Live Review: Tiga, Motorik Vibe Council, The Finger Pince, Jensen Interceptor

“Girl comes up to me and says/What do you drive and I said/Bugatti”

It’s a pretty simple refrain but it brought a couple of hundred people together in Chinese Laundry on a hot Saturday afternoon. Far from the cavernous underbelly of the club, a crowd of well-groomed/deliberately scruffy Bondi types descended on the leafy beer garden. Only a name like Canadian dance king Tiga and the pulling power of Motorik Vibe Council – who are normally known for their warehouse parties that live up to the hype – could pull together the perfect sunny day rave to kiss summer goodbye.

The crowd and the vibe were reminiscent of the glory days of Bang Gang, which the passionate Motorik team has worked hard to revive. The Finger Prince – aka Francis Xavier and former Bang Gang DJ Gus Gruzman – brought effortless, atmospheric techno, including the spacey, nostalgic feel of Speakers To The East. Tiga – known for his polished image as a disco king, all gold chains, eyeliner, slick fringe and that cold stare – was clearly relaxed, smiling and singing wearing a jumper and a colourful baseball cap as he served up a DJ set expertly crafted to maintain a level of craziness within the crowd. (If you saw the way one wild-eyed dude wolfed down a Krispy Kreme with no hands as he danced, you’d have a good idea of the general level of lucidity).

The first hour was all a big tease, with snippets and reworks of that song – the bouncing hook of last year’s annoyingly simple, addictive hit, Bugatti, which, along with a hypnotic film clip, brought him more attention than ever before. The song is typical of Tiga’s glossy, materialist vibe also heard on tracks like Shoes, and the shameless assurance in his monotone voice, as on Plush (“I don’t need a calculator/To know I’m gonna see you later”). When at last he released the Bugatti beast in full, everyone erupted as expected, and he followed with an hour of more minimalist techno, not forgetting the favourites that established him like 2006’s Want Me, as well as ravey modern classics like DJ Trance’s I’m On Planet E and Kernkraft 400’s Zombie Nation. He finished, however, on a totally euphoric note with a remix of Caribou’s Your Love Will Set You Free.

As Tiga jumped away to fly down to Melbourne for his next gig, the four boys from Motorik Vibe Council carried on the good vibes from the end of his set while Jensen Interceptor kept the beats, and the crowd, going into the night, creating a little urban oasis where for a few more hours, it was summer forever.