- There used to be a time when seeing Sasha was a guaranteed good night. You just knew that he was going to deliver a good set, it wasn't up for debate. Times have changed, however, and now you have to hope that he will be in form. So when the crew at Chinese Laundry announced that he would be playing in the courtyard on a Saturday evening to an intimate crowd of 500 people, I had mixed emotions. Would the cosy environment bring out the best in him? Or would he fail to deliver for an audience that was expecting his usual superclub-filling sound?
It's not the first time that Sasha has played at such a venue in Sydney. In 2004, he played at the Greenwood hotel in North Sydney, and on that occasion he was pretty average, playing a set consisting mostly of overbearing electro house nonsense. But after hearing him play some delicious bassline driven bliss in August in Beirut, I was hoping he would rectify that blip five years ago and deliver his best for Sydney.
Sasha was Maven-less on the night, instead armed with a USB stick and CDJ-2000s, and he began with some chunky house in the opening hour and then abandoned that for some heads-down melodic power in the final three. He mixed the new—Funk D'Void's delicious extended remix of Vince Watson's "A Very Different World"—with the old—"My Lexicon" and Jam & Spoon's "Odyssey To Anyoona." He went housey with Ewan Pearson's deluxe remix of The Foals, and got nasty with Mutant Clan's "Persuader" and even had time to come back on ten minutes after finishing and end with a drum & bass version of "Expander." The set had variety but more importantly flowed with perfect precision, and all this under the setting sun of an early summer night in Sydney. I really hope Sasha continues using the CDJ setup, as it really got the best out of him. (Plus I could do with not hearing the familiar Ableton delay effect that we've heard for the last three years.)
Apparently Sasha was quoted as saying after the gig that it was "like playing at DC-10, but in Sydney." And on the night I remember turning to a friend and saying the same thing. It's rare that a Sydney party has had such a carnival atmosphere. Despite a few small disappointments such as the sound system's lack of presence in the mid department (or, in some instances, volume) as well as the tightness of the crowd in the courtyard, it was one of the best parties I have attended in ten years in Sydney. Hopefully we can see more nights at the Laundry utilise the Courtyard to the same extent.