Even before he had come and gone, Boys Noize’s previous visit to Empire was hailed as one of the events no dance music lover should miss in 2009. And it was only January! On the advertising proclaiming his return it was noted that “Boys Noize is back at Empire. Mayhem and madness is set to run amok…so dose up on the vegemite – you’re sure as hell going to need your vitamins”. Big claim, I thought. However, the general consensus around town was overwhelming: it was going to be a night to remember.

I had seen Alex play earlier in the month at Summafieldayze. Whilst I thought he played a solid set, on the day I remember thinking that he would have been better suited to the more intimate surrounds of a club, where the crowd would be able to appreciate his unique brand of ‘electro bang’ far more than in the airy atmosphere offered by a festival. Therefore, it seemed perfect that Boys Noize would feature once more at Empire.

Upon strolling into Empire I received my first indication that all the hype was true when I was told by the door girl the gig was sold out. Although the club was almost dead at this early stage, it didn’t take long for the patrons to start filing in. Seanny had a decent sized crowd bouncing along to some slightly more commercial electro-house tunes. Crowd pleasers included Wolfgang Gartner’s Clap, Deadmau5’s Hi Friend and Fake Blood’s Mars mixed into Stardust’s Music Sounds Better. With Tittsworth and Boyz Noize known for a thicker and more upbeat brand of electro/tech, I thought the crowd would have been dominated by young males. However, to my surprise there was a good balance of punters from all ages, sexes and – as always at Empire – a great variety of cool and edgy styles.

When Tittsworth hit the decks the place was packed with a fantastic vibe. Everyone seemed to be in the mood to party. Tittsworth opened up his account with Diplo’s Wassup Wassup (Crookers Remix) and everyone did just that. The energy in the club was taken up a notch and Tittsworth quickly settled into the Baltimore club influenced rhythm that he has become renowned for, pushing his unique blends of hip-hop infused beats upon the thriving masses. Not afraid to stray from the hip hop influence, however, Tittsworth had the crowd singing along with their hands in the air to Frank Sinatra’s classic track New York New York, Bart B More’s Finally and Paul Johnson’s Get Get Down (Laidback Luke Remix).

Tittsworth’s great musical taste were complimented nicely by his brief, but periodic, stints on the mic, which only served to whip the crowd into an even greater frenzy. Keen to get up close and see the man work, I very slowly made my way to the DJ booth through a dancefloor seemingly at breaking, melting and saturation point – all at the same time. I could only withstand the onslaught for a couple of minutes – just long enough to see a baseball cap clad Tittsworth give Serato, the Pioneer mixer and the entire Empire sound system a thorough work out. Despite the punishing volumes, the system was coping well.

Taking over from Tittsworth, Boys Noize started off a bit slower than I thought he would. The crowd was now well and truly at breaking point, but somehow even more people had packed into middle bar, causing security guards to retreat to higher vantage points – standing on top of tables and chairs! Still, it was so busy I can’t imagine this would have made much difference. What was to follow was 168 minutes of sweaty, bouncing, thumping, dirty, grinding, sense dulling, utterly exhausting, mind altering, goodness – the likes of which I had never experienced before.

Words can’t accurately reflect how much energy was in the club. You simply had to be there. Throughout his whole set there was a wall of people about three deep pressed up to the front of the DJ booth. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get close enough to see what he was operating with. In the end I had to take the word of one of the lighting guys who told me that he was just using the industry standard of Pioneer CDJ 1000s.

Popular tunes included his original Oh!, Fatboy Slim’s Rockafella Skank, N.E.R.D’s Everyone Nose, Technotronic’s Pump Up the Jam, Felix da Housecat’s Silver Screen, High Powered Boys’ Hoes Get Down, Justice vs. Simian We Are Your Friends, Justice’s Phantom Part II (Boys Noize Remix) and Feist’s My Moon My Man (Boys Noize Remix). Perhaps the highlight of the night, for me at least, came when he dropped a remix of The Ghostbusters theme song. The crowd was bouncing so hard that I literally felt floorboards bending under the weight as everyone landed in unison. Almost simultaneously, one dedicated fan produced a massive Boys Noize banner which was promptly passed overhead by a mob of screaming, bouncing, and unbelievably saturated writhing bodies. I turned around to see the bar staff spraying jets of water across anyone lucky enough to be near the bar. It was going off! Never had I seen a club full of people so into what was going on.

Finishing of with a remix of LIL Wayne’s Cash Money Millionaire, Danny T came on to mark the end of Boys Noize to massive applause and uproar from the crowd. Whilst there was some thinning of the crowd, it was still packed for Danny to start. Approaching Alex to show my appreciation with a hi-five, it dawned on me how utterly drained he looked. But who could blame him? After playing three hours of banging tunes and bouncing away behind the decks it was his right to look exhausted! Being at Empire on a night like this is an experience in itself. I have personally never seen anything like it. To get that amount of energy in such an intimate setting is truly amazing. Next time Empire has a sold out event, get there. It’s your loss if you don’t experience it at least once!