I find it difficult to arrive at Rudebwoyz before 11pm. It has something to do with my inability to streamline pre-Rudies preparation. This preparation usually involves:

- Fringe blow-drying (Gidgette essential)
- Selection of backpack (I really do carry stuff in there guys!!)
- Selection and fitting of undies that won’t ride up my butt while dancing…etc.

Last night was an exception to the rule because I had to get up off my couch early and be at Rudebwoyz by 9pm to review their 2nd birthday bash at the Shamrock Hotel.

First up was Dr Paul, aka Opo, who had flown in from Perth to warm up the headz. Opo started things with a wobbly, old and nu skool jungle vibe, dropping well-known crowd pleasers like ‘Fugeela rmx’, and the Aphrodite remix of ‘Hypnosis’. After about half an hour an old personal fave of mine, ‘Turntable 1 VIP’ by Brockie, heaved along finally dragging me to attention. At various points during the set I couldn’t help thinking some tunes should have been pitched up a couple of notches to speed things up a little. Otherwise, Opo’s set had an interesting flow with a good mix of styles that ultimately got legs onto the dance floor. Standout tunes include ‘Yo Son’ by Dope Skillz (how catchy is this tune?!?!), Dillinja’s ‘Thugs’, and the Mickey Finn remix of ‘Body Movin’. It was going to be a long night so I paced my drinking until the 10-11pm happy hour hit- then the gin and tonics flowed. At 10.15 a small dance floor was brewing, and by the time Mark Lawson was ready to play, Opo’s set had beefed up nicely with some Baron and Bulletproof thrown in for good measure.

I had high expectations of Mark Lawson because late last year I managed to get hold of an impressive demo of his that mixed up a selection of choice Bristol sounds, old Dillinja classics and newer tunes. Personally, I believe the ability to rinse dnb spanning from the mid 90’s to the present within one set is the mark of a truly high calibre DJ. By midnight Mark had more than exceeded my expectations because within and hour and a half he’d managed to play through almost every dnb sub genre, from almost every year! The night truly started rollin when Mark dropped the John B killer ‘Vampire Eyes’, Photek’s ‘Baltimore’ and then John B’s ‘Pressure’. Cracken, highly edited, amen breaks, circular Bristol sounds, old skool jungle and other styles I don’t have room to mention, rumbled around courtesy of Mark Lawson’s tight mixing. Please Rudies bring this boy back soon!! I think Mark’s set was the standout of the night because he played so many bangin tunes, old favourites I’d forgotten and the new, that whipped up the crowd more than enough for Justus to deliver the next set.

By midnight it was clear this was gonna be a huge night for the Rudies crew because the Shamrock was packed out with over 180 people. As Justus stepped up, his special brand of ‘clownsteppin, no-breakdown-in-earshot’ madness dropped into full swing, pushing us into the morning. The silly clown bizness started with Noetic’s ‘Big Threat’ – I love that tune!! The way it flips over and over, rollin, clown shoes steppin – can’t beat it. Yup, I’m a clown convert courtesy of Justus. By now my notebook is filled with statements like “12.10am Justus drops that wobbly clown tune that Chopper owns…’ etc. A personal highlight for me was when he dropped Dread Recordings tune ‘Sals Theme’, a clever take on a Depeche Mode classic that I’d never heard played out in a club before. Justus’ mixing was super quick, and it was obvious he’d made effort with his cues because the only breakdown I remember hearing was when he decided to take a breather towards the end of his set and let Breakage’s ‘Bring back rmx’ play through. This awesome, newly released, dubwise tune was greeted with, screams (that was me), smiles and bouncing from the crowd.

Next on the block was Rudies resident, Operon. The unmistakable horns on Photek’s ‘Age of Empires’ bellowed out into the crowd as he put to the test the beefed up system, with extra subs. At that point it seemed the sound system was tweaked perfectly because the sound was so clear, you could really feel the bass and my ears didn’t hurt. It’s been a long time since I’ve really felt the bass so well at a dnb party. Operon has been mixing for over ten years now and it showed on the night. Looking comfortable behind the decks, Operon casually delivered a tight assault of bangin rave n bass from the likes of Cause 4 Concern, Resonant Evil and Raiden. Only 23 tunes in an hour?? C’mon Operon, we wanna see you top that number next time.

Next in line was Rudies resident, Erther to keep the vibe runnin well into the morning. Erther started out proppa with the awesome Commercial Suicide new release  ‘Crash’ by Chris SU and SKC that put the night into overdrive. He then moved through to deliver the crowd pleasing Breakage hit ‘So Mars’, and ‘Pirates’ by Amit – a must have for dark soldiers and headz from all sides of the spectrum. What I did notice in the first half of Erther’s set was the meticulous track selection and ability to make all the tunes flow together brilliantly. By about 2.30 to 3am, myself and a few others were getting weary. Too many G&T’s, too much sweat, and an empty stomach equals Gidgette settling out away from the dance floor to chat with mates and to take advantage of the last happy hour. Unfortunately I missed the second half of Erther’s set, but managed to get back on the dance floor briefly for Shards’set. I gotta say the dance floor really responded to the first few tunes Shards played…after that I disappeared for the better part of the rest of the night. Hopefully the Rudies crew will get Shards back another time so I get to live the full Shards experience that I get from listening to his mix cds.

Looking back it was surprising to see a distinct lack of MC’s fighting over the mic. Hopefully we’ll see a couple of MC’s at the next Rudies. Also, the 30 minute period when there were no toilet lights made it interesting for me to apply lippy ; ) Otherwise I gotta say it was probably the best Rudies I’ve been to with one of the biggest turn-outs I have seen.