Live Review: Darshan Jesrani & Daniel Wang

The Sydney Town Hall really has been a wonderful space for hosting some key Sydney Festival events this year. Saturday night saw it holding a disco house party and it lost none its grandness or old world charm, despite the camp antics of Daniel Wang and his uber-cheesy selection of disco records. His energy was great and entertained the crowd with not only some nice cuts (disco Close Encounters anyone? How 'bout the cantina band's song from Star Wars?) but also by chatting to the crowd and dancing around the stage. Any DJ that bothers to interact with the dance floor and leave the protection of the decks has my tick of approval. Dancing is fun, and it's nice to see that acknowledged by someone that makes it happen.

New York house DJ Darshan Jesrani took over just after 11pm as Wang began increasing the intensity of his set. The cheese gave way to some surprisingly high-energy house and it neatly segued into Jesrani's sound. The party kicked up a notch and the room by then was pretty full. This also helped absorb the sound more. It's a beautiful space but it would be a nightmare to get the sound right with all its high ceilings and odd shapes and hard surfaces. The reverb was crazy with an empty floor when the night began, but corrected itself as more folks turned up.

Picnic hosted a good party and people kept talking about how great the room looked and felt, and to have a fun night stomping around to house music in such a beautiful old building is a testament to the progressive and encouraging way Sydney is engaging with music.