Finally making the time to attend one of the Premium @ Zen winter parties made me much too excited & distracted as Thursday and Friday @ work dragged on. Before we knew it we were standing outside Zen wondering how the venue, known for harder nights like Plastic, would look and sound in showcasing Sydney’s best collection of garage and 2-step. Despite the regular commotion that is to be expected in the Cross (Bomb scare across the road) we entered Zen via friendly door staff and descended towards the bass, bar, and surprising setup to be found below.
The main dance floor was sectioned off by lush red curtains and the music coming from Pete Mac in the ‘Premium Garage’ room at a very comfortable, chilled level. The careful placement of a number of candles, simple decorations and a scattered crowd of Premium goers made the venue look unbelievably different, projecting a cleaner and classier look. As per usual free champagne was flowing (until 12pm) with most of the crowd cradling a glass of bubbly, with the soft garage beats drowning out the usual shenanigans. It was really nice to come into a venue and not be faced with the main area vibe as soon as you walk in the door, but rather a great atmosphere that slowly builds up to introduce the harder bass sounds that were to come. A few classic tracks were played such as Artful Dodger – Moving too fast and Dem 2 – Destiny and soon it hit 12ish and the mysterious red curtains were opened.
As Antic introduced the new Switch crew performing under this name for the first time consisting of Emme, Ritual & Antic; Emme fired up the first hard track of the night. The sound on the recently upgraded Zen system was unbelievable. Clean crisp bass with the strength to move all vital organs was showed off by an endless number of new tracks as the set pressed on, with Ritual adding the final frantic vocal touches wherever necessary to complete the hard, dirty 2-step sound of Switch.
It was nice to have the second room to escape to if the sound was just too much, where Dabnes was now hitting the silky smooth classic remixes of tracks from before my time, yet all seemingly familiar. In the main area ‘Premium Showroom’ Sheen was stepping up to the decks and continued with the bass assault started by the Switch crew. Sheen proceeded to lay down some massive choons accompanied by the lyrical assistance of the Jamaican MC, K-Note. A number of rewinds were called building the main room pressure to uncanny heights.
As the clock struck three, Garage Pressure (Paul Fraser & Farj) took over from Sheen’s solid set, and continued with their usual style and kept the packed dance floor at a hyped level. Q45 was responsible for the last set playing tunes for those with the energy to press on, although unfortunately the night was once again coming to a close.
Overall, the selection of Zen perfectly complements these Garage nights with a good amount of seating, well-sized dance floor, and superbly sounding system. The usual friendly vibe was present, and a great night was had by everyone in our crew, for a tiny $15 cover charge, $10 with registration on the web; we were also given a copy of the latest Switch mix CD which is class A quality all the way through. It was good to see a huge turnout for the obviously growing in popularity Premium series and I look forward to the next one in a month’s time. For more information on the next Premium and some great garage links, discounted entry and downloads go to www.dj.com.au/premium.
