Beck's Festival Bar have given all the house lovers in Sydney a very special treat in 'PICNIC' a night with two of the pioneers of their respective styles of house music, DJ Harvey and DJ Garth, who amongst other support DJs, were the main attractions for this glorious night which took us through the history of some of the most popular styles in house music.
DJ Harvey was given a four hour set and did well in justifying himself from beginning to end. In his first ever Australia tour, he took us through the many sounds of house starting off with a more melodic sound to take us back to earlier days when commercial house music was much more 'musical' as a fiesta-esque sound enveloped Beck's Bar and forced all punters to head out onto the dancefloor.
Approaching the end of his set, DJ Harvey transitioned into a more modern sound, comparable to the type of house you'd hear in your typical club today. The deeper and heavier basslines snuck into the mix while DJ Harvey did a good job at keeping his set from ever sounding cheesy, which most commercial house is these days.
At the stroke of midnight DJ Garth took over the stage and kept the ball rolling with his set, consisting mainly of that San Fransisco sound he is so credited for. A more disco and funk feel made a welcome entry onto the dancefloor and it looked like everyone was having good old fashioned fun, which seems lost on Sydney's club scene nowadays.
It almost felt like a time warp to the days when hitting the club was all about the music and the fun, and the unpretentious sounds of the night endeared house music to me a bit more, reminding me that there is still great stuff to be found out there amongst all the horrible cheesy house tracks you find everywhere nowadays, thankfully none of those tracks were allowed anywhere near Becks' Bar that night as The Lion Brothers took over from DJ Garth and met the standard that the main acts had set for the night until close.
