If you missed it, here’s what unfolded at the most recent BWS Cool Room instalment.
Picture this: a hidden warehouse party, down a side alley and through an entry cleverly disguised as an RTD fridge (‘Cool Room’, get it?).
You’re inside the Wool Mill, and it’s Halloween meets Day of the Dead. Bartenders with faces painted like Mexican ‘sugar skulls’ are slinging Espolòn bevs. A shimmering fairy is ordering from the Dingo Ate My Taco truck.
I pass Little Red Riding Hood on the way downstairs and a walking beer bottle in the smoking section. When I hit the dancefloor, I’m jostling with vampires, popstars, demons, bunny rabbits, cowboys and Leeloo from the Fifth Element, with roving photographers snapping like party-paparazzi.
Lights, cameras… tequila.
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The BWS Cool Room brings together the best DJs and the finest booze – in this case, Espolòn tequila.
It’s a four-artist lineup for the night, and starts early. Music fills the soaring cavern of the Wool Mill.
It’s still light when we ease in with the genre-slipping sounds of naarm-based DJ Hannah D. The crowd warms up and the complimentary welcome drink does its work.
By the time New Delhi-born, Indonesia-based international DJ talent DITA slides in, the AV elements really kick in. Beneath flashing lights and an enormous wall projection of psychedelic imagery and dancing skeletons, she grooves to her own infectious, chilled-out beats that would feel at home in any of the high-end beach clubs and Ibiza parties.
The enormous glowing Espolòn bottle over the dancefloor has a hypnotic effect driving you towards tequila. The downstairs bar is a bit of a chill-out zone, with flowers, candles, neon lights and skulls here and there (totally chill skulls, though).
It’s also the margarita zone, bartenders shaking up classic Tommy’s or summery watermelon margs all night. But when you’re keen to get back to the music, the Paloma or Lime & Soda RTDs look pretty damn appealing.
It’s a taco-fuelled crowd tonight. Dingo Ate My Taco knows better than to bring birria to a costume party: these tortillas are loaded with their signature slow cooked meats, some salsa, coriander and lime, with chips and guac for folks who want to snack fast and run back to the DJs.
If there’s a better party pairing than tequila and tacos, I’d like to hear it.
Naturally, all the costumed denizens bunch excitedly to the front when Sutherland steps up. DJ, producer, synthesist, local legend – he builds a lot of hype and he more than meets it.
The set begins with techno bones and funk flesh, rippling into grooves that have every single body in the room electrified and dancing. Even Sutherland’s: he bobs, sways, moving with graceful concentration as he makes minute adjustments for perfect sonics.
The genre shifts are elegant, effortless, drifting into a touch of disco, hypnotic looped vocals and an intensity growing into the pinnacle of the evening.
Sutherland seamlessly hands the torch to Yikes for the last hour. This Boorloo-based Wongi DJ hits us right where we need it, the pounding rhythms pulsing up through your feet and hitting your chest like CPR. It’s a breathless burst of power for the final late push. A margarita helps, too.
Catch you at the BWS Cool Room next time, clubbers.
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This article was made in partnership with BWS.
