Chaos reigned at the desk just in the door with a number of staff running themselves ragged trying to match names with lists of pre-bookers. That was fine – it gave us a chance to check out the building, which was, let’s face it, kind of amazing. Ancient drips of mossy water fell in places from the stone ceiling, and where the place had crumbled completely away there was a huge black chute going straight up to the sky. You could see the stars through it. It was strangely peaceful amongst all the activity.
Once we were in, the set-up was clear: Food upstairs, bands downstairs. The space was split up by bolted, industrial dividers and two wide metal staircases took punters to the second floor. Food offerings were incredible, with little stalls representing real bastions of Melbourne cuisine nestled in a row: Phat Brats, Huxtaburger, Touché Hombre and even a Little Cavallero.
As the eve went on and the place filled out, queues to get drinks became a little hard to bear. In addition my ladyness was offended by the portaloos because I was expecting something more permanent, but it shouldn’t have surprised me – the amount of work that’s gone into the place in such a short amount of time is impressive enough.
Once the bands began, the bathroom situation was forgotten. French duo Housse de Racket were brilliant, their bell-laden sounds and heavy, luscious, artificially-slurred snares bouncing over the concrete floor and crowd. I imagined the notes as brightly coloured rubber balls careening down a hill like in that epic Sony ad. I think that was filmed in San Fransisco, which is fitting because that is where the night’s other headlining band hail from: PillowTalk. Synth heavy and weirdly reminiscent of The Streets, multi-layered digital voices built up into crescendos that sent the dancefloor heaving.
The overall effect of the night was marvellous, and the magic of the place truly set an excited precedent for the rest of the Melbourne Music Week festivities.
LOVED: Everyone was so damn excited at the innovation of the thing.
HATED: Same night as Radiohead.
DRANK: Everything was in paper cups so I’m not sure, but it was delicious.
