The Friday before a long weekend is always one of my faves… it’s the extra recovery day that really does it for me. To see a ‘local’ in a great little club (we’ll claim him as our own, just like like Russell Crowe), and when that local happens to be “big” Carl Cox, you’re on a winner.

This year’s event, like the two before it, was held at Billboard, arguably one of the best small-scale clubs in Melbourne. Whilst the dancefloor isn’t massive, the décor not that fancy, the sound was sweet, the crowd was pumped and you can see what is going on at the booth from anywhere in the venue. It wasn’t packed to the rafters, but comfortably ‘sold out’. It worked.

Former hard house maestro Jon Rundell, quoted by many as being “Carl’s protégé”, was front of house as we entered. Jon is a skilled mixer, but the first half of his set was unexciting – the minimal side of techno and house, very tribal but really not a whole lot of depth and variation. With everyone telling me he was “just like Cox” a long night ahead worried me…

….then he found the “shake yer booty” button and the sound fattened up, Jon got all animated and the crowd reacted beautifully. Top stuff. I turned around from being pretty bored to being pretty interested, having a cool little boogie and when he finished, I joined in with the crowd to share warm appreciation.

The crowd was a real mix. With Carl fresh from his Australian tour with Stereosonic, it would be a fair guess that the “161” and “South Yarra” crowd are now the newest Carl Cox fans, coz all the pretty girls in their high heels and slinky dresses and chaperones were there, as well as a smattering of die hard fans, doofers and old farts like me who wanted to see a real international hero.

The first 2 minutes of Carl’s set defined everything about the man, his music and his incredible ability to read, interact with and play to a crowd. With a hint of Emerson Lake & Palmer in the background, Carl reminded us this was his third year back, asked “are you ready Melbourne”, followed by “that’s not loud enough” and some more “are you ready Melbourne” and we roared in approval and the first track of 4 hours of the big man began.

From the get go, his sound was epic, large scale, grand and mixed with surgical precision. He can move. Last time I saw Carl was NYD at The Docks 2007, which entertained, but this set held so much more depth. From Chemical Brothers classic Hey boy, Hey Girl to his new stuff, variation, intricate and complex timing and layers and layers of sound defined one of the best sets I have heard for a couple of years, and Carl aint even my fave DJ.

The secret? He reads the crowd all night, he talked to us, he asked us what we wanted and he gave it and we loved it. He is confident, but no trace of ego up front. The bass at Billboards was pretty phat, but Carl dropped some deep bass lines more attuned to a psytrance set, bringing forth that visceral, animal intensity from the crowd that is part of an epic night out.

About 90 minutes in he announced he was dropping some brand new tunes and the crowd collectively went off. His “new” sound certainly wasn’t trance, but it had the multiple layers and complexity that comes with a trance classic, whilst still maintaining a really phat techo beat. Awesome. This set certainly had a real techo undercurrent. Looking forward to some new releases.

Whilst I didn’t manage the duration of the set, he apparently stayed on until 5:30 am – for the $30 or $40 most people paid, that’s gold baby, gold, even if it does come from Frankston! Melbournians are lucky to consider Carl one of our own, having a true international super star play in a medium size venue is the perfect way to start celebrating your Australia Day Weekend.