The Melbourne party crews called truce and met again with Darkbeat and Mixed Messages teaming up with Rock Like This to bring one of the hottest and most enjoyed acts back down to Brown Alley, the UK’s Stanton Warriors and touring partner Skool of Thought. The last time the Warriors were down was only a year ago but punters were champing on the bit to get tickets, with their latest mixes from LA revving the fans up like crazy.

The line into the venue was down the stairs not long after 11pm and there were already plenty of people getting a couple of drinks in before things kicked off. Upstairs in the main party room, it really started with the second act of the night, Nick Thayer. Whilst he didn’t start with a full room, it was getting busy by the time he was done with his eclectic set including electro, drum & bass, breaks and hip hop. Luckily set times were all a perfect 90 minutes for warm-ups, as a shorter time would not have done Thayer justice.

In the Garden Bar the crew had collected a few different DJs, duos and trios including those with guest vocalists such as Citizen.com and Matt Blades who had the lovely Claire adding her velvety voice to the mix. Whilst the Garden Bar is certainly a smoker’s haven, the different beats also provided a welcome change from the loud and very up-tempo style inside.

I felt that Skool of Thought took the level down a notch. Whilst still playing a very tidy drum & bass set; it didn’t quite match the buzz of the amazing opener from Thayer. I, however, headed out to the Garden Bar to catch some of one of my local techno favourites, Rollin’ Connection. Meanwhile the main room kept on filling…

By the time Stanton Warriors got onto the stage it was hot and getting pretty messy upstairs. The massive influx of people from the other areas meant the crowd were packed in tight and spilling into the hallway, making the most of the space. Combining their trademark breakbeat with a dubstep flavour and a healthy dose of electro house a la Deadmau5, the Warriors certainly didn’t hold back from rocking their own sound whilst still mixing in the flavours of the moment. Plenty of recognisable tracks dropped in including their remix of Swedish House Mafia’s One, plus their Good Vibrations mix as well as the latest single from their forthcoming album, Get Up.

I think they would have absolutely gone off in the main room of the Colonial Hotel, rather than being relegated to the dark, low-ceiling cave of Brown Alley, but dinner service probably gets in the way of this. Try as hard as I did to stick it out until their 5:30am finishing time, the room becoming an absolute steam-room prevented this. However, my ears did get a very healthy dose of the UK’s finest and our very own local, slightly upstaging talent as well.