It was the Adelaide Cup long weekend and that meant three huge nights for the Adelaide Massive. With A-Sides on Friday night and Future Prophecies on Saturday night, the grand finale was definitely shaping up at the Blackcat Nightclub for Sunday night’s Drum & Bass onslaught… with some of the biggest & best in the biz. 

I arrived at Blackcat and made my way upstairs found the bar and soon after somewhere to sit and chill with my Bourbon. Night 3 of my 3-night dnb blitz. Legs feeling quite used at this point, soul wearing a little thin. John Doe was on the decks providing quite a soothing and enjoyable set. Not that I was surprised in any way! Blake has always played support to Bukem & Conrad in the past and chooses his tracks very well on these nights. When Marky & Patife’s ’ So Tina Que Ser Com Voce’ dropped I began to smile – the beats still working their magic on my tired body. Shortly afterwards, MPK stepped to the decks to deliver his selections.

Blackcat was beginning to fill up at a reasonable rate, heading towards its reduced capacity (one side of the two section club was closed). As MPK played, the trend continued. There was a sudden tingle in the air as Danny Williamson (LTJ Bukem) poked his head up behind the decks to check out the crowd and the club. Bukem and Conrad are no strangers to Adelaide and have visited regularly over the last few years- from playing the opening night of Rush (The Old Tivoli) to a Christmas show at St Paul’s. I’d seen these two whenever I could. This time they were here to celebrate thirteen years as ‘The Goodlooking Organisation’ (record label) so I knew there would be some cutting edge tunes on display and more reminding us of their longevity and promising a bright future ahead.

“Adelaide… how you feeling tonight?” was all it took to assemble the massive from various areas of the club to the dance floor. Conrad had just taken control of the mic and the crowd. It suddenly looked a lot busier around me and I felt familiar pride in the enthusiasm and love the Adelaide crowd always shows their Internationals guests.

Only minutes passed and Bukem already had the crowd in awe. The tunes he played are always so fresh and exciting. As a fellow d’n’b record collector,  it is rare to listen to an International’s set and to not be able to pick all but two or three tracks. This was the case for this set. Conrad was on par with his previous performances as well. Only thing was, I couldn’t hear or make out what he was saying. To be sure that I hadn’t damaged my hearing in the two previous nights, I asked a few of the punters to listen and try to tell me one or two words from Conrad’s flow. They couldn’t tell me either, but they’re probably had a similar dnb rampage to me all weekend. The confusing sound issues didn’t dampen my enthusiasm to have a groove while Conrad shared his deep insight into life and Bukem took us on an awesome journey from atmospherics to driving dance floor beats. One Adelaide DJ said “Bukem’s new style is simply the best of yesterday meeting the best of today,” in my mind summing up exactly the pair’s appeal. The only track I spotted in the whole set was Makotos 2005 Remix of Marky’s ‘Moments of Lust’. After Bukem and Conrad finished their set, they hung around with the crowd to have a drink and a chat… something that always goes a long way in my book.

Following the pair, DJ SS took the decks in a jump up extravaganza. This was completely different to what we where just listening to and It seemed to be the same old dance floor smashers, one after another. Pendulum’s ‘Tarantula’ dropped followed quickly by Pendulum’s ‘Fasten your seatbelts’ and then back into ‘Tarantula’ and ‘Fasten your seatbelts’ once more. Amusingly, it sounded like the radio was caught between two Fresh FMs! At least two more Pendulum tunes were played during his set, making it a little tired and repetitious, especially after the Bukem’s exciting treatment. Bukem and Conrad’s set was simply a brilliant way to end a huge long weekend.