WOW! What an absolute corker of a night. Being such a grandpa now days, there’s not too much that will keep me out all night, but the crew at Earth had me partying until the break of dawn!
Unfortunately I missed most of the locals early on, and although Patch had a rather big dancefloor when we arrived, I proceeded immediately upstairs to see El Hornet play his ‘breaks’ set. This was something I had been looking forward to, being mainly a breaks fan, and I loved the tunes he was dropping, and so was the rather sizable crowd. I actually expected one of dnb’s biggest acts to play a little more harder than he did, play the stuff which I grudgingly admit sounds like slowed down dnb, but I was pleasantly surprised by the range and style he played. We heard lots of Plump DJs, some Rogue Element, and even some Pendulum breaks in the form of fasten your seatbelt. There was quite a few tunes I didn’t know too, and I suspect most of them would be new Pendulum releases, so I am rather keen on seeing them in stores!
As El Hornet finished up, Calyx began downstairs. A massive crowd were eagerly awaiting him to tear the place apart, and he proceeded to do so with aplomb. Tune after tune after tune cranked up the vibe, with MC XPress complementing him wonderfully. The crowd were totally into it, and I saw many of Adelaide’s finest purveyors of dnb smiling and dancing and cheering throughout the set. The dnb Calyx played was hard but complex, and very dance floor orientated, so I just kept dancing and dancing and dancing. Towards the end of his set I thought it was a little too hard, but the crowd lapped up every beat.
I missed some of Dom & Roland’s set, but to tell the truth I wasn’t really that into it after Calyx. It just didn’t seem to have the same energy as Calyx, and was a little too samey for my liking. It was more a time to wander about, check upstairs and take a breather. Patch was playing upstairs, and I boogied for a bit, but was just a little restless at that stage, and I think I had too much Christmas cheer as I felt slightly off colour.
When Pendulum started, the dancefloor filled with dnb fans, eager to be wowed by premiere performance of the trio of El Hornet, Anscenic, and Speed, all in the one place at one time. It was clear that most of the crowd had come to witness this, and boy, did we get a special show. The trio absolutely rocked it, smashing the dancefloor and our eardrums with a barrage of awesome tunes, including their finest, such as Tarantula, Vault and their incredible remix of Voodoo People. There were quite a few more tunes I recognised, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you their names as I’ve been out of the dnb trainspotters loop for a while now. Some people in the dnb scene call them cheese, but if that’s true then give me a double cheeseburger and hold the meat – these guys truly rocked it, and kept me dancing until the very early morning.
Special mention has to be made of the MCs on the night – Xpress, G-Swift, Pase and Quantum, who complemented all the acts in tremendous fashion, and shows that Adelaide is truly a leader in the dnb scene, not just for DJs like MPK, Patch and Fiction, but also our very talented pool of MCs. Without them the vibe probably wouldn’t have been as intense as it was, and it was a truly amazing vibe from the get go. I seriously haven’t had that much fun at a dnb show since “the old days”, and I’m glad to have had the chance to witness some of the best dnb sets Adelaide has ever seen.