Powerhouse Productions once again deliver a night of mind boggling fun and a wicked line up at the Sydney Superdome in Homebush.

Last time I checked eye drops were for dry eyes and not sniffing in order to get high, but apparently not, as I was told by the door staff when I tried to make an entrance with a small bottle of Eye-lites. Not to mention that there was a no loose make-up allowed policy that I was oblivious to. Two trips back to the car I travelled- nevertheless I endeavoured to stash some lipstick in the good old bra and finally made it past the 3 checkpoints just after the stroke of midnight.

Ok, so it has only been about 8 years since my last rave so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. What a wonder to see that nothing much had changed as I made my way through the stadium to the main arena, only to see that the night had only just begun and my god was it going off.

It was refreshing to see a generation of eager young ravers continuing the tradition of PLUR that us old geezers left behind long ago.  I even saw a few youngin’s trying to avoid being caught by security after they skimmed past the gates to get a free night out. Good bless their spirit! I even believe they managed to make it through after hiding in the toilets for half an hour.

I remember my transition out of the Rave scene being a little bitter with many cries of “The scene has changed”, “It’s never going to be the same” etc etc, following what could be classified as the ANNA WOOD period. Up until this event I thought that raves had become highly commercialised and exploited for the all mighty dollar, I allowed my passion for yesteryear and past experience to overtake any good feelings on the current state of the Sydney Rave scene.

Onto the night…..

In the Utopia Arena Lab4 played a hard, 90 minute live head pounding set with a driving bass and hypnotic beats. He did end up losing the sound control a little but seemed to gain ground once he realised the music stopped. But this didn’t detract from the excitement of the crowd who were going crazy with their phat pants, glowsticks and rainbow attire all of which are synonymous with ravers and the like. 

Following was ‘Pee Wee’ who played a buzzing set including the classic line from a driving track that remains anonymous -  “the music was black polished chrome and came into the summer like liquid night”. This tied in perfectly with the superb production of the light show, with an awesome laser that covered the whole dancefloor and transformed it into a sea of midnight with rays of colour.

‘The Prophet” from the UK, took the crowd to a new level by throwing in a few old school classics one of which included the prodigy and “smart e’s – outer space”. Boy, how I remember bopping away to that tune! His style was deep, dark and ‘Utopia’ inspired from what I gathered because there was no letting down to the immense pace that he was giving the crowd. The bass was worthy of “May Day’ notoriety – the hardest robotic techno ever! This sent my head in a spin and I had to shift to the Breaks Arena where “pH” (aka Stephan) was setting everyone’s head into a spin with a melodic Orbital tune and the one and only crowd pleaser – “hey today, baby I got your money..”. I know like the rest of the groovers I was screaming at the top of my lungs!.

Later that morning – classic piano rifts and uplifting vocals where heard in the Hardcore Arena punters were sprawled across the whole floor either dancing or chilling out. It was all a little to egdy for me so I retreated back to the Main arena to hear David Forbes and Mallorca Lee combining to make up a hybrid Ultrasonic/Public Domain/Scanners Crew. The duo are touring the country under the Internationals moniker and promoting their new album by the same name. You have to respect a DJ that can start a Rave set with the Blur Track – SONG TWO  and have 10,000 ravers head banging in sync. Forbes and Lee are the eminent hardcore duo, managing to blend the old with the new to keep the relatively young, but still rave-aware crowd pumping. I could not have counted how many times I overheard people screaming “I LOVE ULTRASONIC” 

Nick fish took the stage next at around 5am with a few anthemic trance like tracks and an uplifting performance on the decks that he is renowned for. He continued to deliver an energetic set that set him apart from the others and shows his consistent style of DJing with his unique underground sound.

Utopia was certainly an eye opener for an old bitter and twisted fogey like myself. It’s good to know that the scene is still able to make little kids and big kids smile and dance alike.

Good Job Powerhouse!!!