When you release excellent music and put on some stellar parties, it’s only fair that you should get some recognition for that now and again. And so it was only fair that Sydney label Future Classic should again be entrusted by the Sydney Festival this year with the Beck’s Festival Bar for an evening of light musical entertainment.

Despite steadily increasing ticket prices, many of the Beck’s Festival Bar events have been selling out in advance this year, and tonight was one such example. Oddly though, although the ‘house full’ signs had gone up on the Wednesday before the show, there were some extra tickets released on Friday. It may pay to keep your ear to the ground for the other sold out events during the remainder of the Festival Bar season.

Arriving bright and early, the sound of the ticketless folk wailing outside was quickly drowned out by the warm-up stylings of Future Classic head honcho Nathan McClay and regular partner-in-crime Somatik (not Semantic, as one hand-written set-list suggested). And that wasn’t the only inaccuracy – the Resurrectors were billed at 9pm, but that hour came and went with no sign of action on stage. Still, the music was pleasant, the evening balmy and the sponsor’s product cold. And, we thought, good things come to those who wait.

Bloody oath they do. The Resurrectors released their debut album (on Future Classic, naturally) last year and if it sounds like a back-handed compliment to say that the album only just does them justice, it is because they are so very, very good live. For example, on the album Everybody Get Up sounds like a polite invitation; live, it’s an insistent, imperative and joyous demand. Ras Roni proved that in addition to being a vocalist of some renown, he’s one of the finest exponents of the triangle in the Sydney live scene today. But it’s not fair to single out individuals; all nine members of the band were feeding off the energy on the dance floor and obviously having a ball.

DJ Fitchie was up next. DJ Fitchie’s reputation with Fat Freddy’s Drop is big. DJ Fitchie himself is big. Some of the bass lines DJ Fitchie was unleashing were hippopotamic (which means big). Perhaps the only non-big thing about the set was DJ Fitchie’s enthusiasm for actually mixing any of his records. This was a selector’s set rather than a DJ’s set but the selection was pretty good. A mix of Eleanor Rigby got a spin at one point. And did I mention how well the sponsor’s product was going down by this stage?

Set times were becoming increasingly unreliable by the time that DJ Fitchie’s giant shadow waned and Jazzanova (in the person of Alex Barck) stepped up to the decks, joined a little while into the set by Clara Hill on vocals. Perhaps I’d set my expectations a little high by this point (or perhaps the sumptuous entrée that was the Resurrectors had spoiled my appetite for the main course) but I found myself more in nodding mode than dancing mode for much of this set. I also found myself measuring Ms Hill against the Alice Russell yardstick and it just wasn’t quite there.

Advancing age meant that I had to leave before local Future Classic signings Jamie Lloyd and Jimi Polar followed Jazzanova to bring things home, but reports from my less elderly spies suggest that the quality was top-notch. The night showed just what a great venue the Beck’s Bar is for live music and also showed how much quality there is bursting out of the Sydney live scene. If you prefer your music manned, not canned, there’s a lot out there if you go looking for it. Kudos to Future Classic for finding and showcasing some of it!