- With a wicked, extensive, varied local lineup, F3 didn’t need any internationals. And for only $15, it seemed a pretty damn fine – and more intimate - alternative to larger Queen’s Birthday weekend events up to almost five times the price.
I hoped other Melbournians would come to the same conclusion, and judging by the queue outside when I arrived just before midnight, it certainly looked that way.
Inside, Seven was just getting warmed up. The Freebase side room was full of seated punters and a throng standing, just dying for someone else to make the first step onto the dancefloor.
The Fractured breaks room was scattered with drinkers soaking up some tasty sounds from Khalil, but there was a sizeable throng at the back of the room waiting for the Fokus upstairs to be thrown open.
It’s always hard to review multi-arena events, because you often get tied down to one room or another. At F3, I was in the mood for some stomping techno. I wanted to see the Fokus guys kick ass, just as they did at Cartel.
The Fractured room would fill up and an enthusiastic bunch of dancers would rock in style. These kids were passionate about their breaks and there was a great vibe.
Same too for the Freebase room, which became similarly rammed with up-for-it party people. Ben Abrahams’ funky prog and Ivan Gough’s deep, dark, driving prog were rather different but they both got the floor jumping in their own way.
The Freebase room had a lot of pretty people in it - rockstars in denim and flip-flops are a far cry from most people’s idea of Earthcore doofers! But they were in there and loving the sounds nonetheless. F3 really was a fantastic melting pot of sounds and subcultures, people representing three very different crews all loving the music as much as each other.
And now, back to the start of the night, and me getting trapped in the Fokus room by some terrific techno from the moment it opened...
A surge of people upstairs found Mike Callander filling in for the absent Dave Rankine. Filling in, but playing anything but filler. Callander pumped with a solid set of funked up Fokus techno. Tunes like ‘Vitalian House’ reminded the old Cartel regulars just how good Fokus was.
Dallas took over next and, well, he rocked my world. A DJ with an unassuming presence behind the decks, he got down to business and before the dancefloor knew it they were being treated to a set on par with the world’s best.
Dallas wove a lush tapestry of layered techno, from the hard to the funky. Although the mixer was an aged Denon, sans FX, he still twiddled knobs to great effect. He scratched with finesse…and with both hands.
The ambidextrous Dallas whipped the crowd up into a frenzy. The dancefloor was full and going wild, clapping and cheering with a level of enthusiasm usually reserved for international headliners.
But here was a modest local boy just doing his thing…and being a bit blown away by the response!
Well done Dallas – finally a crowd gives you the praise you’ve so often deserved.
Dave Pham was next to take the decks and the crafty little bugger again won the dancefloor over by cheekily starting with ‘Together in Electric Dreams’. The Giorgio Moroder classic brought smiles to every single face in the packed room, the lyrics seeming to say something about the enduring bonds within the Fokus Family. Special.
With the rolling snare drum of ‘Spastik’ creeping in to the electro-pop, smiles turned to screams of delight. Pham was back, and It Was On, Baby.
Pham ripped out his mercurially solid techno set, spliced with a bit of electro and a couple of surprises. ‘Nervehammer’ got me moshing as ever, but for me the biggest moment was when I heard Jark Prongo’s anthem, ‘Movin’ Thru Your System’ being mixed in - I almost creamed my pants. “OK, let’s do it!”
Dave Pham, you are a muthafucking legend. Thankyou again!
Crowd favourite Ben Cromack was waiting in the wings to take over, having been bopping alongside the DJ setup all night with other decknicians like Cecille and Quentin Eastop.
Opening with his trademark ‘Shake Whatcha Momma Gave Ya’, Cromack proceeded to get as busy as he could with the Denon and two decks. As ever, a polished performance from the master of the mixer.
Jeff Tyler followed on from funky Cromack with a very smooth set of tech-house. It was great to see some of the classier Seven types getting into it with the sweatier techno fans in the crowd.
Mike Callander mixed out of Tyler with ‘Compound’, and it was favourites and newies of this quality that would keep me richly satisfied for the ensuing hour.
‘Need U’, ‘Vicious Game’, ‘Force’, ‘La Rock’, ‘Hand to Phone’, it was a set that encompassed so many sounds but yet was pulled off so successfully. Mike hardly left one record spinning on its own, always cutting and layering. More than his regular double-beating style, this was a far more creative, smooth, unbelievable set.
Listening intently and dancing frantically, I thought about how far Mike Callander has come since I first heard him mixing in 2000. He has progressed in giant leaps and bounds to the point where, on Sunday, if there were any niggling doubts, he firmly cemented himself as a headline local star. Go and see this guy tear up his huge and varied vinyl collection – you won’t be disappointed!
Dave Rankine arrived to start slamming it out from 6am and as his nickname suggests, Crankin’ Rankine delivered a tough set. Whereas Callander played a lot of popular tunes with familiar melodies or samples or loops, Rankine played percussive and hard.
At the end of his set, he did drop two familiar tunes in to my massive delight; that remix of ‘Out Of Control’ overlaid with a girl’s breathy vocals (track ID please!!!), and one of my absolute favourite tracks of all time (and I unabashedly admit it :P) – ‘You Spin Me Right Round vs Purpose Maker’. Woohoo!
From there, Dave Pham and Cecille made brief cameos before the Fokus room closed, leaving punters to join the Bliss recovery or venture out into Monday morning.
I left the club, immensely satisfied with a night of techno that spanned so many different sounds and delivered them all so well to a great, diverse, up-for-it crowd.
F3 was a massive success, it really was the pick of the bunch on the long weekend, and as for Fokus – you guys still have that magic touch. I’m very much looking forward to the next Fokus special edition. And remember: We’ll always be together, together forever in electric dreams. ;)