I must admit that I do not go to enough techno events in Melbourne. Not that they are short on the ground, for one reason or another I just don’t seem to make it to them. This night was different though, and I am so glad that I did!

The thought of Swedish techno DJ and producer, Deetron gracing the baby grand at Honkytonks had me salivating since it had been announced. Touring to promote a new EP and CD due out this year, it promised to be a night of new material and as it turned out quite a few classics as well.

I arrived at about 12:30am and was quite surprised to find the club about half full. Grabbing a drink and settling near the piano, it was one of my faves, Mike Callander spinning the tunes. Fitting for the time of night, it was both housey and techy edging towards more ‘traditional’ techno towards the end of his set. Mixing was tight and some track highlights for me were, Theo Parish – Falling Up (Carl Craig Remix) and this awesome jazzy number at about 1am. I have to thank Mike himself for telling me the name of that Theo Parish track!

Towards the end of Mike’s set, Honkytonks had all of a sudden filled out and was now full of Deetron fans and not just random people who had gone to Honkytonks. The crowd was really quite young but good nonetheless. Props must go to the pole that Honkytonks has in the middle of the dancefloor, it withstood some of the harshest abuse I had seen in quite some time and at parts it looked as if it was going to break. Alas, it survived to fight another day. The tiger head on the piano was cool as well.

At this point I noticed Deetron make his way past the pole and behind the decks. From the get go I really enjoyed his set. It was a great blend of house and techno again. Always fun, jacking and really dancefloor friendly. He started with some real rumbling, tribal stuff, but again it was never monotonous like techno can sometimes be. During his set, we would notice that he would have 3 or 4 great mixes and then one real train wreck. I found out later, thanks again must go to Mike for telling me, that it was due to people bumping, dancing around the baby grand. Towards the end of his set he played Good Life and Man with the Red Face. Stepping up the pace throughout the entire set, it was always rocking!

Then the lights came on! I couldn’t believe how quickly the last 3 or so hours had gone. The crowd hung around and gave him the applause that he deserved and asked for that sometimes elusive ‘one more’. After a couple of minutes, Deetron was happy to oblige with, of course, New Orders – Blue Monday! I guess it is cliché to play that, but this was a nice little edit I hadn’t heard before and the track worked really well with the rest of the set, which had been at such a high standard . It really was a great night and one of the best sets I have heard this year. It is great to see that techno is still going strong in Melbourne.