16/05/09

I’ve never been to Wobble before. I must admit I never really wanted to go either, as I was a little afraid of the name. You see, I knew it was a drum and bass and dubstep night, and although I enjoy those music styles, I’ve never really appreciated wobbly drum and bass. It was too cheesy, too repetitive, and I always thought to myself it wasn’t worth going to a night that basically played that all night. Luckily, I was wrong about the show, and have learnt yet again one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Well… for the most part.

I love Night Owl as a venue, although was a little confused as to why we were forced to use the back entrance. I like the fact that there is a decent sized dancefloor with the amazing Heartical Hi Fi Sound System, plus numerous comfy couches for old folks like myself to sit down and have a rest now and then. Not that there were a lot of older folk there, which was something I hadn’t anticipated and I was rather bemused about. There was also a more varied crowd than I expected, comprised of ravers, emo/hipster types, and the dreadlocked peeps, all of whom seemed to be having a wonderful time throughout the night.

So anyway, I found the bar, a pint, a comfy chair and proceeded to sit down and judge the show. I didn’t stay sitting for long… AC23 is a DJ I’ve been hanging to see ever since he sent me a mix of dubstep a few years ago. Somehow on that mix he managed to trick me into thinking dubstep was something it wasn’t… and he did the same again on Saturday night. He plays a variety of dubstep, with different tempos and sounds I don’t usually associate with dubstep. It was excellent and for the second time in as many weeks I’ve found myself really enjoying a dubstep mix. It was helped by the excellent MCs, probably two of the best I’ve heard in Melbourne, who loved the rhymes and calling for the rewind.

Afficks was next up on the wheels of steel, and this is where my interest waned. He’s a great DJ and kept the floor jumping, but the dubstep tunes he played all sounded the same to me, with the wobble bass and slowed down dnb beats. Some of the tunes were just awful – Ready Or Not is a classic tune and it was torture hearing the dubstep remix. However, there were some decent tunes in there as well, such as the Chase and Status track Saxon (I think! I’m not too au fait with dubstep I must admit) and The Special’s Ghost Town.

I was a little worried that after the hours of dubstep that Adelaide’s DJ Fiction, stepping up to drop some dnb, wouldn’t be able to hold the floor. I needn’t be concerned though, as, in my opinion, Fiction is one of the best dnb DJs in Australia, and knows how to rock a party. And rock the party he did, slamming down some new stuff and seamlessly mixing it with older stuff, then jumping forward again. Fiction was having a lot of fun, and the crowd lapped up his expert mixing, cheering nearly every tune and dancing like loons, throwing their hands in the air like a good crowd should.

Cubist followed, getting a little harder and a bit more wobbly in his dnb compared to Fiction, although not quite as wobbly as me on the dancefloor, as the amber liquid had been flowing all night, and sadly I could only stay for about half an hour of his set. But the crowd was still going off when I left, which is always a good indication of a great night!