The night started as most of them do – predrinks and a bistro feast at a pub to get me in the mood for some late night debauchery. And that’s what exactly was required on this first cold night of the year – jackets were out of the cupboard for this Friday night in the city! Arriving at The Cross, we quickly scurried inside out of the cold to find a half-filled room of expectant clubbers bopping a bit, and soon found a nice corner to chat in. I really like The Cross as a venue, it’s one of the better Sydney venues – nice and roomy, places to sit and more than one well stocked bar! It’s got a great vibe and I’ve seen some great acts in this space, including Hernan Cattaneo, Lexicon Avenue, Laurent Garnier and Anthony Pappa to name but a few. And Friday night it was none other than Ben Watt!
We got into The Cross in time to see Telefunken wrapping it up and the start of the Sounds lads Declan Lee and Ben Korbel, banging it out in the main room. Both these guys are well known in Sydney circles, not just for their business savvy ways but also for their approachability, the amazing collection of music they play and for the fantastic events they put on. They are a great asset to Sydney clubbing and seeing them do the warmup set for a well known DJ like Ben Watt proves this point perfectly.
When Buzzin Fly records frontman Ben Watt came on, the crowd was primed for the show. Notable tracks (thanks forum ITMers for the tunespotting!) include Mushrooms (Justin Martin remix) by Marshall Jefferson, Kayot Clear Skies (Manoo & Francois A mix) and one of my favourite tracks going around at the moment, Poxy Music’s Warpaint (Claude von Stroke remix). Its such a massive track that builds and draws you into the moment, and is a definite hit track of 2008.
Ben Watt plays really beautiful music, and i I believe he’s one of those DJs who you’d be able to rock up to the gig not really knowing who he was, and still be quite impressed by what you were hearing. He’s not one of those ‘difficult’ DJs who can intimidate and alienate you from their music, but i guess that might comes from his former musical existence as one half of Everything but the Girl. But unfortunately, there seemed to be some lack of flow going on in the set on this occassion. Absolutely smashing tracks were followed by lower key chilled-out ones, which made you feel like the set kept stalling.
We wandered into the side room for some Minimal Fuss DJ action, and those chaps were killing it. Every time i have seen this crew (and there always seems to be more than 2 of them) behind the decks, I am so entertained and excited by the hyped up way they love to play, and the massive grins they get on their faces after each mix. It’s such a great change from the usual ‘stand still and be all serious’ style of DJing that seems to have taken over the scene. When a DJ is having fun, the crowd really picks up on it and has fun too – no matter if there are 10 or 100 people watching. The Minimal Fuss DJs have quite a following here in Sydney, and deservedly so. They consistently play great music to the more underground club goers who shamelessly guard their gigs as their own secret.
After a bit of switching between rooms, we decided that the call of a ‘New York Slice’ of pizza was too great, and we stumbled down those long long stairs and out into the glory of Kings Cross to feed our hungry mouths and head home… When we eventually got a cab!
