Tickets to the I OH YOU party were amongst the most coveted of this year’s Melbourne Music Week festival, with the hot little spots selling out weeks ago – way before lots of us even knew the thing was on. How did I get in there, you ask? Fuck you, that’s how. The four young lads who began their Mushroom affiliated label followed faithfully to their tradition (famously begun when they needed to pay the gas bill at their Richmond share house four years ago) of throwing innovative, warm and chaotic parties.
Flagstaff Station honestly looked like an ‘80s movie’s high school prom hall. With chintzy silver streamers lining nearly everything, the updraft from the underground platforms made the whole thing shimmer crazily like it was underwater. While the not-actually-built-for-good-sound space sometimes made the noise a little tinny, the best part about having the party down there was the air circulation. I cannot tell you how fresh and perfect it felt walking through the barriers and into that vaulted foyer.
The smoke machine seemed to carry Neon Love’s airy vocals right through your hair early on in the night, and their three-part harmonies were heavenly. The place started to fill up when Acolyte began some seriously juicy jams, with lots of ‘90s tambo going on and that kind of husky narrative that Sophie B. Hawkins is so swell at. City Calm Down sent everyone into fits of joyous flailing, and Northeast Party House seemed to use the odd sound configurations to their absolute benefit; synths and vocals meshed into this awesome, beat-laden daydream. This review has been heavy on the light and airy allusions, but when final headliners Gold Fields and Yacht Club DJs careened out we finally realised we were actually underground, kind of like Zion in The Matrix Reloaded but with less hemp trousers. Stomping, wheeling fun in a sea of legends. Well done I OH YOU, and happy birthday.
BY ZOË RADAS
Loved: Everyone was so goddamn happy to be there.
Hated: I think it was the first time I’ve gone to a train station bathroom.
Drank: Cans of beer, aw yiss.
