With the strange weather we’ve had of late, Thursday night seemed better spent indoors curled up, watching a movie. I am so glad that I braved a 30-minute walk in the cold and rain because the guys from 50/50 put on a fantastic night and a great start to the Easter Long weekend.
Arriving at the Arizona just after 11:00 I was greeted by a group of eager punters lining up to get in – everyone was itching to see what Teebee & Mampi Swift had in store. On entering (shout outs go to the friendly door staff) we were treated to a couple of nice jazzy tunes courtesy of Murda1 and Joose before they got down to business with some nice drum & bass overlayed with some fine scratching. Even at this early stage of the night the floor was starting to fill up, with a handful of people taking their place for the night ahead. With some well-executed three deck mixing, and Curio on the mic, these brothers had no trouble keeping the floor pumping. DJ Fire stepped up to the decks next supported by MC D’Agent, and continued with some harder, darker tunes.
Come 1am, and D-Tech took the mic to introduce the man from Norway, Teebee. From the start I knew his set was going to be something special with a mix of sweet vocals, stomping beats and deep, dark bass lines. His set covered a lot of ground with tunes from the likes of Ed Rush & Optical, Teebee himself and even a few remixes of some classic rave anthems (the Insomniac remix brought back many memories). It was unfortunate that one of the speakers decided to give up just after 2am which killed the vibe a bit, but after 10 minutes the sound guys managed to get things back on track – respect to D-Tech for keeping things rolling.
After Teebee’s furious set it was time to bring on the UK’s Mampi Swift, and with MC IC3 in tow he really knew how to work the already enthusiastic crowd. This was his first time to Sydney and he didn’t disappoint – the floor was absolutely packed for his set. Swift by name, swift by nature, he played a really energetic set (more so than Teebee’s which was more driving and relentless) and flowed smoothly from record to record to the next. IC3 was a good compliment to his style and the two of them worked really well together.
Thanks to the 50/50 crew for bringing out these two legends of drum & bass and putting on a great night. To be honest, I was initially worried at the choice of venue (the Arizona Bar is not renown for featuring international DJs), but my mind was put at ease after seeing the terrific job they’d done. Special mention should also go to Vaxene for doing the visuals, and the friendly crowd that attended (marred only by someone up the front who insisted on pushing everyone out of his way!). I’m definitely looking forward to see who they treat us to next.
