Ah, Splendour weekend. The streets are packed, and people are wandering all over the road. I nearly run over a guy dressed in black, he waves his beer at me like he wants a lift.
Not this time, buddy.
I get to La La Land around 10 and Kato is pumping brain buzzing electro. Bass that shakes the fillings in your teeth. The place is alive tonight, there is a pretty good pre-Splendour vibe going on. I don't think anyone wants to get trashed this early in the game.
Here tonight are a couple of photographers who have come to check out the Byron scene (You can see awesome photos by Dan from Papakish here.) I don't think they'll be disappointed. There are some beautiful women in short dresses running around, and enough fit men to keep me happy too. But enough about that...
Van She are a live band right, so Van She Tech is their way of keeping fingers in more pies. You can see the live element in the way they spin - most DJ's are heads down, focused on the mixing and bouncing along, but these guys look like your mates in the corner of your living room. With heads up, they dance along and emphasize the lyrics by pointing at the crowd.
I'm too much of a nanna to stick around for the whole set, and I have to save my energy for Splendour. Luckily, La La Land earned a 3am licence for Sunday, so maybe I'll head back there when Splendour shuts down.
If i can handle it...
Oh no. I've just disgraced myself at the bar. Danielle has poured me and herself a shottie of vodka, which sits in a short glass of red bull. La la land's co-owners are stood behind shots of tequila. All three of them knock their shots back with ease. I try, but fail. I now have a credibility rating of zero. Raf, one of the owners, points to a guy in a white cap and tells me that's the guy I should be photographing. See how cool I am? I don't even know who Ajax is, let alone what he looks like. According to his myspace, Ajax has earned a shitload of recognition for his skills (Technics In The Mix No.1 Australian Dj 2007 and 2006, Allen & Heath DMA Best Australian DJ and Best Mixed CD 2006, 3d World Dj of the Year 2002, 2004, 2005. Busy Ps Best Dj of 2007 (XLR8R), Digitalism's best dj of 2007 (BIGSHOT) and Justice's One to Watch in 2008 (DJ MAGAZINE).) I know he must be big, because La La are asking a cover charge from their VIP's.
Right now, Ajax is at the bar. An excited young fan has got him signing her t-shirt, while a beautiful woman I assume is Ajax's girlfriend looks mildly bored and orders drinks.
It's midnight when he begins his set. That's my bedtime. But anyway. Ajax's mixing style seamlessly blends a lot of short samples from disco house tunes to old school hip hop. You know those Euro club megamixes, that go for half an hour, and play the chorus line of number one hits, and keep the same beat throughout? They're painful, and it seems to me that Ajax uses a similar concept. Except he makes it sound good. Really good. The crowd of early twenty-somethings cram on to the dancefloor and go wild. Earlier I had spoken with a doorman at another venue, who had told me all evening he'd seen people make a beeline for either La la or the Parkway Drive gig at Byron High. If moshpits aren't your thing, La la is definitely the place to be tonight.
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