Photo: Chris Gibbins Photography
Arriving at around 11:30, the queues for The Warehouse had already reached around the sides of Somers Street and it was clear even before entering that there was a general furore for the event that hasn’t been witnessed at the venue for some time.
Hijinkz, a student here at Leeds University, kept the crowd pacified with a strong bass and house set, however it was clear that the majority of the crowd were here for one thing and one thing only: Tottenham born, Kiss 100 veteran and undisputed garage expert DJ EZ.
Photo: Chris Gibbins Photography
When EZ eventually graced the DJ booth at 2am, the atmosphere inside The Warehouse, which had started a t a slow simmer at the beginning of the night and had been steadily rising in temperature throughout solid sets from Hijinkz and Artwork, completely exploded at the drop of the needle.
Photo: Chris Gibbins Photography
EZ’s highly adept skills at DJing is showcased unequivocally throughout his sets. There was barely enough time to try and shout out the lyrics from the Ms Dynamite, Wiley, Tempah T or Lil Silva tracks he dropped before the mix jolted towards another direction and another track was played. The rapid fire pace of EZ’s set and the quality of mixing meant that, although the songs were almost constantly changing, the hype fuelled atmosphere did not. This reached an apex when he dropped Breach’s, ‘Jack’ halfway through the set.
Photo: Chris Gibbins Photography
To draw focus towards negatives of the night however, it was clear that Selective Hearing over booked the night to an almost outrageous degree. I spent most of the night dancing on a staircase as this was the only way to stop myself from looking like a bobbing emperor penguin, with both my arms glued to my sides due to the amount of people on the dance floor.
Photo: Chris Gibbins Photography
Also, with £4.50 for a can of red stripe and £15 third release tickets, there were echoes of Manchester’s Warehouse Project following the Selective Hearing collective into Leeds. This made for an unexpected surprise at the bar and left me with no illusions that this was an event with a firm financial focus, starkly contrasted by events such as Leeds’ own Dilation.
James Andersen
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