Heading out to Astra on a Wednesday night seemed like a bad idea until I considered the other option – missing Josh Wink after all these years of hearing his tracks on the dance floor – and decided that not going would be just plain rude. So after making countless cajoling phone calls and applying peer pressure liberally as directed I finally convinced 2 friends to go. Warming up with a couple of quiet beers and yelling obscenities at Thaksin’s Backstage Show, we eventually jumped into a taxi and arrived at Astra just after midnight.

Approaching the club from the Petchburi side of RCA things did not appear to bode well for Wink, the crowd out front of the club looked anemic at best as they lethargically shuffled about, some wearing their complimentary Paul Frank shirts and generally looking way too cool to go inside.

Thankfully, appearances can be deceiving and handing over our 700 baht a head to get in, we were astounded to see that Astra was already packed and the crowd was well up for it already dancing energetically although wink had yet to hit the decks.

But all was not yet well. Banished from the bar next door which was closed for “Party V.I.P” we stood in the main room by the bar marveling at the almost entirely Thai crowd and wondering who in the hell had the bright idea of hiring a psy trance DJ to play the warm up. We weren’t worried about the warmup act any more as 12:15 rolled around — we were busy wondering where the hell Josh Wink was.

At last the man materialized behind the decks and as the trance came off, Wink started to lay the foundations for the evening. Beginning with some stripped down techno, he started to lay a groove that while actually quite mellow hinted at things to come. Standing on the mezzanine by the closed upper bar we waited, train spotting and watched the crowd mill about below confused by the sudden gear change after the banging Psy stuff they had been dancing to 10 minutes previously, the sound of animated chatter audible over the music as we all waited for something to happen.

And did something ever happen.

As the magic 1 am rolled around, Wink threw us another curve, cranking up the tech/acid factor by ten and sending every body in the place onto the floor and every arm into the air. As he played on, his set grew more and more intense until about a quarter to close when he headed into what was essentially a live, on-the-fly remix of his classic “Higher State of Conciousness”.

Say what you want about the track and the myriad remixes of it out there, but it literally tore the roof off Astra. The crowd, recently awakened , went absolutely ballistic and there wasn’t a still body in the place. Time and time again Wink cranked it up yet another notch until it was time to turn the ugly lights on and expose us all for the sweaty mess we had become.

As nights at Astra go, Josh Wink was a party at once odd and special. Scanning the room as the night raged on, and even looking at the pictures today, I am struck by how the crowd was entirely Thai, and with the exception of perhaps 4 or 5 of the farang that I knew at the show, I would have been hard pressed to find another. We could have been at Hollywood had the music not been so fine and the crowd so totally lost in the music.

Irrespective – or perhaps because – of the demographic, Wink was one of the better shows I have seen at Astra to date, despite the late start and the trance DJ. Musically, Wink was spot on and technically he was flawless. Manning Astras three Pio 1000’s to great effect, Wink proved himself a very, very skilled and DJ whose phlegmatic smile widened in direct proportion to the massive energy that filled the room.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of Wink after the last few years, but I would certainly go well out of my way any night of the week to see him play again. It would just be nice if he had actually given us at least two full hours instead of the meagre hour and a half we recieved.