WOW – What a night!

This event has definitely reaffirmed my love of electronic music, the Brisbane scene and what first got me into this whole thing. This was one of those few events that had that ability to bring out a complete inner euphoria purely through the music and vibe.

Having not heard much about James Holden and only having two of his tracks in my collection I was relatively uneducated with what to expect and this was definitely a good thing. Of what I had already heard, ‘Nothing’, a progressive vocal trance track, was what I had fallen in love with, but I knew from the chatter on ITM to expect a much wider cross sections of genres.

I rocked up pretty early to the Milk Bar, about 9pm, and was greeted by friendly door staff that were more than happy to divulge their excitement for the night. Heading on down the stairs and into the club I remembered just how great a venue it is. Plenty of seating, hidden away comfy corners, moody lighting and a great bar. The local boys were already into their mashup and things seemed to be progressing nicely with good contrast between the different djs. The crowd was slowly gathering and you could feel the excitement building as it grew nearer to 10pm.

Finally the man that so many had put their hard earned cash down to see took to the decks and got right to the point. The crowd immediately took to the dance floor, urged on by ‘clapping lady’ and her energetic dance moves, who fortunately I guess, seemed to burn out not long after. Everyone else however had no problem staying on their feet as James kept up a barrage of beats, flawlessly mixed and featuring, prog, house, tech, acid, electro and more.

Not many other djs have had the ability to make me laugh out loud while dancing as a pure release of happiness, but not long into his set I could help but giggle away to myself as I looked back at the rest of the crowd, and the see of smiles. When James dropped in Infusion I could just feel it bubbling up inside and then the faint vocals of PQM’s – You are Sleeping began and I cried as it was such an emotional release. I could not have dreamed of being anywhere else but on that dance floor, lost within my own emotion while feeling my entire body move as if controlled by that bass line.

Which brings me to the next factor of the night – the complete inability to stop dancing. My legs ached, my back was sore, my body was crying out for food, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave that dance floor for I may miss that perfect track, mix, vocal, or synth during the minute I was gone.

This was how I used to party, 10pm through to 7am on nothing but water and my love of the music to get me through. So thankyou for James for such a diverse set that always delighted and had me moving and to the Brisbane crew for their ability to band together and really show just how strong our scene is. Biggest thanks of all to [Brisbane ITM member] Shards for pulling the strings to organise us all and get this event off the ground.