Review: Mall Grab: Boiler Room, Propyard – ‘A classic day party to kick off the festival season’

Since its inception in 2010, Boiler Room has grown into a behemoth of dance music culture. An all-encompassing, multi-disciplinary purveyor of all things house, techno, garage, dub, grime, hip hop and more.

They are perhaps most famed for their slice of life approach to live broadcasting – catching the minutiae of the rave in real time: the clumsy interactions, terrible dancing, spilled drinks and general mischief of those around the decks in media res.

Rather than a stage towards which everything else points, Boiler Room have pioneered and are famed for situating the decks in the heart of the party. For Saturday’s event at Propyard, this took the form of a central grandstand; a monolith around which the wide-eyed revellers danced and grooved and stumbled in ritualistic fervour.

A respected promoter commands a respected lineup – and Saturday certainly did not disappoint. Headlining was Australia’s finest export since Steve Irwin or the mullet, the venerable statesman of house and techno – Mall Grab.

Usually the sole reserve of major festivals, the opportunity to catch him play such an intimate venue is one that clearly wasn’t overlooked. The entry queue sprawled and coiled round the industrial surroundings of Feeder Road as the gravity of the event pulled in ravers from each far-flung corner of the country. The undercard glittered with similar star power – presenting sets from Radio One’s most recent resident DJ, Elkka, the cosmic afro-disco of O’Flynn and Boiler Room faithful Bradley Zero to name but a few.

Partly in thanks to the mammoth queue, but also admittedly a rather heavy Friday night, we eventually peeled around the entrance at 4pm to reveal a party already in full flow. The event, though still selling tickets on the door as we queued, stretched Propyard to it’s straining maximum. The neighbouring Van Gogh exhibition had graciously lent it’s facilities to fashion an overflow bar and seating area but even with this addition the event pulsed with bustling excitement.

Boiler Room events introduce each DJ in between sets, a welcome feature of their shows that saves reviewers and revellers alike from slurring into the person next to them’s ear ‘who’s on the decks mate?’, just to be met with a dismissive shrug.

The crowd came to life when Mall Grab came on stage – photo: Sam Roberts

First to be announced following our arrival was O’Flynn. Shake off any connotations to shamrocks and Guinness, this London native’s tunes have a distinctly African skew, sonically closer to Kampala than Kerry. Exotic percussions jostle over distorted basslines before culminating in jubilant cacophonies that could tempt a statue to two-step.

We rose above the pulpit to share the stage with Elkka during her subsequent set – brimming with sultry, shimmering bangers. Dust from the gravel underfoot, kicked up from the myriad of shuffling bodies, mixes with the pyrotechnic smoke to create a hazy smog around the crowd. For all the pioneering new sounds played, Teardrops by Womack & Womack garnered one of the biggest reactions of the day – proving the classics are never to be overlooked.

Eventually, the security came to their senses and booted us off the stage to make way for the ‘gold wristbands’, met of course with deriding sneers. It didn’t matter, among the stalls there was palpable anticipation for the evening’s main event, Mall Grab. Clambering up to the decks to whooping cheers, the beats of his first track thud with signature high-velocity BPM. Beats fold into one another like masterful origami, stuttering high hats drop and shatter into a thousand tiny pieces and layers upon layers of superseding synths melt instantly back into viscerally thumping basslines. Refusing to be restrained by genre, the set floats effortlessly between house, techno, grime and whatever else takes his fancy. The crowd that envelops the central grandstand bathe in the evening’s warm glow – moving in sweaty, unified euphoria.

All too soon the music cuts and everyone scrambles to find friends, ubers and an afters to continue the debauchery into the early hours. Through bleary eyes and sore heads, all in attendance can look back on what was a classic day party to kick off the festival season.

Main photo: Sam Roberts

Read more: Review: Club Blanco, Propyard – ‘So good it was almost worth missing Eurovision for’

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