As James Holden said to me once he finished playing. “This is the best gig I’ve played in 3 years”. That is probably the best way to describe just how good the Balance tour was. Minke was the venue for a two level extravaganza from the Fabric crew. Two levels of Progressive, House, Breaks, Psy & Techno featuring James Holden & Bedrock’s Steve Gerrard.

I arrived at around 11pm after a day of anticipation. The bottom room was to feature all of the Techno, Breaks & Psy acts for the night. The first off the mark was a breaks set from Lachy Pender. This was my only venture to this room all night, although I hear the likes of Bold, Amoeba, Simple Psyman and Fenetik played some cranking tunes.

My next venture up to the top level was to witness the man responsible for such a brilliant night, Mal Chia. Mal played a perfect mood setting warm-up set, pumping the crowd up perfectly with the Zabiela remix of the beautiful FC Kahuna – Hayling. By the completion of his set, Mal had the crowd absolutely pumped and raring to go. Then as the clock struck 1 on stepped the man people had come to see. James Holden.

James Holden began with some beautiful progressive reminiscent of the tracks he begins with on the latest Balance CD. His set was impeccably mixed and flowed perfectly. He then continued to tease the crowd with parts of his massive anthem, A Break in the Clouds, before finally playing the complete version to a rousing response. He then moved on to drop tracks such as Nathan Fakes – Outhouse, Australia’s own Luke Chable’s remix of PQM’s classic You Are Sleeping & the massive Kosmas Epsilon mix of FC Kahuna – Hayling. However the personal highlight of a set full of highlights would have to go to hearing the beautiful Jase from Outta Space – Do What You Want. This track capped off what was described by many as the greatest set they had ever witnessed.

Next up was Bedrock DJ Steve Gerrard. He had a very difficult job following up on the brilliant set just delivered by Holden. Many people did not know what to expect, myself included, but Gerrard did not fail to impress. He proceeded to keep the dance floor moving just as Holden had for two and half hours before him. He then dropped his own remix of the classic tune Age of Love to a response that can only be described as electrified From that moment on the last 30 minutes of his set was nothing but pure brilliance with bomb after bomb forcing the crowd to just keep on going. He capped it off with a brilliant remix of the White Stripes – 7 Nation Army. The night was then drawn to a close much to the disappointment of the adoring crowd, both James & Steve were given a massive response from the delighted crowd in what can only be described by many as the best night of their lives.

Just like James Holden said, “This is how clubbing should be”.