As always, I’m going to try to be as objective as possible here, but I thought I should first clarify my relationship with Miguel Migs before anyone accuses me of favouritism and bias. I don’t mind admitting that I used to be in love with Miguel, or maybe more appropriately, in love with his musical output. While that love has waned a little in recent years to more of a balanced appreciation, there’ll always be a special place in my heart for Migs and his regular vocalist Lisa Shaw.

When a friend introduced me to Migs’ 2002 solo album Colorful You as well as his early mixes on Naked Music, I don’t think it would be overstating things to say I was turned on to a whole new area of dance music. I guess Migs and Shaw were my point of entry into that beautiful world of West Coast soulful house music, and my first love in that style.

I’ve got many happy memories of seeing Migs DJ around Sydney since then, at places like Home and Tank. So when the Paul Strange crew announced this performance in the more intimate surroundings of Favela, it meant saddling up the party horse only seven days after celebrating the new year.

I’m always reluctant to use historical comparisons, if only because I believe everything should be framed in a contemporary context, and making such comparisons is a lazy form of writing. But I’m going to do it anyway – this really felt like some of those classic nights spent on the Terrace at Home back in the early-mid 2000s. Well, minus the fresh air, as the dancefloor was hot as hell, although I guess if you’re not sweating, then you can’t be dancing enough. I swear I actually melted at one point, although that may actually have been Lisa Shaw’s sumptuous vocals enveloping me.

I arrived unfashionably early to catch the end of Matt Cahill throwing down some nice house. Next up was JonDon, who managed to lure a few of the early arrivals on to the dancefloor with a finely balanced warm-up set of many different shades of house – funky, jackin’, soulful and deep. The dancefloor ice-breaker came when he dropped Crystal Waters’ Gypsy Woman as one of his last tracks.

Final warm-up duties fell to the Random Soul boys doing their live thing, and they really nailed the vibe in the room with some deep, quality, bouncing grooves. I had a flashback moment when they threw in the vocal hook from Soulsearcher’s Can’t Get Enough. By the end of their set the place was packed, and in a world where the art of the warm-up set seems to be becoming increasingly lost, Yogi and Husky showed exactly how it should be done, taking the pace up a little but never letting things get too out of control.

So by the time Miguel Migs graced the decks just after 1am, the entire room as primed and ready for a night of deep and funky house. Migs started off accompanied by Shaw on vocals, proceedings starting off in a relatively restrained fashion. As always, Shaw’s vocals were simply sublime. My love for Migs’ music is only rivalled by my love for Shaw’s voice, and I’ve always thought that if you need a sonic representation of the word ‘perfect’, all you do is listen to Shaw sing. After about 30 minutes, Migs was in solo DJ mode, laying down some really sweet, soulful grooves.

At one point I had to bail out for a quick rest at the back of the bar where the conditions were comparatively arctic, but it was pretty hard to resist the groove Migs was building, so it was back down into the furnace to hear him pump out some disco-infused house. This signalled an increase in energy, coming at around the mid-point of the set after 60 minutes, although I felt Migs could probably have taken the pace up a little earlier.

Still, he threw in some filtered house, so I’ll forgive him, and kept the groove locked for a good 40 minutes. I wasn’t convinced by the inclusion of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, which I thought was a bit cheap ‘n’ easy, but then I was totally convinced by the inclusion of Marshall Jefferson’s house classic Move Your Body.

For the final half-hour Lisa Shaw returned for a few tracks, finishing her performance with her deep house classic Always, a gorgeous conclusion to a beautiful night. I’ll admit that getting me to say a bad word about Miguel Migs is highly unlikely, but I can be critical when it’s required, and from where I was standing, there was simply nothing to be critical of. Quality house music, a committed crowd there right until the very end, and a great vibe all went towards creating one special night.