On the 11/04/03, Family played host to Sydney’s Yoshi and Amber Savage. The duo played a stomping three hour set, back to back…
Walking into Family on this particular night my expectations were high. Having previously been blown away by Yoshi the last time he played at Family, I had worked myself into an excited state hoping for a repeat similar to his last performance. In addition to this, I had never seen Amber Savage play before and wanted to see what all the talk and commotion was about.
The duo was set to play a three-hour set back to back. Hakka was warming up the decks as the crowd waited for the duo to step up. As usual, he was playing the usual hollow, empty, motionless tracks that he always does.
Looking around I could see that the club was buzzing. There was just the right amount of punters coming through the doors as well. All too much lately, the crowd at Family has been too big, too aggressive and too overwhelming. On this night however, it was just right.
Amber and Yoshi stepped up to the plate at midnight. Their stage presence together was really quite amazing. The words “born entertainers” spring to mind when trying to describe it all. From the second they entered the DJ box they injected a party vibe into the room. Their enthusiasm was really quite inspiring. They were thriving off each other and it was clear that they were both really happy to be there. It has been a while since I’ve seen a DJ(s) get so into what they were doing.
Bearing their enthusiasm in mind, they did not start as well as I had hoped for. Yoshi stepped up to the decks first. He opened with an incredibly funky breaks track. I thought the track was really quite amazing however it definitely did not fit with the flow of the evening and it was not what the crowd was expecting. Unfortunately he nearly cleared the dance floor. He redeemed himself with his second track though and launched into the typical Yoshi sound. The bouncing bass beats came rolling through the sound system and energy trance kicked in. So far though, it just sounded like a continuation of the hollow emptiness that had been played all night.
Amber took over and the beats got harder. Savage’s tracks definitely had a hard house edge to them. Being a fan of hard house, this usually would have me excited, however her tracks seemed to be lacking in something. She was however, spot on with her mixing. Everything was so sharp, crisp and clean. Yoshi however, appeared to be having some trouble and at times unintentionally sent distorted trance breakdowns into the room.
Savage and Yoshi continued to share control. For about an hour the set continued to progress in much the same way that it started. At about the one-hour mark though, everything seemed to come together a little better. They started working as a team and everything started to sail a little smoother. Savage dropped an incredibly hard (although still incredibly good) remix of Paul Van Dyk’s “For an angel”. From here on in, although the duo continued to bang it, the set took a very positive turn. The dance floor was full once again and the crowd was starting to vocalise their appreciation.
As their set progressed, the beats became richer and the organs more emotive. Savage and Yoshi were really getting into it. Can anyone say conduct?! Yoshi, “I’ll stomp if I want to” was bouncing around the DJ booth, playing the air organ. Amber “I’ll keep my hands in the air if I want to” Savage was doing a fine job of conducting the crowd with her passionate arm movements while she bounced around next to Yoshi.
The question at hand I guess is, do they make a good duo? They certainly work well together and appeared to be having a good time together. Musically, once they started thinking about each other’s tracks and not just their mixes, everything started to mesh really quite well. Harmony was created!
All in all it was really a fantastic night. It was really great to see two DJs have so much fun. It was good to see some of the passion. Towards the end of the night, some really fantastic tracks were played, including a hard remix of Missy Elliott’s “Get your freak on” and Taiko’s “Silence”. I’ll definitely go and see both DJs should they come back to Brisbane to play again.
