Mylo @ Bang Gang, Moulin Rouge, Friday 26th November 2004

Myles �Mylo� Macinnes and his album Destroy Rock & Roll are pretty damn famous right now in Australia. So if you are into a bit of ye olde Retro Clash, then chances are you were at one of his gigs last week. Being a little partial to the odd bootleg myself, I was interested to hear what the fuss about Mylo was really about.

For starters the venue struck me as an unusual choice. Tickets sold out well before the nite suggesting that either Mylo really was some intergalactic pop star or that the venue was less then enormous. In this case, the club was definitely swingin the sweaty side of cozy and Mylo was the definitive flavour of the month. The place was packed with pushy glamour types checking each other out and hogging the bathroom whilst the show girls taking drink orders were rushed off their bustled butts. It was apparent early on that this gig was gonna be at full capacity with an uncomfortable number of punters struggling for space around the edges.

Mylo was greeted with an uproarious cheer as the already maxxed out dance floor swelled with 80�s babies posing against his backdrop of pastel pop. Mylo is not famed for his skills as deck technician, but his track selection was a retrospective mix of memorable golden oldies and questionable gambles; highlights for me included Technosonic, Womack & Womack and AC/DC. The music waxed and waned, unlike the crowd who relished every savage cross fade; some punters bordered on insane, particularly whenever Mylo dropped one of the tracks off his album. Despite enjoying himself immensely (he was having it large, dolled up in a t-shirt that will spawn a thousand versions �Mother F@#$ker�s Gonna Droppa The Pinger�) Mylo managed to squeeze an amazing amount of material into his performance; his 2 hour set seemed to go forever. Whilst Mylo certainly proved a hit with the crowd, I found the music a little two dimensional, with no real direction in mood.

The latter part of evening was a messy mash-up of Bang Gang DJ Ajax and friends. Their densely compact sets teased and taunted the audience with indie bootlegs and crafty workings of Franz Ferdinand, Guns�n�Roses, Blur and Scissor Sisters. The nite lacked a lot of groove or soul but the DJ�s kept surprising me with their eclectic selections: I hung about purely to hear what was up next despite the plastic element of the crowd getting increasingly nasty.

In many ways, Mylo rocked the �Rouge. His legions of fans will no doubt be champin at the bit for his sets at Good Vibrations in 2005. I am curious to see how he will perform with his band in a live context and look forward to Dropping the Pressure with a friendlier crowd.