Friday in Melbourne saw another packed out gig at the Metro, the Dewaele brothers (Stephen and David) touring their Nite Versions form of Soulwax. This is their “deconstructed version of ourselves as a rock band”.

Through Soulwax, Nite Versions and 2manyDJ’s – all various incarnations of two Belgian brothers musical brilliance – friends such as Tiga and Justice have been introduced to the world, and after there performances at Big Day Out and sideshows at Room, the expectations for 2manyDJ’s were through the room.

How high was the bar set? A quick run around the punters spoke for itself:

Hamish: “Comparing 2manyDj’s to other people mixing – nothing comes close”

Dan: “When they closed the Big Day Out with Thunderstruck, best thing I’ve ever heard”

Leighroy: “From Rock to Electronic.. Nobody does it better!”

The support acts served it up in spades on the night, the cast of NiteVersions including Modular DJ’s, Andee Frost, The Valentino’s, Andee Frost, New Young Pony Club, Riot In Belgium, Kitsumi and the Bang Gang DJ’s.

Deathbystereo (ITM forum user alias) summised the night quickly with “The Valentino’s were ok, Andee was great as usual, New young Pony Club did a great impersonation of Altered Image’s (which isn’t an insult) and I couldn’t believe how much love they were getting from the crowd. Riot In Belgium got the crowd all sweaty and Soulwax delivered the goods x10.”

But at this point deathbystereo left.. Yup, walked out. Why? The place was just packed, with so many people it was a fight. Oversold? Probably.. Popular? Definately.

Another punter, ‘Dan’ wanted to add:

“After two weeks in London, then two weeks in Amsterdam with Tall Paul playing to a massive shed, still nothing rocks like a Melbourne crowd”.

So what is a Nite Version? Dewaele says:

``For a lot of people who are not really into dance music, when they see Nite Versions they go `F—-, it can rock, like a live band, now I understand’,’’

For me, watching the Nite Versions all dressed in white, with keyboards, guitars and a drum kit being shared by the seated drummer, and the band leader standing opposite him, smashing each piece of the kit the second the seated drummer moved to another piece in order to get a techno beat out of a physical instrument was pretty crazy affair.

Riffs from Candi Stanton thrown into memorable bass lines of dance floor killers, all played through live instruments at a hectic pace.. That would be Nite Versions. Definately the kind of thing you have to see.

For 2manyDJs, the sea of people awaiting them were crammed into every corner, and for the first 45 minutes of 2manyDJ’s, staring at the vacant stage at the front of the venue, looking around and saying to each other “Nah they can’t be on yet, where are they, I don’t know who is playing but its just boring”.

After three quarters of an hour, heads turned and an unfortunate sigh went up when we realised the two guys taking it in turns to swap a record and wait until it played out were actually 2manyDJ’s, working from the centre console of Metro. Nite Versions great, the 2many set? Average to Poor. If you were comparing to previous gigs, this had no magic, no layered, jaw dropping musical moments.

The venue shut at exactly 4 am, no extra track, no nothing except a wave of people on Bourke St. Overall from the support this was a good night, the Nite Versions component being something different and entertaining, unfortunately though overshadowed by the 2manyDj’s set being lacklustre, and way off the mark in comparison to previous gigs.