On Saturday night Villa played host to one of the most anticipated electro acts to visit Perth for some time, The Bloody Beetroots. Crafting an impressive pyramid of work over the last few years, 2009 must surely be the Year of the Beetroot, with the Italian duo’s tracks sinking their sawteeth into countless big-name compilations and setlists worldwide. In addition to inventive originals, which bring some of the fun and stomp back into the electro sound, they’ve injected Beetroot juice through an interesting range of remix choices. These include acts as diverse as rock titans Metallica, pop-tart Pink, and emo dribblers All-American Rejects, all contributing to a frenetic pace of almost fifty remixes in two years. With such diversity of sounds and influences to choose from, Villa fired up quickly with excitement for what would be conjured on the night.

Melbourne’s Acid Jacks started their support set strongly, with plenty of rolling, gritty electro cuts to build up the floor below. Their uber bass-rich diet of tracks certainly worked in their favour initially. However, the steady stream of heavy hitters gradually began to lose variety, and a few too many elbows were rested upon balconies by the halfway mark. As is often the case, it took an old-school jam to kick the night back into gear, with I Like To Move It, Move It reviving the dancefloor’s pulse again. The pounding Crookers re-rub of Proxy’s Raven then coiled the energy higher, followed by an infectious vocoder-driven track and the Jack Beats version of Drop The Pressure. Their set had cleverly managed to slingshot back up into full pace, and the room was soon primed for the main attraction.

Few dance acts to visit Perth of late have met with such a roar of adulation as received by The Bloody Beetroots upon bounding up into the Villa stage. Disguised in their signature lucha-libre styled Venom masks, they quickly matched the crowd for energy, with a fiery opening of bouncy, growling beats, cut with refreshingly quick mixing. As the set progressed, many of the Just-Add-Water club favourites of a typical electro playlist were stepping-stoned – Deadmau5’s Ghosts n Stuff; MSTRKRFT’s Bounce – to keep the dancefloor fully engaged. However, it was the interesting left-field elements of the headliner’s own sound that could take the credit for their mix remaining so enjoyable and crispy fresh. The cartoonish synths, heavy metal guitars, and swirling Italo-disco strings laced throughout the Beetroots’ tracks provide a playful contrast to the demonic basslines often driving them along. As such, three of their best-known original tracks received the most affection from fans, in Warp, Cornelius, and Dimmakmmunication. The rollicking crowds on the floors and balconies showed their gratitude throughout the hour and a half set, and an encore of Warp rounded off the end of a very impressive display.

Jus Haus seemed to have forgotten his headphones, and briefly needed to use a Beetroots’ pair while another could be found. Unfortunately this prop didn’t infuse him with anything remotely approaching their excellent song selection, and he struggled to retain the vibe. After wading through a fairly vanilla mix of songs for the first half hour or so, he wisely broke the Michael-Jackson-In-Case-of-Emergency box, and played Herve’s Thriller-sampling Cheap Thrills. This gave the remaining dancefloor a much-needed spike in enthusiasm, and the momentum continued onwards.

This was an excellent night, and few would have been left disappointed by a stellar set from an electro act that deserves their considerable hype. As the ‘Beetroots are set to return to these shores later in the year for the festival season I know there’ll be many digits crossed across Perth that we get a visit from them once again.