inthemix | Event Coverage | Bread & Butter Feat. Will Saul & Steve Sole @ Lady Lux, Sydney (14/03/08)

Bread & Butter is one of those nights that just is. There’s no fancy artwork, no media hype, no “look at us we’re awesome” attitude. There’s just good music, a good crowd, and it’s held at a good club. And really, what more do you need for a top night out? Internationals? Alright then, have Will Saul and Steve Sole. Solid local resident DJs? Check (i’m talking John Devecchis and Garry Todd in case you were wondering). Sadly however the night is coming to an end, and last week’s event was the final night out for faithful followers and part-time attendees alike.

I arrived as Garry Todd and John Devecchis were sharing the decks for the warm-up set, with Steve Sole eventually joining the pair for a three-way musical love-in that ended up lasting till nearly 2 AM. Taking in all manner of quality sounds from the broad spectrum of house, the set meandered its way through deep, techy grooves, bouncy tech house, mind-bending acid, and solid funk work outs, including the very appropriately titled Funkworm by Stimming, which was followed by a new Tigerskin release. As 2AM approached and Will Saul purposefully flicked through his CD wallet, John, Steve and Garry slowly pulled the intensity back, giving the crowd a chance for a breather and leaving Saul plenty of room to take his set where he pleased. It was a perfect warm-up set in this reviewer’s opinion, but really, with John Devecchis, Garry Todd and Steve Sole in control, would you expect anything else?

As the Simple Records and Aus head honcho cued up his first track, I thought to myself “I hope I haven’t hyped this up too much in my mind”. I hadn’t. I could say his set was 10/10 and leave it at that, but then it wouldn’t be much of a review, and it wouldn’t do Saul any justice either. Continuing the trend set by Devecchis, Todd and Sole, Will worked his way through a variety of sounds, linking them all together with an impressive display of intelligent set programming. Oh and his mixing was great too. It’s a sad fact, but many well known producers can’t DJ to save themselves, and vice versa, but Mr. Saul is one of the rare breed who do both brilliantly. God, do I sound like a fanboy yet? However it really was a flawless performance. In fact, it was the kind of set that, as a DJ first and punter second, inspires me to keep DJing and believe that Sydney clubbers can appreciate intelligent, intricate music.

In his first hour the selections catered more to those who like their music deeper, taking in elements of deep house, minimal, techno and funk. The extremely awesome Sebo K remix of Radio Slave’s Bell Clap Dance and Joris Voorn’s positively beautiful Blank were early highlights, with both tracks igniting the dancefloor. As his second hour approached, the music got a little tougher and, in parts, darker. Building a steady groove that peaked around 3:30AM, Saul brought it home in style with quality techno, acid and warm melodic tech, including a few of my personal favourites such as Far Out by Sebo K, Gui Boratto’s excellent remix of Saul’s own Sequential Circus, the oh-so-Detroit Motorcitysoul remix of Manoeuvres by Dirt Crew and Marc Houle’s tongue-in-cheek monster Techno Vocals.

To finish off the night Will was joined by John Devecchis and Garry Todd, and the three went track-for-track until the early hours of the morning, dropping plenty of tunes that have musically defined Bread & Butter over the last year-and-a-bit, including Martin Buttrich’s clever breaks reworking of City Lights by Loco Dice, Mr Decay (Robert Babicz Mix) by Gui Boratto and the menacing Konrad Black remix of Sequential Circus.

In many ways it’s sad that Bread & Butter is ending. John Devecchis and Garry Todd put a lot of time and effort in to their night, and it was one of the few parties in Sydney where you were guaranteed to hear high quality underground music every week, and that guarantee wasn’t just the promoters verbally fellating themselves, it was true. But on the bright side, if a night with a complete no-nonsense, no-frills attitude to clubbing can do as well as Bread & Butter has, there’s plenty of hope for Sydney yet.