Photos from FasterLouder

On a sodden Saturday night, in a tiny, crowded café just across the road from Epping station, a group of fifty or sixty young people huddled together – twilight coffee in hand, hiding from the deluge outside. The relentless autumn rain had moved proceedings from a Denistone backyard to Pablo & Rusty’s café, a quaint little concrete corridor that would become a space for a secret musical blissfest. This was the fate of the very first No Fixed Address show, organised by The Gate and the Life Aquatic blog.

Melbourne producer Naminé opened the evening, fogging up the windows with warm, hazy beats and pretty vocals. The teenager is something of a prodigy – at only 15 he is the cherry-popper for Life Aquatic’s record label, which released 250 super-limited editions of the Velvet EP on 7” vinyls. Get one – this kid is going places.

Fellow Melbournite Time Shield then turned the crowd to face the empty café wall, which he promptly converted into a mesmerising visual feast. It was the second live show from the new project for Tim Shield, aka Faux Pas. His combination of live projection and sound was utterly engrossing, throwing in scenes from cult movie Beetlejuice and even Gilmore Girls, creating a constantly morphing, pulsing, buzzing, mind-bending experience. Seriously, have you ever watched jelly bounce?!

Sydney duo Albatross finished off the evening on a wave of glitchy goodness. Their very first live performance was impressively tight; the pair layered euphoric synth with distant, echoing vocals, transforming the café into a sea of nodding heads and glazed eyes. Locals taking a Saturday-night stroll stopped on the street and peered through the window, transfixed and somewhat confused. No doubt they wanted to be on the other side of the glass, inside our warm and pleasantly caffeinated bubble.

Having to move the event from its original mystery-backyard location was disappointing, but hey, there really was no fixed address. [Boom-tish! – Ed.] It was a magical evening nonetheless, and hopefully the weather will be kinder next time around. Keep your eyes on this awesome live concept, built for those of us struggling to find a gig this side of the bridge. They're onto something special.

To stay in the loop about future No Fixed Address shows and other events, keep your beady eyes on The Gate's website and The Life Aquatic blog. We also recommend that you check out Time Shield, Namin é  and Albatross if you haven't already, and read the Flog's interview with Gate founder Joe Hardy here.