APEC led major roads to a dead end all over the CBB… But who could ever have guessed that was just the beginning? Think Sosueme. No, it’s not some new-fangled type of Sushi you’d choose on the menu at your local Sushi Train. Instead, it’s an exciting new exercise in clubbing that gave us the perfect excuse to party over the APEC long weekend.

The Sosueme pres. Shelflife party pushed the boundaries by bringing a genre mash up of a shindig: why only a ‘Fantastic Four’ bunch of tunes mashed together, when you can have six? On this electrified bill, that refused to be nailed down to any particular genre, we had the Mixtape Mafia on mixing duties as well as prominent party girl Anna Lunoe, electro heroes the Hey Now DJs, chunky genre benders Funktrust DJs, indie crossover duo Brag Bitches and not to forget the Bang Gang main man himself… Ajax. They injected a manifold of much-loved tunes alongside the expected electro mashups (and retro dress stylings), including a whole bunch of hip hop and baile funk for example.

The iconic Fringe Bar is where all the kafuffle took place. Once you’re inside you have the immediate feeling that you’ve stepped into a cult classic or midnight movie set, because of the old-school ceiling fans spinning steadily, the black and white checkered floors, the oversized mirrors on the walls along with the dark red velvet curtains, vintage chandeliers mainly hanging above the bar and candles burning a well-behaved flame; combined, they paint a raunchy red tone on your skin. If that’s not enough to entertain you, there’s a whole bunch of ‘off the wall’ pictures plastered all over the venue that bring up memories of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

But the colour of the night soon changed from a raunchy red to a mystified black, only ever to be brightened by the roaming spotlights reflecting off the dizzy disco balls. As for the crowd… The spunky and unfussy bunch didn’t care much for conversation, who you are or where you come from. All they cared about was their infatuation with the DJ, the music and the dance floor. With Mixtape Mafia up first and then followed by Anna Lunoe, the crowd were pulled backwards and forwards through the decades from the ‘old school’ of the past to the ‘too cool for school’ of the present. Headliner Ajax created an electro massacre, with his victims splattered with sweat after being forced to engage in ecstatic dance moves across the dance floor.

Throughout the night me and my friends were saying to ourselves many times over, “I remember this song”. Imagine if you can, an untouchable compilation of music in your CD collection titled ‘Now and Then’, with all the best tracks from your past and present party shenanigans. Then you’d have an idea of what Sosueme was like on Friday night.