Underworld descend on Carriageworks to launch THE WORKS, Finely Tuned’s inaugural 2026 program, and the timing feels deliberate. For a city that’s had a heavy few weeks, this is release in its purest form: a packed, sweating room, bodies moving from the first beat, the collective need to let go hanging thick in the air. It’s a fitting way to close out a year of live music coverage, ending not with reflection but propulsion.
Karl Hyde and Rick Smith remain mostly obscured behind towering screens and equipment, surfacing only occasionally, dancing briefly into view before dissolving back into the machinery. Photographing them proves difficult, but it almost feels beside the point. Underworld’s presence has never been about visibility so much as immersion, and the crowd fills in the rest. From the man wearing a shirt that reads “I am invisible,” to Vern posing proudly beside graffiti bearing his name, to a dancer in luminous clothes and a yoyo spinning arcs of light, the audience becomes part of the spectacle.
More than three decades into their career, Underworld still operate as facilitators of shared experience rather than performers demanding attention. The music does the heavy lifting, and the room responds instinctively. Carriageworks transforms into a pressure valve, releasing weeks of pent-up energy in waves of movement and sweat. For a final show of the year, it doesn’t look backward. It pushes forward.
Images and words DEB PELSER
