Vicious_vinly makes an entry into the annual Slinky diary
Standing in line, busting to get inside and dance, whilst a couple of Bass Station regulars tried to rip me off for my tickets I had purchased on Friday at Ministry of Style, I still managed to wear a huge grin across my face. After months of waiting, Slinky had finally arrived in Melbourne for a night of hard trance and twisted techno- UK superclub style. This was my first time to attend Slinky, and I was buzzing like a bumblebee on honey, even though it had been moved from the much larger Vodafone Arena to The Palace Complex in St. Kilda.

After getting my trusty old starburst wristband, and a quite amusing Bass Station stamp on my arm [instead of ‘Bass Station,’ it read ‘ass Station’], I rushed straight into the main room. I was greeted by a quite ecstatic Scott Alert who was warming the crowd up. The beats were absolutely superb as usual [hard and dirty, just how we like it]. After a bit of warming up on the dance floor, and a trip to the bar to grab a bottle of water, I headed into the Bass Station room to catch Ajax ripping it up to some buzzin’ punters. I must say there was a lot more room to move in here, and I think it suited the ‘Shufflers’ a lot more than in the extremely crowded main room.

After convincing a very excited young lady that I needed to use ‘the little boys room,’ she allowed me to stop dancing with her [god knows what her name was!!!], and I checked out the Rising Sons side room. There wasn’t much going on in there, apart from some tanked up guys with their shirts off dancing around in circles, but Steve Strangis’ dark and deep tribal beats were a nice change of song. Yet I had the terrible misfortune of loosing the lid off my water bottle somewhere between the toilets in the side room, and the Bass Station room. This wasn’t good unless I wanted to be bouncing around with water going everywhere whilst I bopped in the main room. I headed up stairs and sat behind the glass, thankfully locating a dislodged water bottle with a lid I could use. I chilled up stairs for another 15 minutes or so, witnessing the bartender telling the guys next to me smoking joints to put them out before he puts themselves out, and waited for Dave Lea to hit the decks. Down to the toilets to fill up the water, I chatted to a nice guy who had just moved to Melbourne from Brisbane, and a couple of Vietnamese punters who definitely needed some thick shades [I swear to God, at least a dozen people asked me if they could try on my big retro sunnies that night!].

Before I knew it, everyone was rushing into the main room…Dave Lea was about to hit the decks!!! It was absolutely intense in there- you could seriously not move an inch! I managed to get to inline with the left speaker near the front, as Dave Lea popped up and greeted the crowd with a huge smile. The whole crowd absolutely went off. His choice of tracks and mixing was perfect, playing some of the big room trance anthems we have grown to love. From upstairs overlooking the crowd when Tiesto’s ‘Traffic’ came on, it was nuts. The visuals were a joy to watch and I snapped a few photos from ‘up in the clouds,’ of a glowing crowd shaking the entire Palace Complex. When a personal favourite of mine, Marco V’s ‘Loop & Things Re-looped’ came on [and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one by the reaction of the crowd], this started a couple a hours that went by in a flash. I spent most of it going crazy on the edge of the dance floor with a couple of Candy Ravers [no offence girls, you looked stunning as usual], or up stairs chilling behind the guy playing with all the visuals and gadgets. It was a mind-blowing experience.

After copping a mouthful of talcum powder from a punter tipping it on the floor for effect, I realised that Scott Bond was in fact standing behind the decks, and hence, all the screams and cheers. The GATECRASHER legend and manager of Serious Artists Management needed no introduction. With a licence to thrill and enough stompin’ vinyl to choke a donkey, he started his set off much like Dave Lea, yet I had absolutely no objections to that. Bond read the crowd very well, anticipating their moods, and showing that he really was giving the punters ‘what they want.’ One of my mates even got to shake his hand the lucky bugger! The beats went from loud and hard to quite melodic in the middle of the set, building it up and dropping it, the crowd loving it. When Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ spun on the 1200s, I screamed, cheered, screamed some more, and then proceeded to shout out the lyrics with all the other punters in the main room. I must say Scott Bond really knows how to entertain.

I was quite subsequently on my arse when Jason Midro’s delightful head popped up behind the decks, as a very large and muscly punter had accidentally bowled me over. After much apologising [I ensured him it wasn’t his fault!], Midro did it in style, spinning R.E.M’s classic ‘Everybody Hurts’ to a crowd, who at first, wondered what the hell was going on, shouted the vocals out like a drunken footy team tanked on cheap beer and goon. Then he dropped it. I couldn’t believe it. Well, actually I could, being the genius he is and the hometown boy. The crowd went absolutely spastic. It was like a moshpit at a Metallica concert in the middle. People were jumping up and down, the shufflers were shuffling, candies bopping, even a lost bogan with a coldy dancing behind me was going insane. It was the perfect close for an unbelievable night. Midro displayed his usual, yet always exciting tricks on the 1200s, showing that the local boys can match with the internationals.

The night ended with me almost dazing off in the main room next to the couches on the left of stage, absolutely drained of all my energy. I stumbled with one of my mates down to McDonalds for a quick feed and fell asleep on the tram back to Brunswick. After somehow making it into my sister’s apartment, I collapsed on her couch and snoozed for many hours to come.