A balmy summer night it was not, but that didn’t stop the crowds from coming out en masse to partake in another legendary F*ck Off party at Ocean Blue. The breeze from the bay demanded jackets and/or copious amounts of alcohol for the determined smokers on deck, but weather notwithstanding, there was still more than enough skin on show to please the men on board. Skimpily attired young ladies comprised the majority of those in attendance, interspersed with the requisite quota of muscle-bound boys – sorry, men.

Half-price drinks were the order of the day until 11pm, and it no doubt helped to warm up the crowd, along with the ever-reliable Mark John. Dirty Laundry were the first headline act to take to the decks, and they delivered the sort of cracking live set that has helped make them stand out from so many mere knob twiddlers. Lead vocalists Lee Lee and Pete Hypes are strong, sexy and born crowd-pleasers. Combined with MC Mathew Charles and a heady sax/percussion backing, these guys know how to party. Funked-up versions of The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army and Silverchair’s Straight Lines were delivered with trademark pizzazz and a healthy dose of crowd interaction – that vital element so sadly lacking from sets today.

Melbourne club scene stalwart Grant Smillie followed with what was ultimately a made-for-Onelove-mix, but if it ain’t broke, I guess there’s no need to fix it! Clubbed-to-death numbers like Deadmau5’s remix of Morgan Page’s The Longest Road were balanced out with classics like Metro Area’s blippy Miura, Daft Punk’s cheesy but breezy One More Time and recent local honey to the ears, Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun. Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game made a cameo in dance format – surprisingly digestible.

Then it was time for those cooler-than-cool Sydney kids to shake things up a bit. Two of the Bang Gang members, Gus da Hoodrat and Jaime Doom, took it up a notch with some dirty indie disco that might have been a little incongruous with the previous acts. There was a distinct lack of the skinny-leg Ksubi-jean wearing hipsters usually synonymous with the Modular posse, but banging (pardon the pun) tracks like their mix of The Presets’ Kicking and Screaming, samples of Eric Prydz’s Rakfunk and an indiscernible Boys Noize medley were welcomed by those still kicking past 3am.

In need of an energy boost, I headed back to the bar and got a rude shock when my Jagerbomb set me back $15. A virgin to the J-bomb until that night, I thought that a trusty Smirnoff black might be a more affordable option, but at $12 a pop I’d blown the budget after three drinks. I’d advise future Ocean Blue attendees to arrive early and stock up while the going’s good. Exorbitant bar prices aside, it was a well-run party, and the cozy venue just the right size to hold the 200-odd guests. Another successful evening for the Public Liability crew.