It was a sad night for Western Australian football fans on Friday, with the Fremantle Dockers getting knocked out of the AFL premiership race in emphatic fashion. Just as well, then, that Norwegian disco master Todd Terje was in town to cheer up the local folk with some electro boogie and bounce.

The punters took their time filtering into Leederville’s The Manor, perhaps looking to drown their football sorrows before locating a second wind in time for Terje. But some of Perth’s best local DJs helped get the early crowds moving, with a funked-up edit of The Rolling Stones Emotional Rescue proving to be a popular selection. Things started to get a bit deeper as the warm-up sets continued, perhaps best exemplified by the Jazzanova remix of Status IV’s You Ain’t Really Down.

As a sold-out gig, organisers delayed the start of Terje’s set for the crowd to reach capacity. But Terje appeared unperturbed, enjoying a couple of drinks as he listened to the tunes provided by the locals. Around 1:00am, the Norwegian finally took his place behind the decks: a raucous trumpet-fueled number signaling his arrival. Just when it seemed like things couldn’t get much better, a bevy of Norwegian lasses crowded around Terje and let him know they were from the Mother Country. Terje seemed to enjoy that fact – as did most of the punters.

The early part of the set showcased the sound for which Terje has become known right around the world. It was light, bouncy and funky, and it had the dance floor heaving. Eschewing, for the most part, many of the tracks that featured on his recent release, “Remaster of the Universe”, perhaps because they have become such dance floor hits, Terje was constantly skimming through his collection of CDs to pull out weird and wacky tracks. In the hands of a lesser DJ, this could have been a dangerous ploy, but Terje demonstrated his assuredness at the decks, blending in the esoteric with the more recognisable. It was hard to choose a favourite out of his many tracks, but Kasso’s Walkman – an Italian disco number of 1980s vintage – gets my pick.

As the set progressed, Terje started to work more and more dub and techno elements into his track selection. While this ensured a section of the crowd was kept very happy, other sections of the crowd became less enthused with the foray into a heavier, darker sound. All in all though, it was a fun and typically quirky set from Terje which had most punters up and dancing for the majority of the night. Now, if I could just find out where those Norwegian lasses went …