The gods were not smiling on us this evening, as I found myself becoming increasingly wet due to the lousy weather in a rather long queue outside the metro at 12am. However, I wasn’t going to let my spirits be dampened because tonight I was looking forward to seeing none other than ‘Papa’ Sven Vath.

Sven was also being supported by the dark prince Dubfire, but I was only really there to see Sven as I suspected the majority of the crowd were. The man is the living embodiment of the hedonistic party island that is Ibiza, at the age of 45 and with a reputation for being one of the hardest partying djs on the planet so much to the point that it almost outweighs his djing reputation, the man is a bit of an icon.

I arrived finally just around 12.30 to hear local ITM hero and also pretty good DJ – Andrew Wowk doing a great job in the side room but quickly headed over to the main room to see Dubfire and was worried that I might’ve missed a chunk of a potentially terrific set, although once inside I quickly realised I hadn’t missed anything as we watched his set from the stands.

For those who aren’t too familiar with Dubfire, his productions are oustanding although his talents as an actual dj in my personal opinion are questionable. This was the 3rd time I’d seen the dark prince, the first time was in 2008 at Arq with Stephan Bodzin. I was so excited the first time as he was the hottest name in techno a couple of years ago with some amazing productions probably his most well known being Roadkill.

That gig was a huge let down as it was some of the most boring music I’ve heard and it appeared tonight was going to be no different. Dubfire’s style would best be described as minimal tech but it was just awful. I watched as he slowly sucked the life out of the absolutely rammed room and have never seen so many people dancing purely for the sake of it rather than actually because they were enjoying themselves. Dubfire also lacked any stage presence as he kept constantly walking off stage at every possible second and was a bit of a buzz kill. He picked it up just a little bit towards the end and closed with one of his most well known remix’s, the Radioslave track Grindhouse.

After some initial drama with the set times which originally had Sven starting from 3am which I thought was way too late considering many of us were heading to future the next day common sense prevailed and he started at 2, personally I would’ve just preferred Sven from 12 – close.

The don arrived and had a job of restoring energy in a room that was all but dead even though it was packed and within 15 minutes he had the place pumping. The man is such a character behind the decks, it was such a stark contrast as he really appeared to love what he was doing while Dubfire was almost too cool for school.

Sven Vath’s sound is something he has forged over many years and the best word to describe it would be driving, he tends to be a bit all over the place when it comes to song progression and flow but in terms of building the room and creating a proper vibe he is terrific. Sven took charge of the room, constantly signalling to the crowd for more energy and they responded tenfold, everyone loved it.

By now a swarm of people had now flooded the stage that all obviously got the impression that people were there to see them rather than the DJ; sorry guys this is incorrect, no one was there to see you and you all looked pretty stupid up there.

A couple of massive tracks Papa Sven played on the night included trumpet infused number Die Vögel – Blaue Moschee as well as absolute monster Dustin Zahn – Stranger (To Stability) (Len Faki Podium Mix). These two tracks were two of the biggest and the best of the night among many other great tunes.

Around 4am people started to clear out, either from sheer exhaustion or saving the body for the day ahead tomorrow. After seeing Sven for 2 hours non-stop I decided to go check out the side room where local dj Sam Roberts was sweeping the floor with a bit of Joris Voorn and there was actually a fair few people in here too.

I finished the night in the main room where Sven had now lost his shirt and was playing to probably now only 100 odd people who were all still up for it. As it drew to a close around 6am Sven gave the crowd a bottle of Yagermeister which a few of us indulged in and the great man was met with a round of applause from the loyal few who had managed to make it to the finish.

Sven Vath recently played what will be remembered as an all time legendary house party for 6 hours after the future music festival in Perth just the other day, when he left James Francis’ house-party as he was getting into the taxi he uttered “Life’s too short, enjoy this moment forever, as will I”. As I walked out of the Metro I couldn’t help but thinking that quote could’ve applied to the set he played tonight.