Traffic Opening Night: Adelaide
Finally, a club for ravers that caters for ALL styles of music across the spectrum of dance music. A club that looks like it will re-energise the weekly scene and offer something new, especially to those of us who are a little bored with the dichotomy of Drum and Bass and Hard Trance. The opening night was a showcase of the emerging scenes of Adelaide –Breaks and Progressive House.
Although both scenes have been well represented in Adelaide for a few years now, they are nowhere near as popular as in other parts of Australia, nor are they as popular as they should be. By officially opening the club with these styles Traffic has signified its intention to alter the perception of these styles from side-lining “other room” music to be major players in the dance music scene in Adelaide. Unfortunately the opening night of Traffic was also the night that Derrick May was re-scheduled to, the night after Clarky, two nights after a Christmas night that featured Bukem, and 3 nights before New Years. Thus, the small turn out was probably understandable.
Despite the lack of size of the crowd the DJ’s were still as professional as ever, and rocked the crowd wickedly. I’m not a big fan of Progressive House, but DJ Mal was playing a rather decent set when we arrived, mixed exceptionally well, that had me tapping my foot on more than the odd occasion. Then Brendan stepped up to the decks. I expected more Progressive, but to my surprise he dropped some breaks. Very happy, I moved to the dance floor to find it all but empty! Oh Adelaide! Why must you be afraid of anything new? Brendan did a good job, playing some slower, girly breaks that complemented Mal’s set very well, rolling into heavier styles such as Raw As Fuck’s “theme from RAW” and Stereo 8’s “Get Above Yourself”, proving that his talents *can* be used for the forces of Good :).
DJ Tayo followed Brendan, bringing the tempo down and funking it up a notch. Having seen him play earlier this year at Vibes, I expected something a little different to what we got. He played it a lot funkier and a lot more “electro” than the usual harder breakbeat style I’ve heard him play, but it suited the mood of the clubbers perfectly. In the past he seemed to play more of the better-known tunes but much of the music he played I haven’t heard before, and I’m not complaining… I thoroughly enjoyed hearing such an amazing DJ mix new tunes so incredibly well. I though a lot of the music had an “eighty’s” sound, in particular the synth sounds, without the kitschiness and arrogance of electroclash. This was backed up by some tremendous remixes of some of the bigger breaks tunes such as the Stanton Warrior’s “Virus” and newer stuff by the likes of Plump DJ’s and the Drumattical Twins.
The sound at Traffic is rather thunderous, but it means it can be heard right through the club, so you can enjoy it from dancing in front of the stage or sitting upstairs on a comfy couch. It was a wise move closing the top section half way through the night, as I realised the club wasn’t as empty as I thought it was. It was very unfortunate that Derrick May had was on at the same time – it meant that a lot of people missed out on seeing a great DJ who exists because of his skill, missed out hearing different music both in style and genre, and missed out on a terrifically friendly atmosphere. Traffic has so much to offer with its weekly Friday dnb nights, it’s varied format Saturdays, and internationals such as Matrix and Fierce, the Scratch Perverts and Krafty Kuts, and CJ Bolland, it’s a shame that the opening night wasn’t as big as it ought to have been.