Two down, three to go – for this festival anyway… there’s a whole lot more to come. This weekend marked the very first (and ridiculously anticipated) Empire of the Sun live appearances ever.

We saw a black & white preview of Empire on stage during the Eclipse of the Sun broadcast, but that ain’t nuttin’ compared to the bizarre and wonderful spectacle (all the heart/brainchild of Luke Steele and Empire video director Josh Logue) that burst onto stage for the Brisbane Parklife punters on Saturday.

So these are the stats we have for the Empire of the Sun live show – and it shows…

• One tonne of costumes
• A feature film’s worth of visuals
• 1.21 jigawatts of lighting
• Dancing swordfish
• Part-Pantomime / Part-musical
• Evangelical narration
• Four pink guitars
• 28,000 crazed fans
• … and one Emperor

The incredible set list began with Standing On The Shore, moved into Breakdown, Half Mast, We Are The People, and most of the album tracks including Without You before climaxing with crowd favourite Walking On A Dream. As the set drew to an end the crowd witnessed the destruction and re-birthing of “The Emperor with a digital heart”. A.MAZ.ING.

We’re counting down to Sydney’s Parklife next weekend, and one mind-blowing treat!

Triple J’s Zan Rowe gave the Empire show a big thumbs up in her Parklife blog.

I knew it’d be a fight to get over to the Riverstage to see Empire of the Sun’s debut performance, so I trekked over early and saw them setting up gradually, to the banging beats of Kaskade. Hot pink square guitars and men in full laboratory jumpsuits were what I spotted on stage, and I knew we were in for something special. Sure enough, when Luke Steele hit the stage his world of dreams exploded with him and I witnessed one of the most stunning debut live performances ever. Beautiful lights, otherworldly video projections, and Luke with his spiky headware and flanked by four costumed dancers, taking to the stage. Pitch perfect, he ran through Empire of the Sun’s debut album with costume changes, heavy Parklife friendly beats, and a world of intergalactic colour and light filling the Riverstage.

Banter was limited, each song flowed into the next and when it didn’t there was atmospheric sounds or spacey voiceovers to add to the atmosphere of this dreamy landscape. The dancers changed costumes almost every song. I pondered to a friend if this was the work of a genius art director but no, this is what is inside Luke Steele’s head. Empire of the Sun put so much into their maiden voyage into live performance, and it blew me away.