Review: Basement Jaxx, Motion

After a few hot toddies and some DIY fireworks, we headed over to Motion for Bonfire Night With Basement Jaxx. That’s right, the duo that dominated the charts in the early noughties with bangers like Romeo, Red Alert, Oh My Gosh and Do Your Thing were about to take over one of the best ranked clubs in the world (19th to be exact) and there were even going to be fireworks. Surely this could not fail to be an epic evening?

Although falling on Bonfire night, the evening is actually part of the club’s massive In:Motion series which unites a selection of the world’s most exciting artists, promoters and labels over a 12-week run of truly incredible events. If I am honest, I don’t think the fireworks made any difference to ticket sales but it was a nice bit of excitement when the five-ten minute display went off at midnight. 

Joining the chart-toppers on the main stage were Gotsome, Jus Now and S.O.B.A.D. Adam Gorsky and Alex Holmes (Gotsome) delivered some real bass-heavy house bangers and although they have become a huge name in the international house circuit, you could still sense a ‘Bristol’ aspect to their sound. Local bassy influences such as Roni Size and DJ Die sprung to mind, though their sound also hinted some similarities to Basement Jaxx themselves, so they were a perfectly complimenting support act. 

Over in Room 2 Deekline and Jurassik’s brainchild Hot Cakes delivered an epic takeover. Joining the musical masters were Hybrid Theory, Nu Era, Final Conflict and Lucent. Deekline is known in the music industry for balancing perfectly between cutting edge and mainstream, which was almost an all-round theme for every act of the night. Henceforth, the cave-like area was buzzing all night and it posed a perfect complement to the antics in the main warehouse.  

Motion was busy but not packed. Potentially one of the reasons why the club has become so successful is because the large space is so adaptable, meaning promoters really have the resources to deliver something special as well as having the capacity to book some massive headliners. It might be a case of us locals taking this super-club for granted, but sometimes I feel it can lack a bit of character and the vibes of this night didn’t exactly blow me away. 

Anyway, back to the music and onto Basement Jaxx. Although some DJ sets can be a bit of a cop-out, prior to the event I was pretty positive that Basement Jaxx would deliver a memorable performance. Within half an hour, I realised it was just a generic house mix. I guess they are so known for their vocal-based tracks and live performances- so I had my expectations too high. It’s completely understandable that they would not be expected to play many of their own tunes, but I was hoping for more than a bit of a tease every so often. I couldn’t fault the quality of the set but it  wasn’t anything special.  

Overall, the crowd really enjoyed themselves and there was nothing really to fault. The night just didn’t really blow us away – a familiar story when you see one of your nostalgic faves perform a DJ set I guess.