You only had to surf to a couple of local online dance music forums to get an idea of how much the coming of this duo meant to the Adelaide Massive. Anyone posting replies with any uncertainty about going to this gig was instantly inundated with personal satisfaction guarantees from anyone who had seen these world-leading performers before. With all these expectations fresh on my mind, I headed into St Paul’s in the city.

St Paul’s is a place that’s played host to great Drum ’n’ Bass DJ/MC combos like LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad in previous years and I used these as a solid basis for comparison. Upon my arrival, I noticed the place was already filling up- faster than usual. I immediately scoped the audio and lighting setup (being a bit of a tech nerd) to be faced with some disappointment. According to what I had read online, the sound system was meant to be flown, as in elevated, above the crowd. Doing this to a sound system improves the quality greatly, and was something I had looked forward to experiencing. At this point Noddy was on the decks and had just dropped a remix of ‘Solaris’ which was well received. St Paul’s was filling up quickly and the temperature of the large room was rising.

Next up was Adelaide dance music Hall of Famer, MPK. Daniel mixed one of his best-ever sets in my opinion that night. Technically great and his track selection was perfect to warm up for the crowd with plenty of dance floor smashers and wicked vocals courtesy of MC G Swift- another wicked talent from Adelaide.

It was about 12:30 when event organiser John Doe took to the decks. Blake who is equally talented as a Breaks DJ proceeded to blend a breaks flavour into his Drum and Bass set- something I enjoyed but confused many others. This moment passed quickly and John Doe had us back on the D ’n’ B trip with great teasing of old tracks like ‘Body Rock’ and ‘Snapshot’ to remind older ravers of days and parties gone by. As John Doe played and G-swift vocalised, the place was reaching its capacity and I started to notice how awesome the lighting rig was. The Place was lit up with many colours and patterns with something to always entertain the wandering eyes. John Doe had just played the ‘Candi Station’ bootleg when I looked at my watch and realised The Dynamic Duo would be on very soon.

A stir about the now fully packed St Paul’s told me immediately that Marky & Stamina were on the stage. I headed inward to catch a glimpse of what the buzz was all about. John Doe had just given up the decks to Marky, and Stamina had just taken control of the Mic from G- Swift.  You could tell straight away that Stamina was having issues with the clarity of his mic on the (grounded but still very large and extremely loud) sound system. Someone fiddled with the gain and the loudness went up then fiddled it back down till a reasonable compromise was met. Rumour had it the Audio Engineer had already left for the night which seems a bit strange. Right-eo, time to let go and have some fun… and that I did! Within about 20 minutes I was grinning ear to ear as the wonderful vocal styling of Stamina read and anticipated every chop and change that Marky made. All of the subgenres within Drum & Bass were covered as we went from liquid up to hard with a large amount of wobble in between. The atmosphere seemed to lift as more and more people made their way up to the front. Many people found their way onto the stage and I still have a clear picture in my head of one punter standing on stage for like 1/2 an hour next to Stamina just looking out into the crowd and Stamina’s like ‘WTF?’ but didn’t say anything because the vibe of the room was right and everybody was clearly there for a good time. Bang! From out of nowhere, Pendulum’s awesome remix of ‘Vault’. In case anyone missed it, ‘Rewind’ Stamina gloated, knowing how hard a record it is to obtain. Marky and Stamina continued on for another hour with Marky scratching it up along the way. Sadly, he seems to scratch the same samples and same styles as he has for the last few years, making the repetition a bit tedious, and also not doing complete justice to his unquestionable level of skill. The music seemed to get quite hard towards the end and although I was hoping for some more Brazilian inspired beats, the word round town is that the Adelaide Massive like it on a harder tip, so that’s what they brought.

Last on the decks was Adelaide’s Fiction. Simon showed that last is definitely not least with his awesome display behind the decks. The only problem was, the room was so incredibly hot that people had to sit to cool down. Beers were $6 making refreshments less regular, and my legs couldn’t operate after such a thrashing from the two masters. Overall, I had a great night- saw nearly everyone in the scene there, and had been a part of one of the best feeling Drum & Bass nights I’d attended in a long time. Some people on the forums suggested for $45 you should get 2 rooms- but I just laughed and thought… but then the guys playing downstairs would have missed out on such a great night out!