What does Detroit mean to you? That’s the question chinstrokers have been asking each other since the highly anticipated Detroit Twenty Five, billed as a celebration of Detroit’s contribution to electronic music on the 25th birthday of Detroit techno.

Sydney was one of the few cities in the world to host a D25 event and the music geeks had been coming out of the woodwork, bursting at the seams with hype. Now that it’s over, a few people are redefining their definition of Detroit. The city’s output has covered a lot of bases – and we were taken to three very different ones on Saturday night.

First things first: Diatribe on warm-up duties. A flood of vitriol and pre-emptive bitching about their inclusion dominated the inthemix forum in the lead-up to the event, but the boys showed why they were deserving of their place on the bill. Sure, you might have felt Simon Caldwell or a billion other DJs were more worthy – but anyone that was there would have been impressed with the way the duo warmed it up. Many weren’t, choosing instead to stick it out at a warm-up party at the Fox & Lion, which was a great idea that I hope is repeated at future Forum events. It makes that 2am finish hurt just a little bit less, although it did make for complete destruction in the men’s room come 10pm!

But I digress. If Diatribe played a nice and accessible warm-up, many weren’t prepared for Moodymann. Meandering and loose, it was less a DJ mix than a collection of tracks, with everything from spacey ambience to Nirvana’s Come As You Are. In short, Moodymann played like Moodymann. Anyone familiar with his style, as showcased at his last Sydney gig at the Hyde Park Barracks, knew what they were in for, and many loved his ‘I don’t give a fuck’ track selection.

Theo Parrish was far more accessible with some big house jams getting the now heaving crowd’s hands in the air. Theo’s approach to mixing frequently is more about feel than using headphones, so this rough and tumble journey through disco did have a few moments where it went awry. It was also time to head to the bar for some earplugs – I’d forgotten how loud they dial up the sound in the Forum. Is it possible to put a system in there that offers clarity without a ruptured eardrum? Theo, though, was Theo, and those that had turned up to hear his slice of the Detroit pie were well-sated.

Carl Craig was definitely the name on the line-up that was closest to the conventional definition of both DJ and Detroit techno. With many scratching their heads after the first two internationals, hopes were pinned on C2 to save their night. The man delivered, launching straight into Jaguar followed by Strings Of Life. The crowd was heaving again – this is what they had come to hear. Later on the holy trinity would be completed The Bells getting an airing, and even though there was Man With The Red Face in there too, this was far from just a hits set. It was driving, thumping party techno at its best. Fan-fucking-tastic.

And with 2am, that was the end of that one. The chinstroker angst had been building through the night, and since then D25 has certainly got a mixed reaction. A lot of people didn’t ‘get’ Moody or Theo, but you know what? They played as expected. And on a night that celebrated Detroit’s electronic music, each Detroit player showcased a different part of the Detroit spectrum. If you were open-minded enough it wasn’t just a celebration, it was an education.

It’s fair to say that the venue didn’t do D25 any favours. People didn’t take to the upper levels, which were open, resulting in a crush downstairs. It was a return to the crush that made me wary of going back to The Forum before Musica showed how it’s done. Sound issues aside, The Forum is a great venue, but not when it’s full. Added to this was a few pushy Corey Worthingtons in the crowd that didn’t seem to know or care who was playing.

But there were plenty of people in The Forum that were on top of things. At its best, D25 was dancefloor hedonism; the huge roars from the crowd during Theo’s big house tunes – and the even bigger roars when C2 played the Detroit standards – were brilliant moments. At its ‘worst’, D25 was an education for people about the breadth of the sounds, styles and characters that the city has given us.

Happy Birthday Detroit. And even though I might need a walking frame to hit the floor at D50, here’s to 25 more years of fantastic music.