237 Hay Street East Perth has had a mixed heritage as Big Apple, Up Bar and now Perth’s premiere party crew Bourgeois Bogan have taken up residency at what ahs become Shape Nightclub. Shape is being advertised as “The only club run 100% by young artists, producers and music fanatics and will play music ranging from indie rock to proto punk to acid house.” Set up as three distinct areas, with a large front room with a DJ booth but no stage and some tables, lounges and comfy chairs for people wanting to relax. Keep walking and you arrive outside to the beer garden or ‘outside area’, which has a centerpiece of an enormous palm tree, and is flanked by two large gazebos on either side and has space for people to smoke and chat away from the loud music. Lastly, take the stairs up to the second level and you will find the largest area of the three, with a stage for bands with a dance floor and DJ decks across the other side of the room for the big name vinyl spinners. Each area has its own self contained bar and by the time I arrived, each one was getting fuller by the minute.

Arriving at around 10:30, it was surprising to see the large line snaking out the front of Shape and upon getting inside it seemed a little strange as it was relatively quiet inside. I suppose its just one of those promoters tricks, especially at a nightclub opening night, to keep the line long to grab the attention of passers by who would ponder “WOW! Look at the line at that place, it must be really good inside.” On arrival to the outside area, the smell of a barbecue was unmistakably wafting through the air, and the atmosphere was relaxed and casual. Free food for the punters is always a good idea and as informal waiters were handing around a smorgasbord of BBQ delights, the night got off to a great start.

The downstairs room was relatively quiet at this stage with Rex Monsoon playing some electro goodies like Goose’s Black Gloves and getting people up off the couches to get their boogie on. Moving upstairs on the cozy staircase to check out the band room and was somewhat surprised to hear the distinctive sounds of some punk blearing across the stacks. Ichi The Killer were hard at work smashing out their own brand of screamo-punk to younger fans getting loose on the dance floor.

Club openings are a funny thing. People often like to attend because they feel like they are being a part of history that they can add to their collection of cultural capital: “Yeah, I was at the launch of Shape”, you can say just in case it burnt down that next day. Or maybe you could be so desperate to get into such an opening that you attempt, as one young man did, to scale the roof and attempt to lower himself as Bjork puts it, “Oh so quiet”, but to his annoyance be was pounced on by a man in a business shirt and tie. This brave individual could now perhaps also be able to make the claim, “Yeah, I was the first person to be kicked out of Shape.” A noble achievement indeed, but perhaps more puzzling was what a man in a business shirt and tie was doing kicking someone out of a “club run 100% by young artists, producers and music fanatics”, and this man certainly did not fall into any of those categories. But more to that later. But more to that later.

Back to the dance floor downstairs Teknotron was on the wheels and had the room heaving with his electro and house bangers, and it was nice to see a DJ playing on nothing but vinyl. The crowd was lapping it up, with girls in hot pants dancing on tables in a way that made you feel like you were in a hip hop video. The crowd was a very mixed one, with people from all age groups making an appearance. There was the usual young fleuro crowd, punks with proper mohawks upstairs (that’s the proper foot high, dyed red mohawks, not David Beckham metro mohawks). There were a few after-workers, and some older gangster looking types as well and the vibe was a very positive one flowing throughout.

The venue did have some teething problems, that started with what seemed to be overcrowding at about midnight as the line outside was still rather large. You didn’t seem to be able to find many places to stand, especially outside, without people bumping you when walking past and the persistent fluidity of the crowd really highlighted how many people were inside. Another problem stemming from the overcrowding was that even with an entry stamp, people were not able to exit the venue and return again later. Now this may not have sounded like a drastic measure, but when the ATM inside is not going to be installed until the next night and there are no EFTPOS facilities on site, it really does make it very frustrating if one happens to run out of money. When ITM tried their best to persuade the door people to let them out to gain access to more money to put over the bar, we were informed that there was no way it was going to happen due to the now multiple men in suits and ties with clipboards who definitely weren’t wearing their happy faces. Perhaps it had something to do with the Bourgeois Bogan association with Artrage (which gives them access to The Bakery) that may have been tightening the screws in regards to regulations.

Anyway back to the music, it was back to check out some good ol’ rock ‘n roll from Sabre Tooth Tigers upstairs, who had some impressive instrument hopping going on. Then staying upstairs we were introduced to the first international of the night, Alex from Chicks On Speed. With only an hour on the decks, this Aussie-come-Berliner was quick to get things moving with her eclectic brand of electro-pop that the moderately sized crowd seemed to appreciate. Downstairs, local DJ Select had unfortunately had the volume of his set cut by about a third an this reflected on the crowd in the room thinning out and missing his mash-up set that dropped some electro mixed with some Rage Against The Machine and hip hop classic Gravel Pit by Wu-Tang Clan. By the time headliner Vicarious Bliss arrived on the decks at just after 1:30, Shape had unfortunately lost many of its partygoers.

With most of the Ed Banger stable now having graced our sun-drenched shores, perhaps the now famed and mysterious label has lost some of its pulling power and fan devotion as the eclectic and polished set delivered by Bliss went unnoticed to many of the evenings patrons, which was a shame as it really was a quality set of acoustic tinged electro, seamlessly mixed and very danceable. It didn’t try to emulate the chainsaw electro of some of the other acts of the Ed Banger roster which was very refreshing as that sound has been done to death around the clubs of Perth.

It will be interesting to see if Shape can stay the distance in its East Perth location and if the bumper crowd of the opening can be repeated in coming weeks. With acts like New York’s Matt and Kim and DJ sets from LCD Soundsystem coming in the future, it seems this venue may come to Shape the Perth live club scene for many more moons to come.