feat. Protohype, Culture Shock, Ulterior Motive and Phetsta
with Spectrem, Ekko & Sidetrack and Gran Calavera
Friday, April 24, 2015
When a Perth bred international superstar such as Karl Thomas, or Shockone, announces that he is putting on the World’s Best Rave, it procures a level of expectation and excitement in bass heads that meant a sell-out night at MetroCity was an inevitability.
Doors opened at an early time of 8pm but luckily the local talent in the form of Ekko & Sidetrack b2b Gran Calavera and Spectrem were on point and quickly set about building the groove. As the club started to get busier, the crowd started to feel more and more like Perth, the usual quota of bucket hat, long sleeve rinsers, jamming right alongside dreadlocks, fluffy leg warmers, preppy girls in stilettos, mullets and chains, the unifying power of bass music on full display. Phetsta continued the drum’n’bass party, the beats came hard, fluent in grimey staccato punches that saw the energy in the house proceed to rise further, bouncing along enthusiastically and running out a version of Shockone’s Home that bought the feels and was a good taste of what was to come.
Ulterior Motive, still riding the wave of their album, Fourth Wall, released late last year, delivered a set of grimy grungy drum’n’bass that bought a rave haze over the room and noticeably built the intensity. Culture Shock stepped up to deliver a typically silky set lined with originals the crowd were baying to hear such as City Lights and the Pistols At Dawn remix. The days after the show were also spent humming back the ironically titled Ohrwurm (German for earworm), a mark of a set that buried deep and flowed superfluously, a terrific mix of drum’n’bass to cap off the talent that had preceded it.
Local star of the hour Shockone took over the decks to find a crowd brimming with excitement, the 90-minute set allowing him to keep drum’n’bass as the foundation whilst varying his set using brutal dubstep, trap bangers like the Brillz and Snails collaboration, Crazy, and even chilled switch ups to produce a fantastically eclectic set. The highlights were Gambino by DC Breaks (a popular choice for many across the whole night) and a mashup of Jack U’s Take U There with Netsky’s Love Has Gone, but the crowd response to Lazerbeams after being made to wait until the end of the set for it was also phenomenal.
If Shockone had bought a heavier touch to the evening, Protohype was ready to weigh in with a monstrous dubstep set to tear the roof off. A genre all too rarely heard on the impressive Metros sound system, the rumbling bass and squealing synth lines a delight, tracks like Badklaat’s Head Crush and Protohype’s new collaboration with PhaseOne, Recon, bringing the heat and rinsing out the dancefloor. It was a real shame though, that he came unplugged with 15 minutes left and was unable to deliver the climactic ending the night deserved. Still, it couldn’t tarnish a night that overwhelmingly rung out with the kind of resplendency only a huge rave in Perth can.
JOSH LLOYD
