It wasn’t a horse race, but a day-to-night rave that stopped the hearts of a few hundred people on Tuesday the 3rd of November. Will Saul and Steve Bug playing 3+ hour sets took the excitement of Cup Day to a new level. Wandering into a nightclub at around 4.30pm, however, was a little counter-intuitive and it didn’t help that Alumbra is a strange venue in the first place. Two giant Buddha stare down over the crowd, one over the dance floor and the other from behind the bar, both looking horribly out of place amidst the chic décor that was kitschy at best.

Will Saul, mix master of Balance 015, would have been quite enough for one bill in Melbourne. He is the DJ and producer behind Simple Records and Aus music, and the sexy soulhousetech sound for which he is well known was exactly what he played for the few willing to leave the Cup Day BBQs a little earlier.

The dance floor was surprisingly dark; a great feat considering Will Saul started when the sun had slowly begun to set. His moves and sounds from the decks were delivered with a feminine caress, tweaking this and dropping that with a wiggle of his shoulders. The mixing was as flawless as the song selection, featuring samples of Steve Bug’s own Swallowed Too Much Bass to Hall and Oates Can’t Go for That (Foot & Mouth re-edit). There were also forthcoming tracks by Lee Jones and Joy Orbison (to be released on Saul’s Aus Music label), which only added to the already cutting-edge set.

It’s not often that DJs will play a three-hour set, but it encouraged the event to proceed at a very calm pace. Strolling out to Alumbra’s verandah with time on your side, cigarettes were enjoyed rather than choked down by the crowd, knowing that in the great scheme of things, a 20-minute smoko was not a waste of a ticket.

Gradually, as the time got closer to Steve Bug’s arrival, the bass levels seemed to rise to match the anticipation. Saul is not a ‘warm-up’ DJ, but for three hours he had done everything to excite the crowd and thus enhance the performance that was to follow.

So it was extraordinary that Steve Bug also fitted on the bill, building on the peaceful, tech-house with his subtle techno stylings. Bug has had all the success a DJ could wish for, with his Poker Flat label becoming synonymous with amazing techno and tech house releases. Having seen the German icon play a clicky techno set at Electric Zoo in New York just last month, I was hoping he would play a smoother set this time around. Yet, in the back of my mind, I knew that regardless of what he played he couldn’t jeopardize a good time (even if he tried).

By the time Bug had arrived on the decks, the nightclub was back in its natural habitat – soaked in flashing, artificial light, where classics like Dennis Ferrer’s Son of Raw and Bug’s own release Loverboy were welcome sounds. Three hours after he had arrived on stage, the audience was pulled violently from their trance – induced by long periods of no lyrics, no voice and nothing to think about – and it was incredible.

Both Saul and Bug could afford to be patient with their performances, and both used their luxury of time to the utmost. As I left under the gaze of the two Buddha, I swear even they were grinning in appreciation.