Above & Beyond play at Marquee Sydney – photos and review
Soon after their Creamfields gig in Sydney, a few days later was a surprise announcement that Above & Beyond will be playing a club gig (cue the cheer and fanfare) especially after the woeful performance at Creamfields (terrible audio quality and production). However it was not long before more details sifted in and we find out that it would be Marquee that will be hosting these legends in Trance. I think the whole Sydney-based trance family let a collective sigh as they pondered whether or not to make the trek to Marquee, or alternatively whether or not they'd even be able to get in to see Jonno and Paavo (whether that be long queues or "selective" security and door policies).
I have been to Marquee before, and it's no doubt a very nice venue, but the strange combination of a shiny new venue combined with an attempt to appeal to the rich creates an interesting scene when true music fans clash with this idea. It would be interesting to see the crowd that would turn up (or should I say, be allowed in), club gigs are usually best to hear what a DJ is truly capable of, there's usually no pressure to 'play for the masses' and tunes which are out of the ordinary can be played.
Had a quick squizz in the Boombox and for a RnB-esque room, it's quite nice.
Last Friday though? Despite being in a club, there was no club gig feel, first trance DJs to be on the decks were Binary Finary (big name in trance themselves) and from the crowd I hear a shout, "what is this? play more vocal trance", this was early in the night and I already felt how bad this crowd was going to be. Not long after (with Binary Finary still playing) there is another confused punter not even realising who is playing, ignorantly there are requests for 'Sun and Moon' and I give myself a mental facepalm (maybe a few).
Time came and Paavo and Jonno from Above & Beyond arrive, as they step on the decks, it's clear how many actually know what's going on. It becomes even clearer when a few of their older tunes are dropped, like 'On a good day' and 'Sirens of the Sea', I kid you not, less than 10% of the crowd would know the words and sing-a-long. 10 fucking percent, it wasn't too bad being front and centre, but as you step back, there's nothing from the crowd at all.
Speaking of moving back, the majority of the crowd were the biggest wankers I have ever seen! Trying to move around with a big fuck-off DSLR and flash is usually an easy affair, either they'll spot you and move, or a quick tap and a gap is quickly opened for you to pass, but not this time, not this venue. Everyone wants to be where they are (or closer to the front) and it takes a good shove to get through. Seriously, I'm not here to take your spot. Another time a guy behind me holds onto my back as he attempts to get on a mate's shoulder, man, I was tempted to just give him a knock with the magnesium alloy body of my camera.
Back to A&B though, they know how to work the crowd, but this by no means made up for the lacklustre set at Creamfields. To me it's still the same predictable cheesy Group Therapy set we've all heard a million times. It's almost become a formula, Sun & Moon, Thing Called Love, Prelude, Love is not Enough, Prelude and so forth. It's not that they're such bad tunes, but they've just been overplayed and in a way that when you've heard one Group Therapy set, you've pretty much heard them all.
The highlight of the night would have been Oceanlab's Siren by the Sea, despite the lack of knowledge from the crowd, it's just one of them amazing songs.
Other thoughts for the night? The table service is a rather nice thing (if you've got the exorbant amounts of money to get one), someone appeared to have a birthday and were greeted with a girl carrying a CO2 tank and two guns to blast CO2 fog everywhere, pretty damn awesome way. There's no doubt Marquee is a lavish place, plenty of hot girls dancing on stage in a variety of outfits, from little bras to swimsuit-esque outfits and even space-women! Interesting but over-the-top.
To be honest, I've been hoping for a nice club to open up in Sydney that would have their own music policy, but after this second visit two months after opening, I don't see the place lasting at all. Lovely venue, ruined by terrible management. A good club only needs a few things, good venue and production (appropriate for the music genres you'll support), clearly defined nights and music policy so punters know exactly what's going on and when and finally having staff and security that aren't there to play God.
That's it from me, enjoy the rest of the photos by clicking below, you probably won't see me step foot in Marquee again 
and my 2c, if you haven't been, you're not missing out on much.
Click here for the rest
My perfect steak
I've been trying to perfect my own steak recipe for a while now (well since my local Woolworths stock some nice juicy bone in rib-eye pieces!). I've been using a combination of oven and pan-frying to ensure the steak is evenly cooked in the center, yet charred and brown on the outside. A good piece of steak should require no marinade, all that's required is olive oil, salt and pepper. Here's the result of my steak (as you can see it's served with a nice salad and roasted vegies), the steak itself is a perfect medium rare. The steak here was about 450grams, pretty big piece but Woolworths will occasionally have pieces up to 700grams!
The outside however is not the important bit, what's important is the inside. Below is how a steak should be, first thing you'll notice is that it's pink, not red. Second thing you'll notice is that the pink-ness runs right from the top to the bottom. Why is this a good thing? Firstly pink means it is cooked but not enough to turn it brown and chewy, being pink it remains super juicy and tender. The consistency of the pink-ness means that it's cooked throughout and evenly, not like most steak places where the middle is actually red/raw and the outside is done.
So how do you get a steak this good? Firstly you need a good piece of meat, it's gotta be thick and good quality, don't bother doing this with a cheap rump or t-bone. Second trick is the oven, while this seams to go against everything for cooking a steak, an oven allows you to bring the internal temperature of the meat slowly without overcooking the outside. Finally, resting time, this is super important! Resting it will allow it to cook and soak up the juices so that when you cut it open, liquid doesn't come oozing out.
Now this wasn't a proper guide to how to do it, but I feel that I can do it consistently enough to do a proper write up and instructions. Next time I'll take photos along the way to show you the cooking process.
Perhaps the next time I do this will be with a more expensive cut of beef, perhaps a well marbled Wagyu.
The best and biggest burger. Ever. Seriously.
I've known about this place for a long time now, but today, I know what it looks like, what it smells like and most importantly what it tastes like. We've all seen those giant burgers from Killa burger, but you've never seen a giant burger like this before and it's not only amazing because it's big, it's amazing because it's also tasty. Today I made the trek up to the North West to Gunderman (way beyond the Hill District) 90km from my area and 1.5 hours of driving lands me in a little area called Gunderman. It's right by the Hawkesbury River and there's a little cafe called Wombat Cafe.
Blink and you'll miss the place, it's a little turn off Wisemans Ferry road (map all the way at the end). Being a lovely day it was a nice drive with the top-down, there's plenty of twisty roads to make for a fun drive. When we got there, we saw the signs, Australia's biggest burger and our faces just lit up.
Now 1.7kg sounds amazing and so does that picture but that's not what we were here for. We wanted the monster 2.4kg Double Wombat Burger with the works. What does that get you? 500 gram bun (more like a loaf), 2x 500 gram Angus beef patties, bacon, egg, cheese, caramelised onion, tomato, pinapple, various salads and whatever sauce you like.
How good does that look?! We were just in awe as it came out on a cutting board with knife ready to share (there's no way in hell you could finish that on your own) although the owner of the place has told us there had been 6 people who had finished a slightly smaller version (1.7kg one without the second meat patty). We carefully dissected the burger to share and had our first look at its delicious insides.
Seriously tasty, but that's not all that's amazing about this joint. The owner makes his own home-made chilli sauce and that thing is amazing! It's quite hot (despite him making it more mild) but at the same time has a bit of sweetness to it, not a sweet chilli sauce sweet, but something and holy crap it is simply divine. It's so good that we asked him if we could buy a bottle of it. The burger itself is fantastic, very down-to-earth, nothing fancy like relish or exotic herbs and spicies, it's simple and well-cooked. It's also not greasy as you'd expect and the variety of fillings makes for a different flavour with every bite. It's got everything a burger should have, just supersized. We made one grave mistake though and that was by ordering a second burger. As it cooked, our bodies had a little time to digest we were getting quite full as it came out and finishing it was a real struggle.
Tiny bit of bacon leftover but we were seriously stuffed after the second one. Would definitely recommend this place despite the long drive and I'll definitely be coming back here again. It's simply amazing.
Probably important bit of information is how do you get there? It's along Wisemans Ferry road up north, you'll need to come sort of through the Hills District (if you're from the west) or Hornsby if you're out East.
Do a search for Riverlands Caravan Park if you need to find it.
Sander van Doorn and Adrian Lux – Eagles
Catching up on the A State of Trance 550 tour, quite a few tunes have stood out and listening to Gabriel and Dresden's set from Den Bosch, a track by Sander van Doorn stands out and to be honest, I would have never guessed that it would be by him. I first heard ATB open with this tune back in his Moscow set.
That tune would be Eagles by Sander van Doorn and Adrian Lux (yep, the same guy that did Teenage Crime).
Sander van Doorn is definitely experimenting with a variety of styles in his music, but it seems whatever he does, it turns out to be a killer.
Some new bachelors for 2012!
Congratulations to Lily, Eric, Evan, Eugene and Bianca for graduating! Dropped by their graduation after work on Tuesday 20th March and snapped up a couple of photos as they recieved their testamur.
Lily T.
Eric S.
Evan T.
Bianca T.
Eugene S.
For the whole album, click the photo below:
Click here for more
MX-5 Daytime shoot
As a car owner (and photographer) nowadays, what else do you do when you've just washed the car and the weather isn't too bad? Obviously you're going to go and find a spot to take some photos 
. Drove around Wetheril Park looking for something a little industrial (mainly large roller doors) but I came across this funky wall with yellow lines and that'd be the spot for the day.
Photos below:
Left rear 3/4
Side shot
Straight front on
Right rear 3/4
Off center straight on
Interior shot
New car – 2002 MX-5
Last weekend I had the privilege of picking up my first proper car (no, the Ford Laser doesn't count), the car of choice.. a 2002 Mazda MX-5 Titanium edition.
Mazda MX-5
The Titanium edition features a few things over your regular NB8B MX-5, firstly leather all round, seats, steering wheel and gear shifter; seats and wheel in a nice tan colour. Also included are factory Enkei wheels, chrome scuff plates as well as metal sports pedals and six stacker in-dash CD headunit. All up I paid $17,000 for it which is rather expensive for an MX-5 of that year but I figure the low kilometers (55,800 when I bought it) and the excellent condition made it well worth it.
MX5 front
Other goodies that came with the car were a chrome v styled bar behind the seats, haven't taken a photo with the top down so it's rather hard to see and the added bonus of a custom pod filter air intake (and shiny blue piping to match). Other nice touch are the custom plates which were bought before the annual fee was introduced, so they're stuck on the car for life . Apparently the original owner somehow made a connection with two-two and titanium, to be honest I don't see the connection, so instead I make my own; 22 years of age when I got the car, and what I initially thought was 22 being like 2002 
.
Engine bay
Either way, extremely happy with the car, need some more practice with the manual driving before I can do some spirited driving. What they say about the car is right though, it certain does feel like it rides on rails, it sticks to the road so well! I can't imagine what it'd be like with some coilover suspension! The air intake also gives the engine a nice sound and absolutely love the sucking noise when you switch off the engine; smile to my face every time I drive it (except getting up my driveway).
Some more pics, will have to get a daytime shoot happening along the coast or somewhere nice.
The rear
Another 3/4 shot
Fish and chips for dinner
Cooked my own dinner tonight and decided it'd be some grilled fish and chips (and a salad as well to be healthy). I kinda bastardised my own recipe from a few on the net and I think it turned out pretty well. Aside from slightly overcooking the salmon, it was rather delicious. Photo below:
Fish and chips
Ingredients:
- Sea salt and black pepper (freshly ground)
- Crushed garlic
- Lime juice
- Onion powder
- Olive oil
- Little bit of English mustard
- Salmon fillet
How you do it:
- Take salmon out of the fridge and let it sit for 15-20 minutes
- Mix all the ingredients
- Place the salmon in your marinade and make sure it's fully coated, let it sit for 5 minutes, flipping each side in between.
- Chuck the salmon inside your grill until it's cooked (will vary depending on the size of your cut).
I used my convection oven instead of grill (it's quicker and I was hungry) but a grill would definitely be better, you can also optionally add a little honey to the marinade.
I’m on a traktor!
Well not like the tractor on a farm.. but instead I got off my arse and built another comp solely for use with Traktor (for those that don't know, it's a DJ'ing program). Finally got it all hooked up and working and it's pretty schmick.
Obligatory photo of the setup:
Traktor setup
Where it sits is a bit narrow so I'm rather close to the screen and I also don't have anywhere to put a mouse/keyboard, guess that's where a laptop comes in handy. So why did I go digital? Well I originally didn't want to but the hassle of sorting music and copying them to USB drives, figured having the whole library available, keyed and analysed is going to be a hell of a lot easier than planning what you want in your mix and having that on a USB key.
Should also be able to record on the same machine as well .
The only thing that puts me out… is the drive inside me!
Oh yeah I must be crazy.
But I believe it's my destiny.
What am I on about? Marcel Woods is what I'm on about coming down to Australia for a short club tour. Was privileged enough to be covering this event and I must way I was impressed by what the Masif Saturdays and Genesis guys did to the venue. Quite a bit of effort into the production with LCD screens, more lasers and lights, walking into the main room, you know it's gonna be a good night.
Start of the night
Marcel Woods, I know him for being a little bit dark, driving and rather electric, a few of my favourites would be Advanced, Inside Me and The bottle.
Here's inside me:
In short, I had some pretty big expectations and when he started off it was amazing, but a few songs later and I'm thinking no way... (not the good no way either). I start to hear the lyrics of something rather familiar, something rather cheesy. I hear 'I turn the music up, I got my records on...' and think what the fuck. Now don't get me wrong, I love Coldplay and the remixes of Every Tear is a waterfall, but this was Marcel Woods! How does a guy that produces songs like Advanced and The bottle play this crap in his set?!
He makes up for it by dropping some killer darker and electric (note electric, not electro) and faith in humanity is restored. See the video below:
But not for long a familiar intro comes a long, it builds a lot slower than usual, I'm thinking oh no... but then it starts to shift and change and I'm thinking perhaps Funkagenda's What The Fuck, but I'm wrong. Turns out, it was LEVELS and I'm standing there with the biggest what the fuck look on my face. Some more wtf is him dropping Warp by Steve Aoki, see video below:
We're in a club gig here not an Aussie festival, I expect hard driving trance from this man, look at the photo on his album... that does not look like the face of a man who plays LEVELS!
Cover for reference
Overall it was an okay night, definitely some highlights during the night, some remix of 'hardcore vibes' definitely brought out the kid in me, definitely never thought I'd hear that one out live.
The extra production at Space made for some nice photos and many thanks to the techs there for helping me out by adjusting the par cans pointing at the DJ from a horrible blue wash to something more neutral. Made the photos a million times better.
Click here fore the rest of the Marcel Woods photos
Older photos – part 2
Next up we have my partial attempt at Sculptures by the Sea at Bondi Beach, partial in the fact that I only got half way before having to leave to head to dinner. Definitely need to make more of an effort to go, more than once preferably as it's one of those events that is always so much fun (photographically). So much choice of subject and in varying environment makes it a challenge to capture something different.
Would love some comments on this photo, bit of an experiment with the composition and the post (and funnily enough, not even a sculpture itself!)
Below is my take on Sculptures by the Sea 2011.
Click for the rest of Sculptures 2011
So the reason the photos from above were cut short was the need to attend Steve's and Janet's birthday at Hurricanes in Darling Harbour. Photos from the night below, nothing too fancy seeing as I only had my 35mm f/2 and no flash with me (I've been pretty lazy these days).
Click for pics of Steve and Janet's 23rd
Older photos – part 1
So I have a whole bunch of photos in the backlog that I never went through and figured I should put them up before touching the photos from my Asia trip. These were from back in October of last year, quite a few months ago, this is part 1 of 2, I'll have a couple of more galleries for November as well.
First up we have some photos from Jimmy and Winnie's 23rd at Encasa where we delighted ourselves a raft of various Tapas and Spanish dishes. Quite liked this restaurant and the food was pretty amazing, so good I attempted at making my own. That dish was the potatas bravas, basically fried potato cubes with a spicy tomato salsa and garlic sauce/mayonnaise.
Click for Jimmy and Winnie's 23rd B'day pics
Second is some photos from out little night out at the night noodle markets. It was a fun night involving a whole variety of Asian foods from noodles to seafood, buns and even Japanese pancakes! Mix in a little wine and good company and it was a lovely evening. To top it off, we did a sugar hit at Spiedo inside Westfield Sydney, quite tasty .
Night Noodle Markets 2011
That's it for now, check back soon for part 2 and hopefully some photos from my Asia trip.
First the Vengaboys, now AQUA!
What has Sydney become? It's like the 90's is coming back again and we're able to relive those childhood hits. Just to refresh your memory (in case you've forgotten or you're in denial) they were the ones that made 'Barbie Girl' and a whole suite of other lollypop pop songs (see what I did there?)
Aqua - Aquarium
I know you're all shouting, tell me more! I want to know when and where they're coming. Well their first show is sold out! (cue sounds of sadness and disappointment) but you'll be glad to know there is a second show up for offer!
When? 16th & 17th of March
Where? The HiFi, Sydney
How much? $60.50
Want to know more?
http://www.inthemix.com.au/news/aust/52000/Aqua_sell_out_announce_more_shows
http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=53728&ref=moshtix&skin=
And just to re-live some memories, here's a couple of YouTube videos:
Aqua - Barbie Girl
Aqua - Doctor Jones
Aqua - Cartoon Heroes
What I got up to this NYE…
Thanks to Martin Bui for finding this epic video on YouTube of Markus Schulz' epic performance at the Metro on New Years. Most of you will remember this song as 'that Russian space song' which went pretty high up the pop charts back when we just started high school.
That song... If you never knew was called ResuRection by a (now disbanded) group called PPK. This version's remixed by Setrise and has this wicked darkness to it. Love it.
Here's a photo from the night, taken by Martin!
Markus Schulz NY Sydney
Happy Welcoming of a New Year (2012)
2012 has come and I'm still a lazy ass at updating my blog, despite this I have actually gotten a few things done as we welcome the new year. Hope everyone had a great NYE celebration, I sure did and what better way to do it than with some pumping trance music and hectic lasers (well also a house party for some pre-drinks). Not sure about everyone else, but 2012 isn't going to be a big bang of change, I don't have many complaints about 2011 and I'm going to take what I started last year and make it even better this year. Here's a pic shamelessly stolen from the Sydney City Council NYE website, NY fireworks are always bound to impress, at least in Sydney anyway.
Sydney Midnight Fireworks
Main things for me for 2012 will be more photography and DJ'ing, so keep an eye out, hopefully I'll be doing some bigger and better things with photography and getting a major kick on in regards to learning how to DJ.
For everyone who's got a resolution for 2012, good luck with it 
.