With the wailing of Andrew Stockdale filtering out on to west terrace I moved past the main entrance where Wolfmother were playing and around to the indoor/outdoor side SOHO bar. The HQ Complex is an enormous venue with a multitude of different areas and bars. This show was to be held in the relatively small, split level SOHO bar which had people equally spread between the indoor and outdoor areas upon my arrival.

Touted as an all new live show, DJ Fresh was touring Australia ahead of his new album Kryptonite, due for release on Breakbeat Kaos in early 2010. Since forming Bad Company in 1999, with the likes of D Bridge, Vegas and Maldini, and founding the largest drum and bass online community Dogs on Acid, Fresh has released a number of his own tracks and remixes of high profile artists. This culminated with 2006s Escape From Planet Monday, also on Breakbeat Kaos.

Adelaide favourite Patch was on warm up duties, and had the crowd up and dancing early on. Fittingly he snuck in a cheeky remix of Get Shaky by The Ian Carey Project, of which the original would have seen plenty of air time on a more generic night. Griff was on MC duties and initially, unknown to him, the mic was not working however after a quick stroll through the crowd this was rectified and his fluid rhymes accompanied the great track selection.

Spotted at the bar briefly before his set, DJ Fresh and MC LowQui emerged again to step up and take over. The live ‘sound weapon setup’ consisted a laptop running Tractor DJ or similar and 2 CDJs to control it. After a quick break we were back into the swing of things.

Playing a number of classics Fresh quickly filled up the lower end room with bouncing bodies, with tracks such as The Nine and All That Jazz generating enthusiastic response. It was also great to see Fresh really getting into the music, jumping around, throwing his hands in the air and smiling from start to finish, with LowQui doing a great job of working the crowd.

At this point I think I should note the sound system; IT WAS LOUD! I like to consider myself a seasoned venue goer and have had to endure ringing ears on a number of occasions but in this instance, even standing at the back of the room it took a good 48 hours for the ringing to subside. At the time though it didn’t faze me too much and I got down with a great dubstep remix of Heavyweight and the vocal driven latest single Hypercaine.

Fresh ending the night in 4×4 territory which is a time signature that I also happen to enjoy. I hadn’t heard many of the tracks before and really dug this new direction. It was interesting to see some of the reactions from more die hard dnb fans, some of which promptly vacated the dancefloor, while others bobbled uncomfortably to this unfamiliar consistency.

Underground finished up what with a more traditional dnb set, while those who had to work early the next morning drifted off with the sounds of the evening reverberating through their minds for some time to come.