- Talked up as THE official SOS after party, After Ours saw dozens of eager party goers fresh from the Greenwood Hotel flood into the streets of Potts Point to celebrate their “coup de gras” for Australia Day. Anyone who has experienced YU’s regular line up at After Ours would attest that the talent on offer is nothing to scoff at. Tonight we saw both the Soho Bar and YU join as one venue to host a plethora of djs dishing up a supreme blend of sexy house tunes and energetic break beats.
I arrived a little past 11PM and was greeted by a swarm of ticket holders eagerly awaiting their chance to enter. Some had come straight from SOS and were still buzzing with excitement, others were just starting out their evening and sharing the same bored facials obviously not impressed with the queue. Then right in the thick of it all you had your occasional ‘geezer’ trying to tell an extra ticket or the confused individual that could not grasp the concept of how exactly ticket sales worked.
I sailed past security and walked through via the YU entrance when a loud yet welcoming sound instantly filled my ears. The 30 minute fiasco of having to find a park earlier was erased from memory and I was keen to move in and be a part of the action. The downstairs (YU section) was packed resembling what I can only describe as a ‘bat cave’. It was dark, unbelievably hot, and the only form of light that filtered through rested on the off chance that a new comer had opened the door. OK OK so I tend to exaggerate a little. It wasn’t quite a bat cave but it was filled oddly enough by nocturnal creatures that would, I am sure, shriek at the thought of fluorescent lighting…..or am I alone on this one?
I took stock and a few SMS messages later I was off to reunite with my crew. I waded through the mosh pit formerly known as the dance floor and made my way upstairs to the breaks arena. The air was a tad bit cooler (depending upon where you stood) but judging by the beads of sweat being formulated from every pore of my body it wasn’t any better and I was dying for some air. I think around 50 other people shared the same idea because the balcony was packed at this stage with party goers in vain hope to cool down. From memory I don’t recall feeling so overheated at Soho before in my life but still everywhere I turned these drenched clubbers shared that same gob smacked expression obviously impressed with the degree of talent on display that night.
At around 1.30AM I recruited part of my crew and ventured forth downstairs to catch the start of Shamus’ set. I was pretty keen for some good house action and figured Shamus was the right set to start with. The dance floor hadn’t cleared much since I had left some hours before and in fact I think it had doubled in size. Shamus at that point had started to mix in “Love story” which the crowd responded to with the loudest cheer. I looked around at the clubbers grooving beside me and smiled knowingly. This was pretty much what it was all about. I think I lasted perhaps around an hour before my legs told me to sit down or I’d collapse from heat exhaustion. So back upstairs we went to sit and recover before shaking it in the breaks room an hour or so later. A combination of too many people and poor ventilation was my only gripe but other than that it was an excellent finish to my Australia Day.
Some tracks from the evening included:
Lady - Modjo
Love story – Layo & Bushwacka!
Weak becomes heroes – The Streets
Rhythm is a dancer – Snap
You can’t touch this - MC Hammer
Ill type sound – Krafty Kuts
Upstairs: Kid Kenobi vs Q45, TwoUp, Will Styles, James Taylor
Downstairs: Shamus, John Devecchis, Ben Korbel, Craig Obey, Matt Roberts, Seven