The night many trance fans had been anticipating finally arrived with one of the most respected trance DJs in the world: Armin van Buuren, playing a mammoth five hours at Home nightclub. Supported by Sublime residents Jumping Jack and Pee Wee Ferris playing before and after Armin respectively, it was shaping up to be a memorable night. Having recently released the Universal Religion compilation and an artist album titled 76, everyone was ready for Armin to dish out five hours of the uplifting and melodic sound he is known for.
We lined up and got in quickly just before midnight to a jam packed bottom level which already had a loud and vibrant atmosphere. Having not been to Home for a while it was interesting to see the new refurbishments, with the deck moved 90 degrees against the back wall and the 1 level balcony extended further inwards. At the stage Jumping Jack had the crowd going off playing some great uplifting tunes, finishing his set with GTR – Mistral which got an amazing reaction from the crowd followed by riotous cheering as Armin appeared and stepped up to the decks.
He started off with some prog-trance tunes including the Luke Chable mix of Nathan Fake – Outhouse slightly sped up and sounding great in the Home main room. Not too much later the familiar wavering guitar riff of my favourite track of the moment Whirlpool – Under The Sun (Solar Stone Remix) could be heard in the background as the euphoric atmosphere built higher and higher. Throughout the set Armin created an unforgettable vibe with his happy and energetic attitude at the decks and during moments such as when the crowd sang along to the vocals of Andain – Beautiful Things many memories of the night would have been created.
The uplifting tracks continued for another hour or so with monster tunes such as Armin van Buuren – Burned With Desire, Binary Finary – 1998 (Ronski Speed 2003 remix) and Motorcycle – As The Rush Comes (AVB Remix) to name a few. As the hours flew by Armin toughened the sound up by hammering out some nice tech-trance tracks and finishing with an hour of quality new tunes and classic trance anthems such as Solar Stone – Seven Cities and Armin van Buuren – Communication, which had the crowd going mental right till the last record stopped.
Unfortunately after hearing so much of my favourite style of trance we were ready to head as Pee Wee Ferris took to the decks ripping it up for the Sublime crowd with some harder tunes. After his set, Armin was a good sport as well sticking around and signing records, shirts, vinyl and CDs despite no doubt being tired after a long set and potentially some jet lag. The 5hr set idea worked really well and attracted a lot of fans. Hopefully this will become a trend in Sydney clubbing when we have special guests of Armin’s quality playing in our city.
A great night for a great value cover of $38 for 5hrs of quality music, atmospheric lighting & lasers and a totally up for it crowd. It was great to see such a strong contingent of ITMers occupying a majority of the area in front of stage, it’s always great partying with such a positive crew. The pre-sale ticketing was an excellent option to allow the fans to ensure they would be able to make it in. Despite how magical the 4hr set at Gas was last year, I think this performance topped it just in terms of atmosphere and sound. I really hope more melodic trance events are held at Home based on the how well this event went.
eRRaTiK says...
one of the best Armin sets ever. Loved the encore Rank 1 - Breathing (Airwave) [Breaks Dub]