- The day for Two Tribes 2003 had finally arrived and I was less prepared that I had hoped to be, nursing a killer hangover that day. Luckily come 9pm I was all hyped and ready to go, getting down to Melbourne Park and into the Rod Laver Arena right on 10pm in time for Nubreed’s live set.
Nubreed opened their set in the giant arena with Danny out the front singing while Mykie and Jase played. From there the set steadily increased in tempo and bass with Jase’s face marked with concentration as he played, while Danny grinned in excitement, reveling in the experience of playing to such a huge Melbourne crowd. There is nothing like the energy of a live act and Nubreed were certainly a great catalyst for my evening! Phat bass, broken beats, and delicious melodies characterized the set. Hearing their big hit "Welcome" was a set highlight, with the guys delivering it in the spirit of a thank you to their fans. They finished with a new remix they’ve just finished, and huge smiles on their faces. Nubreed just continue to amaze me with their music! This night of great music had officially begun!
It was then time to explore the other rooms at Two Tribes so I headed out of the Global Underground room and off to Planet Hardware to check the techno. The Teriyakianarkisaki boys, Dee Dee and Slack were up on the stage banging out the quality tekkers, and the vibe was just perfect for the start of the evening in the techno room. While I’m not a Tezza regular, it was very comforting to see Dee Dee and Slack playing again while Tezza is in a temporary hiatus, searching for a new venue. Good tunes, people dancing, things were all good in this room so I took off to check out the Fractured Breaks Indoor Stage.
After dodging through the crowd to trek to the Vodafone Arena I was in the door and standing at the Fractured Stage before I knew it! As in years past, the space in the foyer at the side of the arena was used as a stage. Initially this was working well, and was well decorated to create a great atmosphere considering the location. However, the breaks room was to experience a couple of problems during the night. The first of these problems was the pathway across the middle of the dance floor created by people entering the Gods Kitchen Arena. This got a bit annoying I must say as hundreds of people streamed in for the sets by international trance djs. Lucky breaks people are happy people and just accommodated the crowds.
Ransom was playing a funked up breaks set when I arrived. Dropping Layo and Bushwacka’s “Love Story” was a great warmup for their upcoming set at two Tribes and got the dancefloor going in a frenzy. Xpress2’s “Smoke Machine” went down a treat as well and the party had definitely started in this room! My favourite tune of the set was definitely Hyper On Experience’s “Lords of the Null Lines” Aquasky vs Master Blaster remix. Ransom’s set reminded me of his unique place in the Melbourne breaks scene. Mental note PC: get to Revolver for the Late Show more often!
Following on from Ransom was EK, playing a live set. Last time I saw EK live he was in a caravan at Earthcore. This performance was definitely the best I have ever seen him do, and was much enhanced by being able to see EK on the stage manipulating all his equipment and dancing away during his set. Rolling breaks and non-stop dancing ensued for the set. The only downside was by now the GK arena was full to capacity, and we noticed security had closed the doors so that people were only being allowed out, and not in. This was done to relieve some of the crowding inside the arena, much to the detriment of breaks fans who couldn’t gain entry to the Fractured Stage. It was a bad break for EK but meant plenty of dance space for those of us really getting into the sound. A mystery MC joined EK on the stage, and while this looked promising he didn’t deliver many rhymes and actually prevented EK from doing his own MCing! We have that to look forward to next time!
I went into the main arena to see what the fuss was about and to my astonishment I was greeted to the sight of a sea of people on the completely rammed dance floor of the GK arena, as the Warp Brothers played their set. While not quite my taste, they had thousands of people roaring and jumping to the frenzied hard trance sounds. As the breakdown came in it was glowsticks in the air, whistling and yelling. I couldn’t help but smile at how people were getting into these tunes! It’s what TT is all about after all, and the Warp Brothers were getting into it too! After a bit more dancing to EK’s tunes I had to exit stage left, past the trance fans flattened against the glass, people waving their VIP passes at Security, and angry ravers cued up waiting for 1 hour to get into the GK arena. It was time to get back to the GU arena for Junkie XL!
Junkie XL was on my list of “must see” acts and djs after I’d heard reports of his set in Sydney and Perth. He opened with a rolling progressive bassline and the obligatory Matrix sample over the top before the sample degenerated into one stonking prog house tune! Standing at the very back of the arena we were treated to an amazing laser display and a view of JXL as a lone figure in white shirt and pants, tie and driving cap, moving energetically in the spotlight on stage. The dance floor was full as were the surrounding seats in the arena. JXL didn’t manipulate his equipment much on stage compared to Nubreed's live set up only two hours earlier, but I for one didn’t care. I’m not a fanatic when it comes to the definition of “live” acts. I ask only for good, original music and a performer that engages with the audience. JXL delivered 110% on all these counts. I have been disappointed with progressive house for the last year, but JXL gave me hope again. His set was well paced, characterized by buildups and breakdowns, with melodies carrying us away before the bass came slamming back in to drive us to dance faster! With loads of personality JXL was dancing away as he played, and has now set a precedence in Melbourne to do a giant kick in the air timed with the bass slamming in after a buildup. Yep, “the JXL” was a catchy move!
By now the atmosphere in the arena was amazing, with the stunning combination of music, performance, the sheer number of people, with coloured glow sticks dotting the dark dance floor, and smoke and multicoloured lasers filling the air. The production was outstanding in this arena! JXL was fully working it now, even taking the time during one breakdown to walk around to the front of the stage and sit cross legged on the floor for a moment during a fantastic vocal breakdown. As the tension increased during the buildup he strolled back to his equipment as the crowd roared in excitement. As the set drew to a close JXL teased us mercilessly, building up the tracks and stripping them down to near quiet and a haunting looped melody. A percussion heavy track lead into the melodic and trancey ”Obsession” which had some people singing along. And then it was over all to soon! If JXL is the future of prog then it’s definitely not dead. Praise be to JXL for his astounding and enthralling live set (and dance act!)
Sander Kleinenberg’s opening track was a well chosen one, starting with a stripped back percussive song that stopped us in our tracks as we started to leave after JXL’s set. Flowing on nicely from JXL’s tunes we stopped to take in some of Sander’s set which had started on a minimal but hypnotic tone, as he set his pace for his set. It was much improved on the last time I’d seen him play at Gatecrasher, but it was time to go exploring again! Speedy J was calling us back to the Hardware room!
On re-entering the Hardware room I thought it looked very empty. Letting the senses adjust I realised the sound was very quiet and poor quality. What was the story since the sound had been quite good during Teriyaki’s set (and the techno kids WILL COMPLAIN when it’s not)? The answer- the EPA had been for a visit and the speaker stacks had been turned off. We were effectively listening to Speedy J’s set through the foldback speakers. Extremely uncool and unsatisfying we left the suffering techno fans to check out Meat Katie in the breaks room.
We gained smooth entry to the Fractured stage this time and Meat Katie was mixing it up, creating a rockin’ set of old, new and favourites as he dropped Underworld and loads of fresh tunes. Venturing back to Speedy J we found that $5000 later the problem had been fixed and the EPA and techno fans were all happy (though the whole debacle shouldn’t have happened in the first place!) Speedy J had the set belting along for the finale and my good friend Rezo who is a Speedy J aficionado had virtually died from aural pleasure. We’d missed that involvement in the set though and couldn’t appreciate Speedy J’s abstract take on techno. Maybe next time Rezo!
And now the moment was here, the whole reason I had been anticipated Two Tribes for months, Slam were about to take the stage. Mixing straight on from Speedy J’s last track Slam started out very hard which alarmed me, but was a brilliant programming move to keep those Speedy J fans on the floor. After about three tracks they had slowed the tempo a little to bring it back to where they wanted to be for their 2 hr plus set. I put my notepad away for the first time in the night, and just immersed myself in the music, dancing the whole set to many familiar techno tracks that to me characterized the sound of Slam; rich tones, galloping techno beats, bass heavy writhing stuff with a house groove to it. This was definitely my favourite dj set of the night, and everything a Slam fan could have hoped for as Stuart and Orde worked it together over 4 decks and efx, mixing into and over each others tracks, cutting it up. The buildup for the finale was amazing as Orde and Stuart teased us many times over by layering just a few bars of the haunting melody of Umek’s “Gatex” here and there over other songs, before leading into the whole track to storm the set home with one last frenzied moment of dancing. While the set was harder than I expected it to be, I was impressed with both their tune selection and tight mixing at the start of the set. I’m still amazed by it all as I sit here trying to recount it now!
With one international left on my checklist, I had a peek in the GU arena at Layo and Bushwacka. I walked in to hear their own tune “Love Story” but this over-familiar tune was saved when I realised it was “Love Story” vs KOT’s “Finally”. Worked beautifully to me! While the sea of people seemed to be dancing away, I realised I had reached the end of my night of partying and tunes. After the awesome set by Slam, and brilliant live performances by Nubreed, Junkie XL and EK, this little weary cat was off home to bed as the sun rose! Thanks for a brilliant party at Two Tribes 2003!