I decided that this review would not resort to the cheap tactic of throw-away cliche lines, like "Durban's liberation at the hands of techno legend dj" or "A liberating experience techno style"...nah that would be cheap and nasty...

So the Bat Centre Friday the 27th, saw another Trip Hazard party mission going down eThekweni style, with a slightly different flavour. Durban is most known for supporting breaks, hip-hop and house, so how was this world renowned techno DJ going to be received...

It ended up as a blustery evening, with a chill wind blowing through Durbs, that meant the Bat Deck was not the place to be hanging about - so all party people headed in doors, to work up a sweat to some techno.

I wasn't sure if the Bat Centre would work as a venue, but I must say, great job by Mike and Trip Hazard crew for their configuration of the space, really worked nicely.

Apparently their were hassles with power and sound, but by the time I arrived after 9:30pm, all seemed in order and the volume got progressively louder, and the tunes more banging.

Seake set things off, and personally I would have liked to have seen them play a bit later, cause they are total dancefloor dominators - luckiy in the latter part of the set enough people were there to get the dancefloor going, and soak up Seake's sonic assault - still rate these guys as the best live dance act , probably in SA - forget Goldfish and Flash Republic with the derivative cheese puff anthems, Seake bring pure rythmical percussive funk and groove for dancefloor purists !

Seake

One Track Mike played a small bridging set, to pick up the tempo and warm things up to the frenzy that was to ensue once Chris Liberator stepped up.

I chatted with Chris earlier in the evening, and he mentioned he wasn't quite sure what or how to play to the Durban crowd - he has played in JHB over the last few years and knows the crowd very well, they enjoy some really hard techno - being the industrial heartland that JHB is. So it was great to see the response as soon as his first track pounded forth from the speaker stacks, and that he didn't need to compromise or rework his style/set too much.

Chris Liberator

I must say it was pretty hard and not melodic or minimal by any means, but at this stage of the evening I was pretty caned and my mission was getting super-pear shaped by the minute, I have since had flash backs that lead me to believe I may have to sheepishly show my face at the next jol!

All in all I came to party and so did the crowd, if anyone else can fill in the blanks from half way through the Liberator's set for the rest of the night... post away below!

Another successful TripHazard Mission completed - looking forward to Stanton Warriors on Wed 8 August - gonna be right wicked !