I am converted. I started last night feeling that I had yet to tap into a Sydney version of the messy, edgy, damn fine music mayhem that London delivers pretty much every night of the week. I’ve been to festivals here and haven’t had my fill, I’ve been to pubs and have left empty and I’ve had all-nighters without hitting that glad-to-be-alive button.

But Leftfield at the Enmore Theatre has changed everything. Partly, I admit, because my mate Jess Mills is their female vocalist and it was such a proud, good-clean-fun moment for me, seeing her up there during Original with dance music heroes, totally at home, or as John her manager said to me “a natural.” She’s just signed her first record contract and her latest tune with Breakage hit the UK charts at number 34. Bloop!

But it’s her partnership with aging dance music aficionados, Leftfield, that gave us all a chance to see her shine last night. They delivered a consummately polished performance – it had that self-assured magnitude and big, dirty story telling that I think can only come with twenty-one years of worldwide touring. There were peaks and troughs, amazing visuals, the whole crew of (mostly teddy-bear like) dub and reggae vocalists and a massive, bang-up-for-it audience. The Enmore is like the Brixton Academy – the roof feels it’ll blow off with pounding bass as the sound system punches way above its height to delicious effect. And the crowd went wild.

90s UK electronica in Newtown, March 2011: I’ve seen Australia’s hedonistic light. Hats off to the Enmore and to the whole of lovely Leftfield who fed me beer and pizza and reinvigorated my Sydney enthusiasm last night.