CHANGE CITY :
Last Saturday the unstoppable combo of Future Entertainment and the Sweetchilli crew teamed up together over the Anzac long weekend to deliver another epic evening, absolutely packed full of quality international talent. The insanely good line-up was spread across three rooms at Home Nightclub, including the much loved Terrace level that stayed open until about 9am. That’s right, Livewire returned to Home this year for a massive night of tech, minimal and progressive house action. This year the stunning array of international headliners on board featured the dastardly duo of Michael Mayer and Superpitcher AKA Supermayer, along with Sweetchilli favourite Paolo Mojo, Abe Duque and Petter from James Holden’s notorious Border Community label. The night also includes the best in local talent including Tim Culbert, Jimi Polar, Mark Murphy, Robbie Lowe and Carlos Zarate.
Arriving at Home, the weather was ominous with the cold moving in for the winter months ahead. After moving through the short line we made it inside to hear the end of Tim Culbert’s set in the main room. Tim was laying down some quality deep and groovy progressive and tech warming up the loose crowd nicely. At 11:30pm Petter stepped up to serve up the first spicy international dish of the night. He played a lot more driving and tougher than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise and was lapped up by the people on the dance floor. Petter seemed to steer away from the trippy and eclectic tunes he is known for, and played some huge tracks that got a nice driving vibe going in the main room. In the last hour Petter really belted it home laying down some mad tech and tripped out funky driving tech powered by some of the grooviest bass lines I have heard in a while. Throughout the set there was a good amount of deep melodic tunes thrown in as well, and his mixing was tight so all round he delivered a great set with nothing but pure class.
Next up one of the more talked about names playing on the night was Abe Duque who was playing a one and a half hour live set. The setup included his laptop, a number of samplers and some effects units. The real unique part of the set was his own brand of evil vocoded MCing thrown over the top of the tight acid house beats. During the set the sound was quite maxed out, but his tracks had a tough driving feel with crunchy hi hats and solid bass grooves destroying the main room throughout the hour and a half performance. In my opinion there was overuse of the mic, as he constantly belted out dark lyrics and egging on the crowd with taunts of “I’m gonna show you how it’s done in New York City,” and “Acid house”. Overall though I was quite impressed with the sounds, huge build-ups and general manic feel of the set.
Due to the sheer amount of internationals on offer, on we moved around the club a fair bit to check out what was happening in the other rooms. Up in the terrace area a heap of people were chilling in the outdoor area and the lads from Supermayer were really carving up the room. The Terrace was consistently packed all night, and it was no wonder. The guys were playing a great selection of tunes ranging from funky, deep, techno, minimal and eclectic. The tracks were mostly played from vinyl which is almost a complete exception these days. In the Icon room the music was also groovy and obviously quite sexual, as it inspired one particularly loved up couple in the back corner of the room to get down and get dirty. Back downstairs in the main room Paulo Mojo was stepping up to the decks, and he kicked off his set with some pretty thumping main room tunes continuing on the dark and driving vibe that seemed to be the theme of the night. The set was also quite tough with crazy build ups and super tight mixing throughout. This developed into an awesome rolling techno vibe later in the set. However despite how good this room was, the atmosphere was all happening upstairs and it was hard to stay away from the Terrace for too long.
Overall, it was a top night of quality tunes delivered by some massive international guests for a majority of the evening. Home was far from packed which was a bit disappointing considering it was one of the bigger long weekend events, but the positive was there was plenty of room to dance and move around. Production was excellent with lighting, lasers and decorations all top class. The party was operating on extended hours, with action kicking through to the late morning on the Terrace where anyone left standing would be free to let loose on the open decks. Unfortunately we weren’t feeling up to the task, but heard the party kicked on until 9am, with the sunrise hitting the terrace as the DJs kept on delivering huge tracks throughout the morning. See you at the next one!
