10. LMFAO @ Platinum Nightclub, BroadBeach
There was shuffling.
There were champagne showers.
It was Matt Stafford’s birthday.
Sammy was behind the bar.
Before we had a chance to take it all in it was midday and we were in Banora Point. (Which was either a monumental fail or the best night ever - yet to decide). Nursing a mean hangover from going Jager for Jager with the birthday boy, I forked out $100 for a cab back to Main Beach with my tail between my legs.
9. LaLa Luau NYE 2011 @ LaLa Land, Byron Bay
Not usually ones to pee in our own pockets but our New Years Eve parties are pretty darn good. Due to noise and his need for rest before numerous New Years Day gigs around the country our guest DJ requested he didn’t stay at our apartment. Alas, he ended up leaving straight for his plane at 10am, no sleep and still wearing his Hawaiian shirt! I received a MMS at 11pm that night still going strong! Legend.
8. Mickey Avalon @ LaLa Land, Byron Bay
One time male prostitute & crackhead who raps predominately about his dick, somehow lands one of the parties of the year. Not hard to see why with lyrics like this:
My dick don't fit down the chimney
Your dick is like a kid from the Philippines
My dick is like an M16
Your dick - broken vending machine
7. Our Birthday’s/Dance Aid @ LaLa Land, Byron Bay
Rhys and Sammy’s birthday’s fall 2 days apart and these special days have snowballed the last few years to be one of the pin up party weeks on the calendar. Furthermore, the Queensland floods of last summer needed a fundraiser. It’s rare that you get to go out and party and the proceeds of doing so go to a good cause. Even rarer that an event like this would fall on your birthday. So when anyone asks why I was wearing a bike helmet in the club or why was there 2 types of birthday cake literally smashed all over the apartment, I say that it was in support of the QLD Premiers Flood Relief Appeal. The next day we felt like jumping off a cliff – so we did.
6. ATB @ Sutra Newport Beach -> Riva Starr @ Wet Republic -> Akon @ Chateau -> Identity Fest @ Mandalay Bay -> Bart B More @ Dim Mak L.A
A night out in Newport Beach, California turns into the ultimate test of party endurance and culminates with me drinking a guitar full of Jagermeister and roundhouse kicking the dining table at a room in the Imperial Palace before miraculously driving back to LA and starting all over again... Here's the run down:
* I know what you're thinking, ATB really? Yes, the guy who made 9PM (Til I Come), don’t know if it was the bottles of Grey Goose I was smashing with some Aussie guy who plays for the Padres but he was actually pretty good.
* Wet Republic - The original pool party in Vegas was every bit as good as it was last year (see last years list). TIP: Wear sunscreen, Summer in Las Vegas is fucking hot.
* Akon - Stretch grabbed his arse.
* Lets be honest Americans are still getting the hang of festivals but with a line-up that includes Booka Shade, Afrojack, Kaskade, Pretty Lights & Steve Aoki you can easily overlook the pre-teen furry pant wearing ravers making out on the dancefloor. Nero almost made me like dubstep.
* Dim Mak - Steve Aoki's infamous club night didn't disappoint. With the best crowd we'd seen in, Cali kick arse sound and Bart B More dropping some serious dancefloor heat. Props to our homeboy Stretch for landing himself the opening set of the night.
5. Prom Night @ Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise
What do you get when you cross university students, party tunes, inflatable boats and the coolest club on the Gold Coast? A party so wild even a guy dressed as a sad lion can wind up in a threesome. It’s back again this year by popular demand
4. Creamfields, Brisbane
The mainstage was rammed all day with act like Martin Solvieg, Skrillex & Deadmau5 which left us with plenty of dance floor real-estate for the real highlights; Round Table Knights & Umek. Someone punched Deadmau5 at the afterparty....
3. Flight Facilities @ Potato Head (Junction Festival), Bali
Lets not beat around the bush here, Kuta is fucked. You would be excused if you landed in Bali and saw the state of Kuta on a Saturday night (or any night for that matter) and wanted to hop on the next flight out of there. Fortunately, heaven exists just 10 minutes down the road and goes by the name of Potato Head Beach Club (named after it's sister venue in Jakarta). More of a restaurant than club this place really has to be seen to be believed and we were lucky enough to catch Australia's favourite purveyors of disco, Flight Facilities spinning and part of this years Junction Festival. Anyone who has ever caught a FF set should know exactly what I mean. Add to that the beachfront location, beautiful women and not a single Bintang singlet in sight, which is no mean feat considering the 1500 person strong crowd and you have the disco of the century.
Honourable Mention to the Flight Facilities boys for backing up a few months later and turning up un-announced at our club and smashing out their best set of the tour (by their own admission). That night ended with a full strip show which had town talking for days.
Dis-honourable mention to The Cave - Seminyak's secret after hours venue. The club is actually been made to look like a cave. Near impossible to find, It’s 50 meters down from Potato Head next door to the Circle K - just knock on the big wooden door and you're in.
2. Round Table Knights @ LaLa Land, Byron Bay
This party was on the list before it even happened. Things got real tropical courtesy of a promo campaign lead by Josh 'Loose Lips' Latinovic, who started a 30 person strong conga line complete with maracas. Also in top form was Jager Dan, who had flown in for the week to raise drinking stakes high. The boys played all their hits plus 'Pony' by Genuwine just to ensure we were all hard and wet long after boxing day. The night was such a turn on that some didn’t make it home and went X rated in the toilets. Stay classy San Diego.
1. Stereosonic , Sydney and Brisbane
Tickets sold like hotcakes this year and rightly so. Promoters Totem Onelove nailed the line up. When I heard that the Sydney stop was going to be the biggest dance festival in Australian history I had to be there. Avicii played 'Levels'. People sung. Benny Benassi played 'Cinema'. People Danced. LMFAO played 'Party Rock Anthem'. People shuffled.
When it rolled into Brisbane as the final leg no one was disappointed. After staying relatively low key at the Sydney day we wanted to cutloose. When we ran into John Connor and his entourage, the number 1 party of the year looked easily within sight. Like proud parents we watched on as 4 of our resident DJs played throughout the day. But once again all talk was about the after-party, news had spread across Australia that last years was the party of the decade, so many had come to Brisbane just to see for themselves. Again, Carl Cox spun a 5 hours disco set and he had all the guests with hands in the air to the early 90’s hit ‘Gypsy Woman’. Similarly to last year, rest of the details of the night get a little foggy but I am pretty sure shares in Patron were way up on Monday morning.
