You couldn’t have turned on a radio two years ago without hearing a certain little song called Don’t Hold Back. It was arguably the biggest dance track of 2007 and helped fill out dancefloors all over Australia. A certain half Irish, half Australian four-piece were bringing the sounds of their self-titled debut album and more to The Met, and they weren’t leaving until they’d rung the sweat out of everybody in the place. Before they had the chance to, however, Pete Smith had the bass pumping and the strobes working overtime as he worked through some nice house tunes. By the stroke of midnight the floor was full to the brim and the numbers never really dropped the whole night. While about half of those were lit up by the glow of their mobile phones, the rest were getting on with the business of dancing.
It’s always fascinating to stop and take stock of just how far music has come over the decades, which makes it interesting to note that it’s usually reworkings of 80s club hits that never fail to get the best reception when they’re thrown into a set, and tonight was no different. Sweet Dreams went down with much enthusiasm and was the highlight of Smith’s set, with the reverberating electronica of the Eurythmics and Annie Lennox’s commanding vocals inspiring hands in the air all round. For those who’d heard it all before in the plethora of sets where reliable 80s classic are given an airing, well, the dancing girls were always a distraction.
When 1am rolled around it was time for Pete Smith to make way for the main attraction.The Potbelleez, or at least half of them, came out to as good a reception as the Met could muster, which, when packed is quite something. DJs Dave Goodie and Johnny Sonic took to the stage and got straight into it, proclaiming “We have one job tonight – and that is to fuck you up.” With an effects-addled intro to Don’t Hold Back kicking off their set, they came out punching and started out on a high, but the night was young and they had plenty more energy to release on the crowd. With a very welcome divergence into the all-to rarely used Nightmare by Brainbug, the beats were rolling throughout the main room, all the way back to the bar.
Pog Ma Thon (or Kiss My Ass for those not fluent in Gaelic insults) went out to all the Irish revellers in the crowd and there must have been a few as ample cheers sprang up around the room, but it wasn’t just the Irish who grooved to the dancey number. There was certainly no lack of enthusiasm during the set on the part of the duo either, but just to make sure they had the crowd on side, there were plenty of shout outs to Brisbane, and no small number of mentions of its superiority to Sydney. Future DJs take note; if you want to win over a Brisbane Met crowd, just tell them they’re better than Sydneysiders and they’re putty in your hands.
Then to build on this vibe and gee up anybody planning on sitting down or going to the bar any time soon, the most leftfield choice of the set was thrown in. Killing In The Name Of had the Met briefly rocking out and screaming along to Rage’s bawling angry epic. It did its job and picked the people right up again, the ballsy guitar riffs ending to shrieks of applause.
Precisely one hour in the remaining band members, vocalists MC Blu and Ilan Kidron, took to the stage looking pepped and ready to see out the rest of the set with as much energy as the crowd had put into the first hour. As if he was playing to a stadium, Kidron took command of the stage to the sounds of Trouble Trouble. The two were leaping about and thoroughly enjoying it, whipping the crowd up into a frenzy while the DJs laid down some heavy bass before settling behind the mics for Everything.
Some of the stragglers towards the back of the crowd had thought about going back to the bar to refuel but when the unmistakable piano riff of Are You With Me started flowing out of the speakers, there were some literally running back to the stage to catch it. This melodic little track wouldn’t be out of place on a Coldplay album; the recurring piano melody combined with the simple but gratifying lyrics have that same formulaic but successful sound that have made the English U2 wannabes what they are today.
Junkyard soon shook off any sentimentality and upped the tempo, getting the room pumping again to the big club beats. Kidron had already showed off some of his guitar skills, and that combined with Blu’s MCing and the DJs ripping up the decks all solidified to form a pretty tight group that compliment each other well and know where to shift the focus to at any one time. It was time then for this to all culminate in their biggest single to date and the biggest moment of the night when The Potbelleez finally let Don’t Hold Back loose on the masses.
Kidron played the signature acoustic guitar and the crowd immediately erupted. The beats seeped into the rhythm until that massive club track of 2007 was in full swing and the crowd were soon jumping and waving as one. It eventually slowed its pace until it was just the guitar again, and so the set finished with the crowd belting out the chorus along with the band until both could do no more. Seemingly going against management, they got on with the encore almost immediately and tore straight into Hold On, one of the technically more sophisticated tracks that has a very welcome hint of breaks. It would have been good to get a fuller exposure of it during the set but alas their time was up and they, along with most of the crowd, flooded out into the night.
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