Pushing the envelope once again, Traffic proves its willingness to present something above and beyond the normal clubbing experience managing to lure Adelaide out of its sleepy shell to witness of the best nights I’ve had clubbing in a long time! Again the people who claim hiphop and breaks do not have a strong following in Adelaide are proven beyond a doubt that they are wrong, which can only be good news for all lovers of fine music in this fine city.
When I arrived I found that there was a line up, which rather surprised me. After the lacklustre turnout for the opening of traffic, I thought that maybe Adelaide *was* too small to support hiphop and breaks. But, thankfully I am wrong. I entered and was greeted by the sounds of DJ Riddla, one of the most under rated DJ’s in Adelaide. This guy is GOOD, and it’s just a shame he doesn’t get heard more often. He was playing a blend of older, funkier breakbeat tunes, which was refreshing to hear and mixed expertly well. Next to step up were Stephen King and Reflux, warming up the crowd by showing a few tricks of their own. My only gripe about the whole evening was that during a good portion of their set I was outside trying to get to the teller machine, and then was stuck at the bar.
However, it was obvious who the crowd were waiting for, The Scratch Perverts. On the attack from the beginning, they simply didn’t let up with the amazing tricks they can pull. Starting with “Party” hiphop, they rocked the crowd, simply dazzling us with the speed of their cutting and scratching. And they didn’t just stick to playing well-known hiphop, they played a couple of DJ Shadow tracks (to which the crowd went mental) and a few classic Ninja Tune tracks including a great bit of mixing between Mr Scruff and Roots Manuva. Then they had to go and ruin it by playing drum and bass… only joking 🙂 The D&B they played was pumping and energetic, and fitted in with the mood of the crowd. They returned to playing hiphop, and as a wind down played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, which almost turned the floor into a moshpit and was incredibly cheeky of the boys. From the vantage point of the second floor it was impossible to be anything but impressed with the way they mixed and scratched, and it’s no wonder they’ve won so many hiphop battles both individually and as a team.
Following them must have been a monumental task, but luckily Krafty Kuts was up to it, and he managed to hold the dance floor