So it’s been a hard day’s work out at Parklife for everybody. I can only imagine how tough it would have been with all that sun, music, crowd and fun times… And you manage to crawl, bounce, roll or at least somehow make your way to the Hordern Pavilion to step into the Afterlife. And with a stellar line up of The Sounds, MSTRKRFT, Digitilism along with the Ed Banger crazies Busy P and Justice going back to back, it’s sure not a bad life to be continuing onto.

Bank holiday weekends are every promoters dream, and Sunday 30th September had fierce fierce competition with the likes of big daddy Godskitchen at Home and the Mad Classic Fuss extravaganza a the Metro Theatre. But the Hordern opened its doors to a fair few festival revellers along with fresh partyheads who were keen for some fine dance music set to keep the day rolling along nicely…

Justice! JUS-TEEEEECE!!

My friend once described them as a “religious experience”. Whether he was referring to the psychotic flashing cross or their exceptional ability of being able to get right to your dancing heart, either way they are a must see for all live dance fans. I can only imagine their performance earlier in the day at Parklife (don’t even BEGIN to start on me why I couldn’t make it), but I was more than happy to get fully involved with Afterlife. But while there was much post-festival fun to be had, and you could never complain about the musical ability of anyone involved with the evening, in this case we weren’t witness to another life-changing performance from Justice. And there were probably a few other DJs present who didn’t quite deliver their all-time best either. Understandably they were probably tired wee fellas, and it’s possible the crowd were feeling a little worn out as well. The Hordern with its scale and system needs a crowd so keen that sweat drips from the ceiling, and though we danced and made new best friends (a standard part of any night out) and there was touches of brilliance (_Waters of Nazareth_ will never pass quietly), there was no frenzied crowd holding each other in fits of happiness (but hey, mabye that’s just a Scottish thing and I’m new around these parts after all).

Outside there was that great gathering of post-festival activity: people taking a little time out. But personally, of course there was little I could do but keep myself inside and dance. And while it was exciting to see the Afterlife stage and masive setup, I hadn’t experienced the hours and hours of big stages and massive acts that nearly everybody else had so I was going to make the most of every last minute. As the evening moved on the vibe did build up nicely, and the talented French duo showed us all their sense of humour with Build Me Up Butter Cup and Getting Jiggy With It playing out at the very end. It might bring to mind images of a wedding disco, but no, it was just the twisted end of a very long day.

All in all, Afterlife made for a fun continuation of the long weekend shenanigans for those who had been at Parklife and for others like me, it was a fun night in and of itself. Maybe it wasn’t on the same level of utter carnage that a lot of the punters had witnessed earlier in the day at Moore Park but hey, maybe that would of been asking for a little too much anyway.