective, Bristol DJ Eats Everything, and the phenomenal Basement Jaxx, this penultimate Depot Live show was unforgettable.
No Fun opened with high-octane energy, proving they’re anything but their name. Alex Mills carried the pace, before Ezra Collective took it up another level. Their mix of Afrobeat, jazz and infectious joy had the whole castle linking arms, forming dance circles, and even saw their brass section jump into the crowd. It felt like a headline moment in itself.
Eats Everything followed with an eclectic, nostalgic set that had the field heaving. Then, as darkness fell, the stage transformed for Basement Jaxx. Built like a giant ramp, sloping down toward the crowd, it became the centrepiece of a carnival-meets-space-opera spectacle. Felix Buxton orchestrated the chaos from a circular DJ booth, at times popping up from a hatch in the stage, while Simon Ratcliffe entered to let Felix pop out of the booth to supply MC over the tracks.
From the opening blasts of Good Luck, the castle was on its feet. Raindrops and Do Your Thing hit hard with the Cardiff crowd – a sea of waving arms, beaming faces, and pure release. After a brief nod to house history with Fly Life, the atmosphere erupted with the unmistakable slap-bass intro of their first mega-hit, sending the place into overdrive.
With dancers, acrobatics, silver suits and a stage that seemed alive in itself, Basement Jaxx delivered a show that was chaotic, joyous and utterly unmissable. Families, long-time fans and middle-aged ravers all danced shoulder to shoulder and bounced. This was the final show in this series for Basement Jaxx and they pulled out all the stops to go out with a boogie and a bang.
Cardiff Castle has hosted some incredible nights this summer, but Basement Jaxx may just have thrown the wildest party of them all.
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