Style, style, flair and style.  Meccanoid does it with class and this ‘Casino Royale’ themed jaunt at Honkytonks was a great evening for the packed interior, and not so special if you were not on a guest list as beyond midnight the front gate locked it down due to a capacity crowd.

No matter though, as the moral of the story is get in early if you want to party properly – a task all of the attendees were throwing themselves into with gleeful smiles, drinks in hand and a three piece suit here and there for good measure.

Housed in another of Melbourne’s premier ‘this alley is so sketchy’ locations, Honkytonks is at the end of Duckboard Place and a pretty sharp venue.  With a decent dance floor, efficient staff, excellently stocked bar and enough obscure aesthetics nailed, stuck, bolted or hanging from the walls and ceiling, its enough to keep everyone entertained.  

Not been to Honkys yet?  Check it, love it, live it.

Bleepin’ J Squawkins was the main billing for this, and watching the two components of the name, Ed Leckie and Julian Higginson work was a pleasure.  I’m just going to use the first paragraph from their website for a sound description, because A. its spot on, and B. I doubt I’d ever think up the word ‘awibbelry’.

“Funky”, “Homegrown”, “Electro” and “Madness” are just four words used to describe Bleepin’ J. Squawkins. A lurrrrve of analogue awibblery, gritty lofi basslines, chunky electro beats and a cheeky finger for digital manipulation of samples constitute the Bleepin’ J. Squawkins sound. Since winning one of B(if)tek’s WINK awards, Bleepin J. Squawkins have gone from disco to disco.

From http://bleepin.com/ – About

Fun for me was seeing the guy on the mic lean forward and open his mouth as wide as humanly possible, in order for every nuance of his speech to fire through the glitchy synth interpreter and bring the words to speaker.  Droning industrial vocals – mostly obscure, grin inducing puns – layed over deep, chunky tones with a disco kick through the mids and highs?  Yeah, quality.

Musically Bleepin’ J was backed up by the regular Meccanoid’ers of Quirk, Glitch, Not Happy Jan and Toupee.

Double the fun was brought on by throwing a set of turn tables at the Honkies entrance, labelled the ‘Hundred Up Lounge’ and DJs Portal, Hysteric, Pussyfoot and Dicko dealing out ‘a prize winning pastiche of minimal, eclectro, punk funk and more’ (there I go quoting again).

When it comes down to it, I mainly go out to listen intently and avidly to whats coming out of the speakers – something I find hard to sustain for hours when the word ‘minimal’ is in the mix.  Easy solution: Rock around the crowd, interact with all the smiling faces and just use the music as a great backing to having a party. 

Meccanoid shined in this regard, and with more then I expected of the crowd dressing for the theme, I felt amiss not having a suit or a croupier’s outfit on.  In for eleven and out for four, several hours of solid fun were had so big ups to the Meccanoid crew, the lineup and everyone who put in their own effort to give back to the night.  Really had the whole ‘Parties by the people for the people’ vibe, don’t miss the next one!