The Prince Of Aussie Techno Conquers The Club Of Comfiness

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. That's cool! We get it :)
You can support us by sharing this story or following us on Facebook.

Back to Top

The Prince Of Aussie Techno Conquers The Club Of Comfiness

A Personal Account of a Night at Comfort Club by Fergus Sweetland

I wish to share with you a tale of a night out in Sydney. But before that, let us reflect upon a statement. A club night is only as good as the people who are running it. Dwell on that for a minute. I feel like this is a true statement. A night will reflect the effort, love and attention to detail that the promoter is putting into it. If a night is bad, then the promoter may be in it for the wrong reason or haven’t put the effort in. If a night is good, the promoter has put some of their soul into the night. They believe that what they’re doing is something good and necessary for their local culture.

I want to talk about a party in Sydney called Comfort Club. I first encountered the crew when I played a show at the Meanwhile night when it was still up and running out of the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville. With a four point Funktion-One system and a jam packed dance floor, it was apparent to me that these guys knew how to put on a party. Sadly, times changed and the venue is no longer in use for this party.

img_5446

Matt Plant in the mix, warming up the crowd with some classy house tunes.

Move a year and a bit forward and I’m back meeting the crew made up of Matt Plant (HendriK), Ryan Fazz (Señor Face), Winston Green (Bazil) and Billy Mansfield (Bilsn). We’re at a small basement venue called Tokyo Sing Song underneath the Marlborough Hotel, Newtown. I was meant to come up and play for Comfort Club in the middle of the year, but my eardrum perforated the morning I was meant to get on a flight to come up and play. The crew was understanding of the injury, and quickly we sorted out another time for me to play some beats in the basement. This was the first sign of their accommodating vibe.

When you meet the Comfort Club crew, you’re instantly thrown into a deep sense of love. These guys wanted you to be there, and they extend their gratitude to you because of it. As I was chatting to Matt Plant, he explained why they put on the night. They just want to put on a quality party with good sound and good tunes. Most importantly, they will only book local acts. “Who needs to book some international when you can get some bloke who completely destroys it on the decks and he’s from around the corner. I’ve had people come up to me and ask where the DJ is from and their so surprised that it’s a local”. Berlin is Berlin because Berlin backs Berlin. Comfort Club backs Sydney. In my case, down the road is 900km away, but hey, that’s Australia for you.

My humble self wearing the official Comfort Club robe. Very comfy.

To create a welcoming vibe for the audience, entry is free. The team doesn’t make money of the night. They run it because this is one of their passions. It’s their effort in keeping Sydney’s nightlife alive. They just want you to come and experience something truly fun. That’s a few points for the boys.

You get a mixture of people down in the Tokyo Sing Song basement, but everyone has come together because they know what they like, and that is quality. The Comfort Club crew warmed up the room from 10pm-12:30am with some lovely house music tunes. This showed me that they’re deeply into the music. More points there. I played my set from 12:30am-3:15am and the room was still full by the end. Things got pretty intense down there. I played some more groove based techno for about an hour to warm the crowd up for some larger sounds. When I moved into some of the harder tracks, the crowd just kept lapping it up. This showed me that the Comfort Club crew know how to draw the right people through the door. More points.

img_5420

Obviously the situation is different these days in Sydney, but the underground scene will always find a way. My very good friend/Sydney guide Pat Carroll tells me that since the lockout laws came into effect, the Newtown area has changed, for good and worse.  It’s forced a nightlife into survival mode, but the Comfort Club crew have persevered and created something really fun and special. As I’ve said, they’re about backing their local, and so should you. It’s how a scene draws attention to itself. If people support local acts and nightlife, people from outside will look upon the city and want to experience it for itself.

As soon as I left the venue, I already wanted to come back for another set. It’s a free party with a great vibe, a great sound system (which they brought in to beef up the sound) and a lovely quirky venue. This is the kind of night needs to happen more around Sydney. A club night is only as good as the people who are running it, and the people running Comfort Club are lovely, passionate and smart people. I highly recommend being there for the next installment of the night yourself. 10/10.

img_5497

The bloke was fully embracing the large techno sounds

 

Yours truly,

Fergus Sweetland.

Comments

Related Posts