29/12/05
I had been waiting a long time to see the Stanton Warriors. Whilst they had been to Australia numerous times, sadly they had missed Adelaide every time. Although I had tickets to Field Day in Sydney on New Years Day specifically to see the Stanton Warriors and Evil9, when I found out they were playing here as well I got doubly excited, as I knew Adelaide was finally ready to be exposed to some of the greatest breaks in the world. Having Krafty play along side of them was just icing on an already delicious cake!
Getting there rather late, as my friend had to work, we entered tonic to find it quite full of people. I wandered about and ran into a few really good friends who were in Adelaide for the holiday period, and that made the night even more enjoyable. John Doe was playing booty shaking breaks, and there was quite a bit of booty being shook on the dance floor, which is always good to see. Once I jerked my eyes away from the bouncing buttocks of bodalicious babes, I noticed that Dominic B had snuck in behind Blake, and was ready to get down to business.
As soon as he put his first track on, I new something special was about to happen. It was an electro beat stormer, and the crowd went wild. As Dom B’s set progressed, he was dropping bomb after bomb and Adelaide lapped it up. Most of it I hadn’t heard before, but it was the distinctive production that led me to think, quite correctly, that these were new Stanton Warriors tunes, off their forthcoming album. I was simply astounded by the quality of tunes, and the incredible way Dom was mixing them.
Later in his set, he played the Stanton remix of the Gorillaz Feel Good Inc. As the crowd went wild, he pulled it back for rewind, which is unusual for a breaks DJ, but much appreciated. Other highlights that I did recognise included the Stanton Warriors remix of Dooms Night, which is incredibly funky, and the mix of King of Rock with the Cut & Paste classic Murder in the Jamrock.
The crowd was well hyped for Krafty Kuts, and he smashed the dancefloor with some absolute killers. Being much more dancefloor orientated than Dom B, and much harder than when he played earlier in the year at the Crown & Sceptre, he very much played to the crowd, dropping favourites and remixes, and quite a bit of his own new stuff too.
His distinctive scratching and cutting made the crowd go wild, and when he dropped the dnb the Adelaide crowd got mega hyped. One mix I went absolutely mental over was his mix of Gorillaz Dare with Faster Stronger by Daft Punk. Grif was a very capable MC, with Krafty dropping out the beats and letting Grif bust rhymes like they had been working together for years. I actually thought Grif did a better job than Dynamite MC, who paired up with Krafty in Sydney, and that’s saying something!
Dom B and Krafty tore Adelaide a new one, and although I couldn’t stay for their mash up, the venue was still packed as I left. It seems Adelaide has finally woken up to the glory of breaks, and I for one am glad that this show will be remembered for years as one of the best nights at Tonic. It means I can stop travelling to Sydney and Melbourne to see the acts that I like, because we can now have absolute killer shows here. Bring on the breaks in 2006!