It was only 10.30pm but John Course had an almost packed house to play to. So the man from Melbourne proceeded to lap up all the attention by bopping about, raising his hands in the air and just generally pumping up the crowd.

And the crowd gladly obliged, madly moving to a perfectly put together selection of upbeat party tunes and a liberal helping of engaging vocal tracks. While he was clearly focused on making the crowd dance there was a harder edge to some of his tracks, so his set never felt flimsy or overly commercial sounding.

Course’s excellent selection included Bodyrockers I Like the Way You Move and an impressive mix of NZ hip-hoppers Fastcrew with a pumping track featuring the lyrics “shake that down” (if anyone knows the name of this one please let me know)

Towards the end of his set, Course played a sensational track I Want You by Paris Avenue featuring the soaring, R&B style vocals of Robin One.

I’ve seen Course a few times now and his polished, varied sets are always impressive. He’s a DJ with exemplary technical skills who knows how to read and entertain a crowd.

Upstairs in the Sky Bar Cee and James A were exploring a more lush, deeper side of the house realm with plenty of energy and imagination.

Danny Howells arrived on he main stage to a sea of eager punters ready to keep moving. But he decided to take the tempo down a peg and create a darker mood. While some seemed a little disappointed at first, the quality of tracks soon won them over.

However, no one seemed prepared for the sublime assault of relentless, driving house UK-based Howells treated us to for the bulk of his blistering set.

Many of Howells’ tracks had a mechanical, almost industrial edge. He also delved in to electro, futuristic techy house- all fast and funky stuff, mixed with precision and skill.

His set for Global Underground #27, recorded in Miami, was only released in Australia a few weeks ago, but most of the tracks he played on Sunday were even newer than what he played on the GU disc. This showed that Howells has his finger on the pulse and likes to play fresh, up-to-date tunes.

He also had plenty of personality on stage, amping the crowd up, gyrating and throwing his arms about. He really enjoyed what he was doing and so did his audience.

He kept up the glorious mayhem until his last few tracks, where he slowed the tempo again to usher in Deep Dish.

The grammy award winning US duo played separately, doing about two hours each. Dubfire was first up and it soon became apparent that he was keen to tread a more progressive path. Moody atmospheric sounds and evocative vocal tracks led slowly in to more pumping, but often rather bland house tracks. The highs of the set just weren’t highs for the most part and the lows tended to come back much too quickly. Don’t get me wrong I love progressive sets, but they require judgement and timing and I felt this was lacking from Dubfire.

Unfortunately Sharam towed a similar line to Dubfire and also failed to get me very excited, except on a few occasions. Friends seemed to be experiencing similar feelings, particularly after having their socks knocked off by Howells.

Upstairs in the Sky Bar, Adam Kelly’s brand of house was more upbeat and funky and attracted a reasonable crowd.

The only big cheers that Deep Dish received came when, towards the end of Sharam’s set, he dropped their recent smash hit Flashdance and followed it up with a thumping instrumental mix of Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing.

As is too often the case, the big name was a big let down. Rather than a deep dish we got a side at best. Lucky we had Course and especially Howells to save the night.