Anthems @ Arkaba, Adelaide (27/08/04)
Reported on Monday, Aug 30, 2004. 16:46 by Raveprincess
Read the original review on inthemix.com.au!
Bring it back to the days of reality….. If reality for your formative years of involvement in the Adelaide dance music scene involved cruising for a car park at the back of Bilo Frewville or taking your chances crossing Glen Osmond Road, dodging the traffic coming down from the Hills, this one was for you! Once again, PaulHamon secured a venue worthy of hosting another in the anthems series. The Ark holds a special place in many hearts across Adelaide as the original granddaddy of dance music venues. It is testament to our local Adelaide scene that those who gave it their all in the early days are still going strong – DJs Brendon, ATB, Madness, Angu$, Andy J, MPK and Noddy and MCs Tim & Maestro D, all of whom graced us with their presence at the Ark Friday night to take us back, way back!
They say some things never change and the Ark is certainly one of those – but why change when you’re on to a good thing? Coming up the stairs was like stepping through a worm-hole in time – the Ark top room was exactly as I remembered it. The circular top room is ideally suited to a dance club – you can never get lost, you’re always close to a bar and you can never lose your mates, just keep tracking around the perimeter in a perfect circle and you’ll find what you seek! This means any spot, propped up against the bar people-watching or playing up on the dance floor, is the perfect vantage point to absorb the fabulous sounds emanating from a system obviously designed to take full advantage of the room.
It was a reunion for me, in more ways than one, having worked at the Ark in 1993/94 and danced there at various times before that. Great to see the old guard out in force – I couldn’t move 10 metres without bumping into yet another school chum or old dance-floor buddy.
But back to what we came here for…the journey through time to relive our favourite anthems, the tracks that sparked our love affair with dance music and led to many late nights and new friends. Various familiar faces were grinning from ear to ear, bouncing alongside new recruits who were hearing a lot of the classic "choons" out in a club environment for the first time.
My personal highlights for the evening? "Kinetic" by the Golden Girls during Brendan’s set – the track I always remember him opening his sets with in the twilight of the Ark’s halcyon days and a real hands-in-the-air classic. Moby’s "Go" still manages to give me goose bumps (nothing to do with that creepy Twin Peaks show, of course!) and obviously has a similar effect on loads of others, judging by the serene smiles on many faces (so nobody listens to techno, huh Emimem?)
Prodigy’s "Outer Space" started a good ol’ fashioned sing-along – hey, who needs speakers when you have several hundred happy clubbers belting out the track at the top of their lungs? Pragha Khan’s "Injected With A Poison" is an absolute favourite of mine and rightfully claimed its place as a dance-floor Anthem.
Even the old "James Brown is Dead", "Y’all Ready for This" and "Mayday", last heard at McMahon’s Tonsley on a Thursday night at least a decade ago, got a run and an amazing response from the crowd – there were more people laughin’ and people punchin’ out in the air than the Jungle Brothers could ever have wished for!
My only beef was the early hours, 9pm to 4am – it seems we’ve become more nocturnal over the last 10 years, used to leaving the house way after midnight when we’re positive all the "normal" general public are safely tucked up in their beds! Unfortunately, this meant the crowd had only just got fired up when the house lights came up and the familiar "move along, please" came from the bouncers attempting to herd the crowd downstairs and into the night.
We await the next instalment PaulHamon – and I look forward to your old skool ravers retirement village in about 50 years’ time, sitting around the ol’ piano singing along to Capella’s Italio house classics.
Reported on Monday, Aug 30, 2004. 16:46 by Raveprincess
Read the original review on inthemix.com.au!
Bring it back to the days of reality….. If reality for your formative years of involvement in the Adelaide dance music scene involved cruising for a car park at the back of Bilo Frewville or taking your chances crossing Glen Osmond Road, dodging the traffic coming down from the Hills, this one was for you! Once again, PaulHamon secured a venue worthy of hosting another in the anthems series. The Ark holds a special place in many hearts across Adelaide as the original granddaddy of dance music venues. It is testament to our local Adelaide scene that those who gave it their all in the early days are still going strong – DJs Brendon, ATB, Madness, Angu$, Andy J, MPK and Noddy and MCs Tim & Maestro D, all of whom graced us with their presence at the Ark Friday night to take us back, way back!
They say some things never change and the Ark is certainly one of those – but why change when you’re on to a good thing? Coming up the stairs was like stepping through a worm-hole in time – the Ark top room was exactly as I remembered it. The circular top room is ideally suited to a dance club – you can never get lost, you’re always close to a bar and you can never lose your mates, just keep tracking around the perimeter in a perfect circle and you’ll find what you seek! This means any spot, propped up against the bar people-watching or playing up on the dance floor, is the perfect vantage point to absorb the fabulous sounds emanating from a system obviously designed to take full advantage of the room.
It was a reunion for me, in more ways than one, having worked at the Ark in 1993/94 and danced there at various times before that. Great to see the old guard out in force – I couldn’t move 10 metres without bumping into yet another school chum or old dance-floor buddy.
But back to what we came here for…the journey through time to relive our favourite anthems, the tracks that sparked our love affair with dance music and led to many late nights and new friends. Various familiar faces were grinning from ear to ear, bouncing alongside new recruits who were hearing a lot of the classic "choons" out in a club environment for the first time.
My personal highlights for the evening? "Kinetic" by the Golden Girls during Brendan’s set – the track I always remember him opening his sets with in the twilight of the Ark’s halcyon days and a real hands-in-the-air classic. Moby’s "Go" still manages to give me goose bumps (nothing to do with that creepy Twin Peaks show, of course!) and obviously has a similar effect on loads of others, judging by the serene smiles on many faces (so nobody listens to techno, huh Emimem?)
Prodigy’s "Outer Space" started a good ol’ fashioned sing-along – hey, who needs speakers when you have several hundred happy clubbers belting out the track at the top of their lungs? Pragha Khan’s "Injected With A Poison" is an absolute favourite of mine and rightfully claimed its place as a dance-floor Anthem.
Even the old "James Brown is Dead", "Y’all Ready for This" and "Mayday", last heard at McMahon’s Tonsley on a Thursday night at least a decade ago, got a run and an amazing response from the crowd – there were more people laughin’ and people punchin’ out in the air than the Jungle Brothers could ever have wished for!
My only beef was the early hours, 9pm to 4am – it seems we’ve become more nocturnal over the last 10 years, used to leaving the house way after midnight when we’re positive all the "normal" general public are safely tucked up in their beds! Unfortunately, this meant the crowd had only just got fired up when the house lights came up and the familiar "move along, please" came from the bouncers attempting to herd the crowd downstairs and into the night.
We await the next instalment PaulHamon – and I look forward to your old skool ravers retirement village in about 50 years’ time, sitting around the ol’ piano singing along to Capella’s Italio house classics.