The first inthemix50 gig landed in a cold Canberra on Saturday night with some fierce competition from other events around town as The Aston Shuffle looked to garner support and see how high they could climb in this years vote.

Arriving about 8.30pm to the welcoming atmosphere of Trinity Bar it was good to see some available seats to kick back and relax on while Staky spun some tunes. Early on the mood was deep house as more people began showing up in dribs and drabs.

Around 9PM Hubert stepped up to the decks in what was a very different show to the last one I saw – showing his class at being able to play to who he supports with ease. The beat began to pick up a bit more as Hubert got into things and more people arrived, leaving standing room only both inside and outside. Special mention has to go to the Tottenham Hotspur supporter who was struggling to stand up by 10pm!

Hubert dropped a remix of Tim Deluxe’s It Just Won’t Do to the enjoyment of the people on the dance floor and by now the place was buzzing in expectation of the next act.

The Aston Shuffle smoothly took over control of the DJ console and brought in their laptop with Serato Scratch Live which they used to make some cool mixes using the effects controls nicely. Shortly after coming on The Aston Shuffle showed their mixing talents which had The Presets’ Talk Like That mixed into a bassline from *Pnau’s Wild Strawberries and finally ending with Similou’s All This Love. 5 minutes or so after this, Modjo’s Lady had possibly the biggest crowd on the floor all night and this was followed up shortly after with Ladyhawke’s Paris is Burning.

Although a fair few people began heading off to Civic before midnight, the ‘Shufflers took advantage of extra space on the dance floor and enjoyed themselves immensely with MGMT’s Electric Feel being a particular highlight for quite a few people joining in to sing their hearts out. By about 12.30 the crowd had thinned right out as the Aston Shuffle began winding their set up and unfortunately my lift was bailing also so I missed Ashley Feraude’s set.

Trinity was certainly the place to be for much of the night with Timmy Trumpet and Tenzin popping in for a few drinks before they headed off to their own gig at Academy. A stellar night for all and a great kick off for ITM50!