Words: Bridget Chalmers
Like most North-siders, I’m not particularly big on venturing down South of the river, unless it’s for free food, your token South-Side mate’s birthday or a dirty sesh at Revolver. But after having a hung AF (as fuck) Friday afternoon listening to Luca Donzelli whilst lying on my bed and wondering when my headache was going to fuck off, I got pretty jazzed about heading to Pawn & Co that night to catch this guy in action.
Each time I’ve been to Pawn & Co, I’ve never been disappointed but that’s because I only ever go there when the line doesn’t look like a Saturday morning Broadsheet-featured brunch spot. I’m a whinger. I don’t like lines. I’m from New Zealand, and there aren’t enough of us to be stuck in line for more than 10 minutes. But fortunately for me, I could waltz on into Pawn on Friday like it was no big deal, and that put me in a good mood.
Because my mates are similar to me (obviously), no one wanted to venture down South with me, so I was no mates Nige for the next few hours. Now the idea of hitting a deep house gig by yourself is usually only comfortably suited to those sort of “I don’t give AF” cookers so I was feeling a little out of my depth and decided to stand off to the side and sip on some sort of hoppy beer that I didn’t really bloody need. Within five minutes of Luca Donzelli hitting the decks I did not give a shit that I was alone, because I was so fucking invested in this and just wanted to get in and around the beats (couple more beers did help, lets be honest).
His mixing was euphoric and totally authentic and I could feel myself becoming totally in sync with the music, as cliche as it sounds. It didn’t surprise me one bit that Donzelli had played with the likes of Germane Brigante, Stefano Noferini and Josh Butler. His clean execution of refined and eclectic house music was an absolute treat. Over the two hour set, the crowd did not stop grooving, it just continued to grow and I was loving every minute of it. Kicking off with classic house and techno and then moving into some deeper tracks towards the end, I felt the progression of intensity in Donzelli’s performance that you don’t often just casually come across on a Friday night. A friend of mine made it around 2:45, so I was able to get really into it towards the end without feeling awkward breaking it down like my mum on her birthday.
No complaints apart from about how shit my mates are when I offer them a plus one to an epic gig.
newrhythmsmusic.com 
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