It was long after 9pm so as I strolled across the crossing headed for Minque, I became increasingly worried about the outcome of the night and the quality of this review. The place was practically empty. RobKay was perched on the outside ledge with the usual Minque suspects and greeted me seemingly unperturbed by this fact. Considering he had a vested interest in this gig, his calm state and warm hello put me at ease. Until he asked “So where is everyone…”, like I might actually have a clue? At which point I immediately jumped on my phone, only to find that two of my friends were on their way and all the others had the same poor ass excuse, “Working tomorrow”. I guess it was Valentine’s Day yesterday. Obviously everyone was shagged from the night before… No pun intended. I should have known that anything these guys were involved in, would end up being a really good performance. But I had no idea it would be as good as what we were in for.

DJ Falcon was set to play at ten o’clock. Quite the reasonable hour considering most of the people who did come were working in the morning. So at 10:15, I turned to RobKay and asked “Where’s DJ Falcon?” He cheekily responded with, “Oh, no one turned up, so we sent him away and told him not to bother.” My jaw dropped and for a brief moment, at least until I spotted the glint in his eye, my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. Speaking of which… Falcon wasn’t due to start now until 11, which provided me with the perfect opportunity to appease my grumbling tummy. Only problem was that on Sunday the Artoven Bakery is closed and after ten at night, not even a whiny voice and a sweet smile can get you a feed from a closed restaurant kitchen. So it was off to the Shell for a protein shake and one of Sara Lee’s pre-packaged moist banana cakes. Mmmmmm, yummy I know! But at that time of night, anything will suffice so I wasn’t going to complain. More people had turned out by the time I arrived back at Minque loaded up with goodies. My so-called friends all laughed at me of course, knowing full well that my stomach always comes first. We all hung around and chatted while Fab kept lazily feeding us the tunes. And who could blame him, not much of a crowd to play to. Most of the punters had spilled outside on to the street to keep cool. Although big thanks for the three or so, massive movie-set style fans. One of which, was strategically placed outside and directed to circulate the cooler air into the club. Smart thinking 99.

I have to admit that I am a true lover of all House music. I love tracks with vocals as much as the next girl. I’d like to think that my musical tastes go a lot deeper than that though. I have stood behind the decks taking photos, with many a great DJ. I’ve managed to learn a thing or two about the craft and I own a pair of ears so I know how to judge a good mix. I can’t stand the sound of double bass but thankfully I rarely hear it on the club circuit. It’s important to me that a DJ puts on a good performance and when DJ Falcon landed on the decks with the first track ‘Together’, that’s exactly what the crowd did. They got up from outside and came together to join him for a performance they won’t soon forget. And I’m not just talking about his mixing and movement behind the decks. But I’ll get to that later. As the dance floor quickly filled with people (from who knows where) this was the first chance I’d had, to really suss out who had made it. Who were Canberra’s real Die Hards? As I looked around the room I spotted RobKay having a boogie on the dance floor. He kindly came over and introduced me to Falcon’s tour manager, Scott. Who then introduced me to his stunning girlfriend, and the two spent the rest of the night working the crowd with DJ Falcon. Scott kept egging the crowd on with cheers and his awesomely constant supply of funky dance moves. Not to mention continually sending Falcon back to the decks for “Just one more”.

Both DJ Falcon and RobKay dropped some supremo tracks. Some of which were dropped in off Falcon’s laptop and mixed seamlessly, most of the time. There was only really the one instance with a bit of dust or something caught on the stylus, creating that annoying crackling sound. And I think at one stage Falcon asked Rob to loop the instrumental on the ending of a track he was playing a few times so he had more time to mix another in. I’m only speculating on that one though, that’s the way it looked and sounded. Anyone who mixes the vocal stylings of Prince with the electro sounds of Daft Punk is a genius in my eyes though. And not just because I love Prince and in particular the track ‘Kiss’. Take a good listen some time people, the two are so similar sounding. Prince’s high pitched wailing mixes perfectly with any of the tweaked electro funk sounds the Daft Crew are renowned for producing. And that was just one of the timeless classics Falcon slipped by us. Neneh Cherry’s ‘Pump up the Jam’ and what I think was the remix of ‘Aint Nobody’. I couldn’t quite tell, but I was hoping it was the Chaka Khan version of the vocal he was looping. I was delighted any way. He blended a great deal of Breaks, mixing Hip-Hop with House, and even treating us to a little French vocal flavouring. I was hoping to hear an earlier track of his called ‘Honeymoon’ and was keeping an ear out for it. I had downloaded the sample while doing some research and couldn’t get it out of my head because I had played it so many times. I asked him about it when I got the chance later, thinking I may have missed the tracks incessant beat. But no such luck. He didn’t play it.

As his set came to a close an hour later than intended, the crowd was led by Scott who started screaming for one more. And so Falcon played on. This continued to be the case with him even throwing the occasional track into RobKay’s set. ‘I like to MOVE IT’ by Reel 2 Real was a big hit as they took turns in turning the volume down for us to scream
“MOVE IT!”. The first two times were pretty poor but by the third we managed to all catch on and give them what they were hoping for. I’m yet to see the day when a DJ tries that and it doesn’t work. I think that would be far more entertaining. Or maybe if just one person screamed out the line by themselves. Hahaha, now that would have to take first prize for worst clubbing experience.

RobKay finally started off his set, magically sounding, distorting and reworking the bells from the beginning of Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic. Followed by their classic club anthem ‘Around The World’. He always was such a tease behind the decks when it comes to mixing in a well known or long anticipated track. I’ve been frequenting Lot33 to catch him there, usually playing the last track of the night early on a Sunday morning for some time now. And as usual he didn’t disappoint me or anyone else, keeping us all there long past our use by dates as usual. I think the night finally finished up around 4am. But not before Dj Falcon, Scott (his tour manager), Simon (Minque’s manager) and a few others, got seriously wet in a wickedly funny water fight. Someone tried to get me in on the act by asking me to set up a photo with Falcon in it, so that while he was distracted they could pour a bottle of water down the back of his pants. Luckily for me it didn’t come to that. He must have dropped his guard at some stage though, as he bent over moments later proudly displaying a giant wet patch on his jeans for me to take a photo of. Thanks to the rest of the Minque staff’ies who kept an ever so vigilant watch and a mop and bucket handy, to clean up the water quickly so there were no accidents.

It was shortly after this I figured, if he shared that with me, he’d have to be willing to sit down and answer a few questions. “Step in to my office” was his response as he pointed to an empty table outside, where we sat and chatted for the better half of twenty minutes. He was such a great guy; really down to earth and excited by the simpler things in life such as the opportunity to surf on the Gold Coast while he’s touring. Which he says he enjoyed immensely after doing it last time he was here roughly a year ago. He confessed a very humble fact to me which I was most impressed by. Now I know I always say that it’s all about the music, but Falcon admits that he’s not as interested in the music and promoting himself as he is in traveling and the opportunity to meet new and interesting people from different cultures. He likes Japan most of all. Which is where he was before arriving in Australia. He also said that he likes Japanese people very much when they are drunk. At least that’s what I think he said? He qualified it by saying that they were like little cats and dogs, so small and cute and full of energy. With no real clue as to what I was doing since I hadn’t planned any questions, I sat there and listened intently. He idly chatted away telling me about the things that matter most to him. At which point to wrap things up he introduced me to his girlfriend, who I had heard elegantly speaking French on the dance floor earlier in the night.

The common factor in all his stories and by what I had seen, was that he loves people in general. After the night I had just witnessed I thought to myself that it’s any wonder his track with Thomas Bangalter was so popular, albeit too repetetive for some. I was now a believer that DJ Falcon, AKA Stephane Queme, really does have ‘So Much Love To Give’.


Photos by melE. Copyright Melinda Elton Photography and In The Mix.