I rocked up to Lot33 soon after 11 pm to be confronted by the biggest line I had ever seen there. The Crookers caused a phenomenal amount of hype through out Canberra these past few weeks and the energy outside Lot33 was palpable. Tickets had sold out to this event early in November and despite the warnings that only a few tickets would be available on the door, the punters appeared in throngs.

Some had been waiting outside, on a surprisingly cold Canberra night, for over two hours. One guy I spoke too made the fatal error of leaving the club for a smoke break and not being able to renter for nearly three hours. Yes, this event was set to be that huge!

To add to the wait, 150 tickets were stolen out of one of the promoters’ cars early Saturday morning. These tickets were spares and not a part of what was sold for the club to reach capacity. As a result of these tickets being either resold or given to friends the event now had more tickets available than Lot33 could accommodate. Pang! has apologised profusely for this and has offered a refund to those who were unable to gain access, and their letter of apology is attached to the end of this article.

The Crookers (AKA DJs Bot and Phra) arrived around midnight to a massive cheer from the still waiting crowd, honestly I am surprised they weren’t mobbed…Though the extra tough security on that night may have had something to do with it. Now I don’t usually gloat, but I had been stuck outside for over an hour and as the Crookers rocked up with Pang! (the promoters) I got to skip the line and head in with them! The best perk of the job ever.

So with myself inside I (finally) got to scope the place out and hear more than just the thumping beat, teasing me to enter. Considering the line outside, Lot33 was not as packed as I was expecting. I was then reminded of liquor license’s presence at the front door, with counter included, from 8:30pm through to 5am ensuring Lot33 were on the mark with capacity. This deterred many punters from having the usual cigarette break and stilted the usual club flow of punters heading in and out.

Regardless of the space at the bar and the few empty seats around the room the dance floor was packed and Will Styles was spinning some wicked electro house, funk, breaks and hip hop beats and a lot of mash ups. It was agreed to be the perfect warm up set for Crookers. When the headliners finally took to the stage, everybody knew about it. Not only did the roar from the dance floor give it away but the style changed completely. The Crookers loved the long intro’s all night; either switching up the beat, letting it hang in the air or dropping it suddenly. No matter how they played it you knew it was them and they were loving every second of it.

These boys have immense technical skills, often creating noise and sounds that reverberated through only one speaker at a time, but at such a rapid pace it was impossible to tell where the noise was coming from. Another individual tactic they used was between tracks they would fill the club with noise, not necessarily static, just sound. Very cool to begin with, but honestly it was almost painful towards the end of their set.

They belted out their usual house with serious hip hop undertones, remixing the likes of Funk Soul Brother with a heavy and dirty bass and the synth was out in force. Their famed hip hop base flavoured the night with an awesome remix of 99 Problems by Jay Z – one of my favourite tracks. They mixed it up and pumped out some dirty electro rock with some mind blowing electro-synth guitars.

The crowd was flat out loving it and so were the boys, evident by them overplaying their set by a solid hour. The Crookers did not want to leave the stage and believe me it was mutual! Just over halfway through their set they dropped the tracks many had been waiting for in quick succession, my favourites were Kid Cudi’s Day n Night and ACDC’s Thunderstruck.

Another facet of their set that had everybody smiling was they way in which they played with the infamous ‘Wow’ for the Salmon Dance. They would drop the line for a few songs both before and after they dropped the entire track, keeping the crowd begging for more and trying to anticipate the next track, only to say ‘nah nah ne nah nah, we tricked you!’

They were the best act I’ve seen in a long, long time and I cannot wait to encounter another group with their talent again. When the boys finally did make it off stage they left a big hole for Will Styles to fill. What sort of music do you even play after a set as diverse not to mention as good as the Crookers? Straight electro? No deal. Big house? Nope. Will managed to tap right into the crowd vibe and go nuts with pure party tunes that ranged in style from old school hip hop to funk to drum and bass.

I thought the majority of the crowd would have bailed after the headline act wrapped up, but all Will had to do was lay down a solid opening and it reeled the punters back from the front door. Will left the stage but was called back for one hell of an encore with Praise You and then the Lot33 house lights were turned on as the sun began to lighten the sky.

Every one left Lot with a massive smile on their face and it was one of the best nights I have ever had out. Hats off the Crookers, Pang! and the support DJs for a legendary night. Their next party hits Canberra on December 5th and features Two Fresh, the collaboration between brothers Jesse and Myles Desenberg (AKA Kid Kenobi and Hugga Thugg.It’s set to be another wild night at Lot33, so see you there.

For those who feel they may have been left in the lurch, check out this letter from the Pang! team…

Dear all,

As you are all now aware, the organisation for the Crookers party was certainly not up to our usual high standard. First of all, let me assure you that this was not due to overselling the event, this is not something we would do as the limited capacity of Lot33 is well known. The overcrowding problem was mostly due to the fact that my jeep was broken in to earlier this week and about 150 leftover tickets were stolen, among other things. As it was close to the date and as there was no way to identify these stolen tickets from the ones that had been legitimately sold, we decided to go ahead with the existing tickets.

This turned out to be the wrong decision on my part as whoever stole the tickets from my jeep either sold them on and/or handed them out to friends. This took the party way over capacity. Please accept our humblest apologies and rest assured we will be doing everything in our power to ensure that this will never happen again at a Pang! party. Actions we will be taking will include:

1. Serial numbers for all tickets so we can easily invalidate blocks of tickets for whatever reason.
2. Only printing the exact number of tickets that will be sold. In the past we had printed, but not sold, more tickets than were required to ensure we had spares. This practice will not continue.

We will be offering full refunds and free entry to the next Pang! party @ Lot33 (Friday December 5th feat TWO FRESH) for all ticket holders who weren’t able to get in on the night. This reply has come slightly late as I am trying to arrange a special drinks package with Lot33 also. There will be more information on this closer to the date. Please get in touch with me to organise your refund or alternatively just bring your unused Crookers ticket to the next Pang! party.

Once again we do sincerely apologise for the Crookers debacle. Despite this setback we do hope you will continue to support us.

Kindest Regards,
Hubert & The Pang! Team