Let me tell you about my Friday night of Sydney clubbing contrasts.
I started the night off with a visit to Tank in the CBD for a colleague’s birthday celebrations. I’d never been there before and I’m a fan of house styles of dance music so I tagged along. Sydney’s richest (and pretend-rich), prettiest and styled-up young things were strutting their stuff to upbeat house music in the pit of the Tank. I appreciated it but I didn’t necessarily feel at home in my plush uber-expensive surroundings.
I am also a fan of deep driving drum and bass music so come 2:30ish am I decided it was time to take the long and chilly walk to Club 77 for the Evolve night. Having been a regular at Tweekin in its prime I was keen to get back and see 77 in its new guise. As I descended the steps down memory lane the first thing I noticed was how much more space has been created. By situating the DJ booth in the back left corner they have allowed much more room for chill-out areas, which a lot of people were trying to uncomfortably carry out, as bright light smothered the area.
However up in the dimly lit dance floor area I immediately noticed the contrast in height, clothing and dancing styles of the crowd between Tank and 77. Tank’s visitors seemed to be a lot more mature due to the general punter height and garment choices. Evolve @ 77’s visitors seemed to be a lot younger, shorter, grittier and up-for-it. I definitely felt more at ease within these walls.
77 was probably three quarters full and DJ Shuey was in full DnB flight. Kids were gleefully hopping to the frenzied but soulful and crisp beats he was providing. I found my spot and bounced along also. I arrived at the right time as the next man to grace decks was Eli. I have heard and read good things about this DJ and he seemed to have garnered quite a bit of support from the people, some of whom shouted his name, beckoning him to chop his stuff.
And chop he did. He combined great track selection with really smooth mixing but complemented this every few tracks by chopping and cutting with both the cross fader and the channel volumes to change it up and raise it up.
Congratulations must also be given to organisers for the integration of a live Female MC and a bloke on Saxophone. MC Ro was a wide eyed fine young lady on the microphone below the booth who had a smooth voice. However her articulation was lost amongst the heavy bass which superseded. It sounded like she was singing through a muffler. And if she sounded ok through the superseded bassy beats, she must sound really good when she is out on her own and mixed well. Mick Stuart on sax was mic’d in more efficiently than MC Ro and added some excellent sounding licks and loops to Eli’s sounds.
Eli and co were still rocking as I dragged my sorry behind out of the 77 depths with reflections of my contrasted evening spurring my following viewpoint: The punters make a club night what it is and the super keen DnB obsessives at Evolve seemed extremely pleased to have handed over $10 bucks for some quality underground Drum and Bass, unlike the Tank massive who either knew someone to get in and paid trough the nose at the bar or didn’t know someone and paid through the nose both at the door and at the bar. Synopsis: when you take those dollars out of the clubbing equation you find it’s all about soul.
