It’s a Wednesday night, but you wouldn’t think it if you were inside Apple Bar. Arriving at the East End club for Calvin Harris’ first of two shows, the crowd was already partying as if it was past midnight on a Saturday night. This club is one of those venues where you need to be a non-stop club freak or drinking heavily to bypass the fact that you’re otherwise in amongst a crowd of people who look like they’re about to audition for an Australian branch of Jersey Shore. Unfortunately for me, I was neither of these things tonight, so the wait for the first DJ on tonight’s bill felt longer than it probably was.

A 25 year old DJ hailing from Glasgow was to get already pumped crowd ready for Harris set, due to start at 12:30am, Matt Burns aka BURNS. With an impressive list of remixes under his belt for artists including Kasabian, Missy Higgins and Wolfmother, BURNS was fun to watch. I think in an age where almost anyone with a half-decent audio/computer system can call themselves DJs and/or producers, the standards of individuality and originality in material has gone downhill in many cases. While it was difficult to completely critically evaluate this guy because of the setting and hey, how much can one actually deconstruct an hour-long DJ set of club hits, there was something different in how BURNS touched up and remixed his own work. Clearly, Calvin Harris saw something back when he was still touring his live show, as he invited BURNS along to be his tour DJ. This set wasn’t simply about throwing out standard chart busting hit after hit (that was to be left to the headliner), but this DJs original stuff was covering all bases, not remaining strictly within the dance/techno boundaries.

I ducked out and upstairs near the end of the set to get a dose of old school RnB courtesy of Apple’s resident DJs and my goodness, what a relief that was; with Harris’ 90 minute set still to come, I figured it would work in my sober favour to have a break in genre (refer to my Summadayze review). With word spreading that Harris himself had arrived in the building, I found myself downstairs and relatively close to the stage. Taking to the decks promptly at 12:30am, Harris kicked things off with “I’m Not Alone”, which sent the dance floor alight in flashes of green and red lights and a mob of dancing maniacs.

I’d missed Harris’ live show at 2010’s Big Day Out and watching him mix tonight, I really regretted missing out on seeing the Scottish producer performing in that capacity. There were moments where I could have shut my eyes and imagined myself dancing along to “You Used To Hold Me” and “Bounce” in a different venue and be having the same amount of fun as I was here. But, credit where credit’s due, Harris is definitely good at what he does. I’d seen on his Twitter page that he’d been tweaking an acid version of “Flashback” during this Australian tour, but what actually went down was off the chain crazy. I’m talking about the sort of noise that deafens me in my left ear after an ENTIRE rock show set – this was only for about six minutes! The bass rippled through the small area of the main dance floor and even the DJ himself was getting into it as much as the crowd were – a definite highlight. Mixing up tunes by Dizzee Rascal, Example and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Harris balanced his own originals and the tracks everyone knew well to a great degree.

By about 1:30am I’d had almost been caught in a mini circle pit started by some wankers in the middle of the floor and the heat resultant of being crammed in a small venue amongst god knows how many people was beginning to take its toll. Tapping out around this time in order to find some seat to slump in, it still felt like I was in amongst the action as Harris made people scream and cheer as he went into the last half hour of his set. Finishing up with “We Found Love” and “Feel So Close”, Harris cheerfully thanked everyone and asked us all to go one more round with him.

With tonight’s show having sold out in record time, resulting in Harris putting on a second show for Thursday night, he delivered the goods to a great deal of the crowd. I enjoyed it for the most part, though I think I’d prefer him performing his own vocals live etc... or perhaps I just need to be off my face to get the full experience of today’s dance/techno scene.