TOM LOUD HOT DUB TIME MACHINE

HOT DUB TIME MACHINE

Idolize Spiegeltent

Garden of Unearthly Delights

11:30pm Saturdays Only during Fringe

So it's Saturday night in the Garden, February 2012 and people are looking for the best party on the planet. It's right here in the Idolize.

Sydney DJ Tom Loud has built himself a Time Machine. A Hot Dub Time Machine. It's an intricate device powered by dancing and through Hot Dub power we travel back in time to 1954 and he creates a year by year dance party like you have never seen before. Through skilful DJ-ing of both audio and video projections, the joint is jumping from the get go. Starting in the rock'n'roll era, through the British Invasion, Motown, funk, psych rock, disco, grunge, hip hop, rave and right up to dub step. Tom is a DJ after my own heart with the breadth of musical knowledge and the sense to know people like to dance to more than one style of music. And with HDTM it means he can literally cherry pick the best music of the last 60 years and make EVERYBODY dance. Elvis, Beatles, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Doors, Pink Floyd, New Order, MC Hammer, Hilltop Hoods, all the way up to Skrillex. Guaranteed your favourite things to dance to will be in the mix somewhere. He throws in some TV themes and other pop culture references along the way, and one of my favourite bits was Sammy J and Dave Callan losing their minds when he dropped the Theme from Ship to Shore into the mix.

At the start of each decade we are briefed by Tom's video assistant. She informs us that we need to keep the energy levels up or we could get trapped in 1989 "..and nobody wants that". We can get extra power along the way by dancing exceptionally well or doing specific moves for each decade.

The audience was sadly not as mixed and varied as the set list. Mostly young hipster clubber types with too much attitude you might find at Parklife or Future Music Festivals. Which is a shame. Just because you dress in groovy clothes and have one of those 'club' hair-do's doesn't make you any less of a douche bag. Still it's a big pavilion and it's easy to re-position yourself round the edges with plenty of places to bust a move. Close to us there is a group of four quite elderly people who aren't doing much dancing themselves, but who are clearly enjoying watching the young people enjoy themselves.

The time appropriate video images are a great addition and do make it more of a show, than just watching a DJ. That said though Loud is an Energizer Bunny on the decks pumping the crowd, taking hi-fives from people and dancing up a storm. It is an epic journey back to 2012 and takes almost two and a half hours to complete. By the end everybody is covered in sweat, exhausted and they leave with big dumb grins on their faces. Yours truly included.

A fantastic party that you should not miss during this Fringe.