Festivals are always fun for the odd mix of attendees, attire and the chance to catch up with friends from across the scope of musical genres. But one thing I’m noticing of late is the sounds across the rooms are morphing closer together. But on Monday, We Love Sounds hit Adelaide for 2008 with quite a varied lineup and plenty of eager attendees.
Arriving at The Shores a couple of hours after doors had opened, all rooms seemed to be rocking nicely for such an early hour. The VIP room which was available to all for an extra $10 was set up near the entrance and a decent size without sound bleed, first time I had seen that this year. The main room was in its traditional location with Hybrid working behind the decks as a duo rolling out the breaks with somewhat of an atmospheric sound, and a local emcee who was more detracting from than improving the set. Backing off of that was the second larger arena with John Course keeping the mainstream clubbing fans happy, while off in the smallest and fourth room the DnB was rolling. The setup was actually really nice with an outdoor area using large marquees in case of the threatened rain, which itself never arrived. One thing that would of helped were extra toilets, as the toilets in the main room closed due to a problem leaving only one set in the VIP and one outdoors; not a major drama for the guys but ladies seemed to be spending a large portion of their day lined up.
Heading back to the main arena for the main act I had come to see I caught the end of Hybrid’s set, and again the smooth sounds had the dancefloor rocking. After a long winded and over exuberant introduction from that local emcee, who would re-emerge comically to slam along with side of stage all set, Mixmaster Mike took to the decks. Beginning reasonably strongly with some party broken beats and the obligatory Beastie Boys track, this set went rapidly downhill for me. There is a plague getting around turntablists sets at the moment and like the famous bubonic one it is most painful – electro. Yes, Mike slipped into some really mainstream sounding electro, and right then and there lost me. Being a festival though the club kids began dancing harder, some of the fluoro becoming a glowing blur of movement. I persevered with the set but I lost all enthusiasm for it and found myself nit picking some of his mistakes. On the other side of the coin totally was the next set I found myself front and centre for, local boy Staen 1. His signature party set full of classic hip hop and the type of tricks that a three-times Aust DMC champion should have a hundred times more enjoyable to me than that of the international star in Mike; personal tastes I guess. Following on from Staen was Klute who hit hard with dancefloor aimed DnB, definitely the sort of DnB set festivals are made for.
After another outdoors sojourn where we were reminded it was still only dusk, I headed back in torn between whether to check out Dubfire or Princess Superstar, and starting with Dubfire I couldn’t really get into the set. The tunes were quality but I was after something a little more up-tempo at that late stage of the afternoon. So Princess Superstar it was for me, surprisingly finding myself rocking the dancefloor to a large portion of her set, the tracks dancefloor orientated and chunky enough as to not be cheesy. As her set came to a close my legs and body too had reached their limits for the day. The two smaller rooms now closed the masses indoors had the choice between commercial electro house from Grant Smilie and tasty mash up party breaks from A-Skills. A-Skills was definitely the preferred option as I had left my fluoro tee shirt and matching headband at home. His set has been mentioned by many as the set of the day, but again I imagine that opinion is preferred genre defined. As proceedings wound up I headed off into the night like a disappearing into the night at the end of a show type guy.
The over saturation of electro derivatives aside, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. The crowd size was good and there were no real complaints heard from anyone, at least by me. I look forward to seeing what next year’s show has to offer.
traeges says...
it was the most seedy festival i have been to in Adelaide EVER!!! wouldn't ever do a mainly dance festival ever again. agreed very genre defined but man the electro scene in Adelaide is absolutely WRONG TOWN googed out 20 somethings scene stealing and shirt lifting...its winter....LOSERS! ASkillz was awesome end to an average day.