Cosmic Gate, the Germany duo consisting of Bossi and Nic Chagall are renowned for both their esteemed hard trance productions as well as their quality DJ sets. The Church Nightclub was to play host to the duo’s first return to Perth armed with a variety of the freshest and most rocking trance. The main room saw support for Cosmic Gate by The Church residents as well as two of Perth’s trance DJ’s whilst the ritual room upstairs saw local DJ’s – Dan Tran, Keith B and Ace pumping the intimate room full of tribal house all night long.

Doors opened shortly after 9:30pm and The Church resident DJ Riki was behind the decks, getting things started with a nice blend of tribal and progressive house. Up next was Lanithium who picked up the pace a little and provided the perfect introductory set for the genre of the evening – trance. For the next hour, Lanithium’s trademark smooth mixing combined with his quality selection of both uplifting and melodic trance pumped the big system.

By 11pm the room was starting to fill and a queue was fast growing outside as Jon Noonan took to the decks. Starting out on the lighter side of trance, Noonan dropped the Signum Mix of Deleriums – Truly and stayed on this note for a few more tunes. As more people began to fill the room Noonan picked up the pace and for the last two thirds of his set, rotated through a stack of tech laced trance. Dropping his own remix of Thrillseekers – New Life marked the conclusion of Noonan’s rocking set which featured some of the most quality trance mixed very tightly.

The Church resident DJ Kenny L was up next and started off his set by dropping Solid Globe – Sahara which set the tone perfectly for the melodic and uplifting trance tunage that would ensue. Before long the entire place was packed including the upstairs section and the dance floor was full of punters dancing to this mighty fine set. Smooth mixes and the freshest trance characterized Kenny’s set which saw even the boys from Cosmic Gate having a bop or two in the DJ booth.

1am came and it was the moment everyone in the club had been waiting for. Germany’s finest hard trance duo were ready to take centre stage. After a massive MC intro from Kenny L, the boys dropped their first track and for the entirety of their set they worked incredibly in time with one another. Majority of the time, one of them would be working the mixer whilst the other one would cue up the next record which resulted in some very smooth and right on mixing. As Cosmic Gate are widely known for their hard trance productions I was somewhat expecting a set of similar style music; however what they unleashed was quite the contrary. Their set featured a range of different styles of trance, predominantly leaning towards tech trance and intermittently broken up with some less banging and more melodic trance. This was the perfect dance floor combination which saw the floor completely packed the entire time as a result.

Many of their own tunes such as Exploration of Space, Different Concept and Ultra Curve were dropped as well as a few trance classics including Energy 52 – Café Del Mar. A definite highlight in their set was when they dropped their new and not yet released remix of Age of Love. It’s a quality remix of an already quality song and the entire room erupted into a sea of cheering and dancing as soon as it was dropped.

At the end of their two hour set, Kenny L asked the crowd if they wanted to hear more of Cosmic Gate to which they (of course) responded with a resounding yes! For an extra half hour after this, punters were treated to a mini encore set which ended with the final tune being dropped by the boys – Fire Wire.

For a short time after their set Nic and Bossi stayed back to sign autographs for fans before leaving. The Church residents Kenny L and Riki then took the room on a hard trance and NRG excursion until close.

It was a definite success of a night with The Church completely packed with up for it punters the whole night long. Cosmic Gate bringing their sounds to Perth for the second time was a moment I’m sure many will not be forgetting anytime soon.