It’s called funk club for a reason and the games and shenanigans kicked off Friday night with funk club’s Winter Games packing out the Leederville hotel.

Divided into two areas, the large outback veranda style catered for its live reggae and band line up, whilst up the mahogany stairs provided a different environment with its break style DJ’s and local producers.

One key aggregate that strongly contributed to establishing such a good atmosphere to the night, was actually the lighting and set display. Aside from the planter boxers filled with giant palms and terracotta coloured pots, the lighting set up used such an array of colour and did so very professionally, ridding the Leederville of its normal dance style lighting and cheesy strobe effects.

Believe it or not was more reminiscent of a outdoor summer festival South East Asia style rather than a cold wintery feeling evening.

And this view is clearly justified, with flame twirlers, hoola hoop artists and percussion acts using council bins in a way I’ve never seen before. Noise clearly became sound.

Taking a glance downstairs, regulars would of recognized Loco Ren, one of the main culprits in the weekly ongoing of Funk Club, kicking off the night with funk beats with anything and everything from reggae beats to disco style tunes – and he also facilitated the “in-between” sessions whilst “roadies” would set up for bands on stage. Having a live DJ always works well for in-between acts; always a more positive move than pressing play on a stereo system.

Sunshine Brothers, The Funk Club House Band, General Justice and Ragge Beats all played their part in the agenda of the night, but it was clearly Bomba that took the cake.

And as Bomba graced the stage with their brass, bass and blaring voices, the mood of the place immediately changed with crowds absolutely loving what they were hearing. Think Cat Empire but with smoother vocals and less breaths of hip hop in between. Diversifying between funk, soul and dabs of reggae, the Bomba act really gave the crowd an interactive performance, and really seemed to be playing to the crowd rather than at the crowd. This was an act that got the whole place singing and dancing, which just contributed to the relaxed and uplifting vibe circulating around the venue.

Starting off their very own chants, segregating the crowd to join in the performance, really set the bar pretty high for DJ Regal to meet. Unfortunately, although a veteran and a very skilled one at that, I think he didn’t quite leave the impression Bomba did on the minds of the punters. But saying that, Regal of Wiseguys fame did play a couple of classics that most could relate to and still managed to get some positive feedback from the crowds.

With only 45 minute to an hour sets and so many live acts and entertainment, this night was expressively worth more than the monetary ticket price and credit must given to those who conceptualized this night – it was a definite success.