It was the true description of a balmy summer evening in Perth. With the temperature that day almost cracking 40°C, and the night providing little respite with no breeze to speak of and the mercury not dropping below 30°C, everyone knew a sweaty night was in store. With all tickets selling out around a week before, Bourgeois Bogan’s Big Night Out at Shape promised to be perhaps the finest night in the venue’s short but colourful history. With the Big Day Out the next day it was initially unsure whether the gig would be a raging success or not, but with DJ sets from Midnight Juggernauts, Battles and disco-crate diggers LCD Soundsystem, did we honestly think it wasn’t going to be one of the parties of the year?

Arriving at around 11, we were greeted with a moderately long but fast moving line, and we were inside in no time. Arriving straight away to the downstairs dance floor, the atmosphere was buzzing with electro ringing through the speakers and into the eardrums of the awaiting punters who seemed to be enjoying everything that they were getting. At first it was unsure who was actually DJing, as none of the recognizable members of Midnight Juggernauts were in sight behind the decks, this was quickly forgotten when Hold On, the new first single from DFA (*James Murphy’s* record label) outfit Holy Ghost! was dropped and the crowd reacted appropriately. Head Jugger Vincent appeared in the booth and young Travoltas gave the floor everything they had when the brilliantly nu-disco breakdown arrived. Any DJ, scratch that, any person that hasn’t listened to this, buy, steal, watch or somehow get your hands on it, as it surely has to be one of the tracks of the year so far. Immediately following was the Joakim remix of Cut Copy’s 2007 anthem Hearts On Fire, this had one particular young man so excited he felt the need to rip off his t-shirt and swing it around his head like Kevin Sheedy against The Eagles. Mixing it up then with Big Audio Dynamite’s Rush to take it back to the ol’ skool a little and then finishing up with some Justice, and it was time to head up stairs to check out what industrial math rockers Battles were like behind the wheels.

Actually, it was only one Battler playing tonight, ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier, a self confessed hip-hop head who taught himself to DJ while looking for a new band after Helmet broke up. After making it to the top level after a sardine can squeeze up the stairs it was going to be interesting to hear what the skin smasher had in store for the crowd. Floating through some understated electro, some minimal and a little techno, Stanier kept it fresh and interesting without trying to overdo anything and had the crowd moving throughout the dance floor and the bar. It was not surprising not to have recognised any of the tracks he played, but as I was half expecting some sort of metal to be interspersed with other heavy noises, it was very impressing to see him work the dance floor in the manner he did.

The squeeze to get up half an hour before though was all about one man, well two men if you want to get picky, maybe one band, that’s better. LCD Soundsystem’s Sound Of Silver was on a lot of people’s ‘Best of 2007’ lists, and for good reason. James Murphy’s songwriting has improved and his musical talents have diversified to bring us classics like All My Friends and Someone Great. He and fellow LCD member Pat Mahoney also did a mix compilation for the well known FabricLive series which showcased their love of obscure disco, and has been received well by fans and critics alike. So when the first hi-hat started to tick from the speakers everyone in the house was looking forward to enjoying some good old fashioned disco. It honestly did fell like you were being transported back to Studio 54 in its heyday, just without the afros, platforms and flashing lit up dance floor.

The music was superb: playful bass lines, silky synths and lots of handclaps with a cowbell or twelve thrown in for good measure. It did have some similarities with his Fabric release but it didn’t matter, the crowd wanted to get down and get down they did. Murphy and Mahoney alternated on the decks but frequently fiddled with knobs and faders while the other was working the turntable. And that was a proper turntable, with needles, with no CDJs or laptops in sight. There would have definitely been something amiss if he had whipped out a CD wallet and gone to work on the CDJ1000s! They both seem to be having a lot of fun behind the decks, even though Mahoney looked like he had been recruited from the local homeless shelter for the evening. They were both sharp on the mixes and one particularly silly or knowledgeable punter went to Murphy to request a song – maybe something by the Potbelleez, I’m not sure. Mahoney then took control for a while and went down a bit of a minimal path for a period which led to the thinning of the dance floor for a while, with the crowd not responding as he would have liked. Murphy then returned and started closing things out with the second playing of Hold On by Holy Ghost! and returned to the disco which led to a renaissance of dancers.

Leaving the building drenched in sweat and with huge smiles on everyone’s faces, this would not be an evening soon forgotten as one of the truly individual figures in music today. 2008 could truly be the year of DFA with many more releases due for this year and it was made all even better that we would be getting to see them again at the Big Day Out the next day.