Kink NYE feat. Bang Gang DJs @ The Arthouse, Sydney (31/12/05)
So, another year’s on the verge of ending and you can’t help but mope a little bit about it. Of course that kind of gets blown away when you walk through the doors of the Arthouse Hotel for Kink’s year-end bash to end all bashes. A solidly packed-out two floors with the kind of talent that would make your average inthemixer moist in the pants. Kink’s always a great night and the patrons are friendly and always ready to shake booty on the dancefloor. With that in mind I walked into Kink with absolutely no concerns that the night would be a dud – and I was proven right, thankfully.
Sydney’s dance scene has been lacking in fresh talent and Kink’s policy of adopting up-and-coming DJs is a fantastic way of addressing this. One of the products of this is Brenden Fing, former Art resident and all-round good guy, whose consistent tune selection and excellent mixing set an excellent tone for the evening. Shamus, another Art refugee but longtime resident of Kink, rocked it right all night (totally!) with some inspired track choices and a generally solid electrohaus set that got the crowd ready for the headliners, local boys the Bang Gang DJs.
Gus Da Hoodrat (fresh off the cruise ship from Europe), Jaime Doom and DJ Dangerous Dan were all in attendance behind the Arthouse’s famed decks, rockin’ the crowd with their unique blend of jiggyacidelectrorock, warming the crowd up until they couldn’t take it anymore, and as 2006 arrived they unleashed Tomas Andersson’s Washing Up – pretty much the tune of 2005! – to an ecstatic Kink crowd. As the night progressed, the VIP room ebbed and flowed, Gus drank a metric fuckload™ of booze and the tunes kept coming, including one of the greatest songs of all time, Bowie’s Rebel Rebel – which, amazingly, got the dancefloor totally off. I was stunned, but I loved it. The Bang Gang DJs continued with their mashup of last year’s most popular electrohaus tunes with some increasingly retro stuff – some Human League got a play, shock horror – and the crowd just lapped it up. It’s difficult to describe how upbeat and positive this crowd was. It was absolutely fantastic. The atmosphere, the music, the venue and the people came together to present an awesome NYE.
Sadly, though, I didn’t get a chance to check out the Broke-n-Beats room, although the little snippets that I heard (Armand Van Helden’s “My My My”) didn’t exactly excite me, which forced us back onto the dancefloor as the Bang Gang crew departed and Ben Morris did his thing for the rest of the night. Morris did a great job and kept the vibe strong. I can’t commend everyone involved highly enough. Eye Candy Entertainment are excellent promoters, the DJs were innovative and always technically impressive and the venue was top-notch in their treatment of everyone on the night. A great way to bring in the New Year. Props to Kink!
