The talk surrounding this years Adventjah had been huge. Expectations were high and buzz of the DJ’s playing was electric. Who is Yoji Biomehanika, and where does he get his hair done? Will Decoder and Substance play DnB and start more back stage brawls with other performers? Are Lab4 really an incarnation of The Prodigy? Will Ian Nearhos steal the show and will Cosmo Caters evil twin Cosmas Carter make a special appearance?
Well Yoji is a Japenese hard dance God, and I assure you it isn’t Stefan. No, Decoder and Substance did not play DnB, but they did almost get involved in a back stage brawl. No, Lab4 are not an incarnation of The Prodigy, they haven’t sold themselves out. Yes Ian did steal the show (according to my sources) and Cosmas just may have made that special appearance.
I arrived just after 12.30 am after having two DJ gigs myself and proceeded to put on my ITM reviewers cap straight away. With in .03 of a second of arriving I had already bumped into about a dozen or so people that I knew, been blinded by the rainbow sea yet somehow managed to pick up on the rather electric atmosphere outside. Strange I tell ya. Anyway I headed right up to the Hydrofunk beats room to catch a bit of Perth’s answer to Jurassic 5, “Downsyde”. Funky fresh beats and rhymes seemed just the perfect way to start off the night. There was a good size crowd grooving away to these group of Aussie’s. It was nice to see them interacting with the crowd as well. People were even getting on the stage just have a boogie… Nice one I say. After a few I managed to make my way down the Trance room to catch the last remaining 25 minutes of ex-Brissy lad, Chris Tisdell.
The father of Brisbane progressive, Chris Tisdell, had the crowd worked into a frenzy with his faultless key mixing and track selection. Beautiful melodies combined with superb rhythm had the hands reaching for lasers as Chris continued to play and toy with the punters down in Neverland. It was 1am when Chris had finished to make way for special guest DJ Jamie Stevens from Infusion. It was meant to be Patrick Reid from Platipus, but a last minute cancellation (surprise surprise) forced the A-Team into overdrive and Jamie just happened to be available for the night.
Instead of lush smooth melodies, Jamie opted for the more percussive dirty approach, and let me tell you the crowd just loved it. Strong basslines and heavy rhythms had the crowd jumping around like maniacs in spring time, present company included. Not only was Jamie putting in a strong performance as a DJ, but being a producer it was also good to hear lots of unreleased material thrown in. I just cannot wait until another Infusion live set. Stand out track would have to once again be “Legacy”. Like, what it is with that track?
During the course of Jamie’s dirty thumpin’ set I hurried up to see how Decoder and Substance were doing. To my absolute amazement I happened to walked in right as Decoder was playing Shapeshifter – “Flood”. Like wow. 7 years old and still going strong. Dirty progressive house at its best that tune is. The crowd wasn’t as big as the other rooms but they were certainly digging the pulsating tech house and breaks that these two, well more like Decoder, were banging out. It seemed either Decoder had trouble getting off the decks or Substance, being a lot older and more seasoned than Decoder, decided to let his younger comrade have more of a go. Good to hear “Hide U” thrown in for good measure (KnB remix) as well as Satoshi’s take on “Hungry”.
It was 3am when Jamie finished and made way for Trance DJ, Leighton from New Zealand. Leighton didn’t impress me much musically when he was last out here and he didn’t impress me that much this time around as well. Technically he is a great DJ, but the type of sound he plays sits in a record crate of mine that I haven’t touched in 2 years. Needless to say he was doing a great job and the punters were lapping it up left right and centre. Hands in the air, reaching for the lasers, glowsticks aloft creating a sea of neon as Leighton played track after track of very uplifting Euro trance. But seeing as though he wouldn’t allow for different sounds to creep in I headed back up to the beats room to catch the end of Decoder and Substance and listen to Jonnie G (by now I was completely worn out so sitting down was far more appealing).
Decoder and Substance had rounded things out nicely and paved the way for Jonnie to come in and hit us with his broken beats. And that he did. Brand spanking new breaks were cranking out thru the speakers sending everyone into fits of broken beat pleasure. Commanding respect as one of Brisbane’s most tireless DJ’s and promoters, Jonnie gave the crowd what they wanted. And they gave the appreciation back to him. What more could you want? Well at 5am they all wanted 1 more so Jonnie gave them just that, yet security had other ideas and almost gave Jonnie 1 more for the road. Boo’s and Hiss’s were coming from amongst the remaining punters as an all in brawl almost erupted between Jonnie, the fat security guard, the skinny security guard and wait for it, Decoder. (Good on the UK boys sticking up for the locals). After the fiasco, everyone departed company and headed for the comfort and safety of whatever after party was happening.
Another night was over and another RNA Adventjah was gone, this time quite possibly for good. (Damn you residential zones). Still though, from what I saw it was a great night, with many great reports from others I spoke to. Well done to the A – Team for giving the Brisbane rave community another good Adventjah to talk about in the years come. And well done to the punters for providing those happy faces through out the night.
