...Sydney Stomping: Audio Love...

I went to the most amazing dance event last night. For the past few weeks I've been eagerly anticipating going to Audio Love as it's the first big event I've been to since the Full Moon Party. I've been clubbing in Australia since Thailand but nothing with this calibre of DJ line-up and music style. The funniest thing is I nearly didn't get let in the club and would have missed it all.

It has to be one of the most remarkable nights of Trance & Hardstyle I've been to. I think Hardstyle is one of those genres that is quite easy for a DJ to screw up and takes quite a certain level of understanding the crowd to get it right… and oh my did they get it right.

The main draw for me was that I'd see Steve Hill play again. Due to him moving back to Sydney I haven't had a stomp to one of his sets since a Frantic New Year's Day event a couple of years ago. His set last night was absolutely ace and what was equally impressive was he stopped and had a chat for a while, top bloke.

Alex Kidd was over here touring from the UK and played an absolute blinder. I also got to dance to some superb European DJs including Dutch legend Randy Katana who created 'Silence' (what a tune!), fellow Netherlander's Luna & Pavo who both had great Hardstyle sets and Italian Hardstyle sensation DJ Tatanka. I also got a chance to hear some of Australia's home grown in the forms of Suae, Nik Fish and Spank.

As like with many nights out the start did not go according to plan but if my previous experience of clubbing tells me anything this just makes for a better night and some amusing stories.

The venue had been changed from being a ten minute walk from my house to a mission of a train journey way out in the suburb of Liverpool and to add insult to injury there were engineering works on the tracks which just made the journey that extra bit longer. But undeterred Jo (a fellow English clubber I met through DSI) and me set off for wicked night.

However, this gave me the opportunity to get pretty smashed rather quickly. I'd already had a bottle of wine to myself whilst getting ready and then did my old trick of filling up a big empty water bottle up with vodka & tonic for the train. Thing was I was rushing out the door and I didn't realise I'd put an incredibly large amount of vodka into it which I quickly finished on the journey up there.

On arrival I was absolutely smashed and then did a miniclubber by getting refused entry into the club. On reflection it was pretty funny considering the amount of times I spoke to him about it in the past.

However, standing at the door being told that I needed to go sit down and sober up a bit I was not best pleased. And me thinking I always know right started telling the doorman that he didn't know his arse from his elbow and I'd decide if I was drunk or not especially as I now how my RSA so would be fully aware if someone was intoxicated, in particular if it was me.

Thankfully he saw the funny side to my rant and after a little while let me in. Actually the doormen were pretty sound and really friendly. They sorted my bag out for me and at the end of the night went and collected it for me so I could carry on having a stomp on the dancefloor.

Got to admit the whole place had a different vibe to it compared to clubbing back home. I was practically the oldest person in there. Anyone over their mid-twenties is considered far too old to be going out clubbing; its pretty much frowned upon. And as they're super strict on ID out here (everyone gets checked as they go in) underage clubbing is unheard of so it means when people can finally get in somewhere they're still quite young in their approach and attitude.

However, the clubbers were a right laugh and because of their newness they were still in their clubbing honeymoon period so were all eager and enthusiastic. What I find really amusing is that they have all these funny dance moves over here that they all do like the Melbourne Shuffle, it reminds me of school discos when everyone used to do routines to Saturday Night and the Macarana. And they were all keen to find out what clubbing was like in the UK and my experiences as I was such an 'ancient' raver!

Photo: Me & Jo out for stomp

[Next blog entry: Sydney Sunday November 11th 2007]