I went to see Pang! pres. Busy P and DJ Mehdi at Minque with expectation of mayhem that usually comes with parties from the Ed Banger crew. The last two Ed Banger artists I’ve seen – Mr Oizo at Warehouse in 2008 and Justice & Busy P at Academy in 2007 – blew my mind. They’ve been some of the most chaotic and energetic sets I’ve experienced. These expectations were not completely fulfilled, unfortunately, but I certainly came away from the night more than satisfied.

The party started nice and early on the Sunday evening and the crowd slowly trickled in. The smaller capacity venue, Minque, was not jammed like the last Academy gig, but there was a reasonable crowd in attendance all anticipating the headliners. The venue is nice, with outdoor seating a plus, but the layout would be problematic if there were anymore people. This was the first time Pang! had put on a Sunday event at Minque. Beni, best known as one half of Riot in Belgium, played a solid warm-up, but curiously the track that RIB are best known for – La Musique – was not dropped until midway through Busy P and Medhi’s set.

The headliners played together for a marathon three hours. Their set included a lot of mainstream crowd pleasers, such as Federico Franchi’s Cream, Robin S vs Steve Angello & Laidback Luke – Show Me Love vs Be, Lil Wayne’s A Millie and Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic. There were some surprises, like Aphex Twin and Booka Shade – Body Language which went down a treat. A few tracks off Mr Oizo’s new album Lambs Anger got spin time as well. There were definitely moments of mayhem when tracks such as the Soulwax remixes of The Gossip – Standing In The Way of Control, MGMT – Kids and Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl were smoothly mixed in.

Now to the not so good parts… There were elements of the headline set that didn’t come across as very fluent. For example, around 3am Busy P was pushing some more funky sounds and DJ Mehdi came on and did a sloppy transition into the Crookers remix of Salmon Dance. It was surprising considering how much the track was thrashed last summer, but I guess the reason Mehdi did this was understandable. The crowd was losing energy as the night wore on, and many realised they had work in only six hours time!

The gig may not have met the expectations of Ed Banger enthusiasts given the intensity of previous parties by artists on the label. A lot of punters mainly knew of Busy P from the Crookers remix of To Protect and Entertain, rather than for his role as head honcho of Ed Banger; one of the most influential dance music labels in recent years. It is understandable why Busy P and Mehdi were less adventurous in their set as quite a few punters seemed sensitive to any music they had not heard before. This was reflected in the diversity of music played in the set.

Some people I was with had not had much exposure to dance gigs and they described the party as their best night out ever. Even though the energy and intensity of the set was not what I expected, this show proved that anyone in the Ed Banger posse can put on a crowd pleasing party. Pang! have been bringing huge acts to Canberra lately, like Crookers and Booka Shade. They really are shaking up the Canberra scene, also bringing lesser known acts to town. I’m looking forward to Nic Fanciulli, Paul Woolford and Kaskade over the coming weeks!