I got to the Prince about midnight and walked in just as they raised the dividing screen between the dancefloor and the back bar (there was an early show and changeover would have been fairly tight). The surge was instantaneous, and I was amazed how quickly the room filled up. Funnily enough though, the space was really comfortable this time – I have been to sold out events at the Prince before and been absolutely squashed in (*Squarepusher* comes to mind). The room was decked out pretty well – a raised platform on the stage for the DJs and some colourful lighting, even some hanging letters from the ceiling – which all added up to a great vibe.

Paz was warming things up nicely when I arrived; dropping his own brand of bassline madness and pumped up beats. He got quite a few cheers from the crowd and had everyone looking pretty happy. Sinden hit the decks around 1am and the room was on a slow boil by that point. I expected the crowd to be there more for Fake Blood so it surprised me just how many people were getting into his set. I guess it’s always hard to tell just what reach producers have – it’s not like this stuff is all over commercial radio.

Back to Sinden though – he wasn’t holding back – dropping some really hard edged bassline/electro. But by 30 minutes in I started to get a little bored. Where was the variety that I usually hear in his sets? And then it happened – he dropped into some dubstep tracks (*Rusko’s* remix of Pro Nails by Kid Sister). The dancefloor (which now included most of the stage!) responded to the change in vibe nicely. Some cheers went up from the crowd and things stepped up a notch. After that he was back to the intense electro sounds, but somehow things were interesting again. He didn’t let up for the rest of his set, but I was definitely responding more to his mix. I have generally preferred Sinden when he works with Herve but seeing him live was good – I just would have liked more variety in his mix.

Fake Blood took over just after 2.30am and you could tell that the crowd was salivating for his set. After a brief changeover he started with the same intro as his recent Essential Mix – the ‘Rise’ sample from Star Wars, straight into his remix of Look For The Woman. It was a great track to start things off and the room responded ecstatically. I just love the way Fake Blood mixes – there are some great vocal samples and drops in his sets. His long history a performer is apparent in the way he understands these dynamics and gets the crowd to react.
He kept the energy up over the entire mix. There were the obvious hits like Little Boots’ Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood mix) and of course Mars, but he wasn’t just there to please the crowd. There were a fair few tracks that I didn’t recognise (amazing considering the amount of mixes I have listened to by him recently) and the mix itself was sublime. There were some really nice areas up the back with space to dance too – I moved between that and the main dancefloor a few times and everyone looked like they were enjoying it.

Harris Robotis followed Fake Blood and was in fine form. But after an all nighter at Likes Of You the night before, it was well and truly time for me to hit the road. All round a great night and I’m glad I have seen both Sinden and Fake Blood live – studio mixes are one thing but to see them mixing it up live and over a big system is something else.