The first cold night of the year turned out to be perfect for one of the biggest parties. I hadn’t been to Home for a while and was really impressed with the changes they’ve made. Nightclub owners must watch renovation shows too. The DJ booth is to the left of where it used to be and some walls have been removed, giving the place a whole new feel. The main room now stretches longways back to the bar giving it an ‘epic’ feel and making me ponder ‘why didn’t they do this in the first place?’ Production people worked hard for this and it showed. I’ve never seen a better looking room, there were visuals everywhere (four above the DJ booth alone) and the VJs were awesome the way they incorporated DJs, Sydney sights and clubbers alike into it. Better not forget the constant ‘reminders’ of the sponsor – Heinekin – which for the record was still selling at $5.50 a bottle! Lasers were about the only thing missing but with such effective use of coloured and strobe lights it didn’t make that much difference anyway. One of the major dissapointments was a change that involved moving Goodwill and Mark Dynamix upstairs instead of playing the main room. Mark’s performances at Home a few years back were always special and I was keen to see what was in store. You have to feel for them both, being told you’re playing the main room as warm up for some of the world’s finest, then having it taken away at the last minute would be pretty tough. I checked out Mark anyway, issues aside he was having a good time and the Terrace was packed with people enjoying an excellent set. Hopefully Home got the message – Mark Dynamix for resident again! Not long after that it was time to move downstairs where I found Daniel Davoli playing house tunes to a fast filling dancefloor. More on that later. It was a good start to the night, funky and easy to dance to with lots of guitar riffs to groove with. People were getting into it. Around halfway into his set Daniel pulled out a red guitar and played along like a true air guitar legend… still don’t know if he was really playing the thing but the dramatic effect worked and the crowd got really worked up. Some vocals were to come which made for a really memorable performance. As time went by anticipation grew for Pete Tong. Before he was done Davoli played “Smack my Bitch Up”, a tune that’s always nice on a big sound system. As a warm up act Daniel was excellent. By the time he was done the place was packed, pumped and ready to go for Pete Tong. A few words about the place being packed… actually it resembled a moshpit more than a dancefloor for most of the night and there wasn’t enough room to dance properly until Jumping Jack closer to closing time. Still, there were two internationals and the place was always going to be full. These things happen. “Sydney its been far too long” was the call from Pete Tong as he took over deck duties. He wasn’t wrong, it has been too long. I was expecting a lot of cheese but gave it a go anyway. He won a fan in me and pretty much everyone else that was lucky enough to be there. The way his set worked the crowd and turned out to be the keystone of the night was a pleasant surprise. Most impressive was his set progression from different kinds of house through to progressive, always building to the progressive trance stormers up his sleeve to finish off with. Some of the tunes Tong played made the night for me, and finishing with “Touch Me” and “Smells Like Freeland” left a smile on everyone’s face. All systems were go for Tiesto. The sound in the main room would have been even better if it was easier to hear. Near the back it took a bit of concentration to hear the music, it would have been good if the back speakers were turned up just a bit. Tiesto was just awesome. I’d never seen him before and was really excited but it was nothing like I expected. The way he took control of the room was extraordinary. Pretty much his entire set was one huge trance tune after another, massive breakdowns followed by thundering basslines. Unfortunately the number of people downstairs made it all very hard to dance to and a large number of people could only catch the main set of the night in small doses. In one of my breaks I found a room I’d forgotten about since my last visit to “Together”. The silver room was full of people resting up for another spell downstairs. They were lucky enough to hear some of the best songs ever on a damn fine sound system. David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and lots of others got a go and the end result was one of the most uplifting atmospheres I’ve ever seen. Now back to Tiesto… there was no one thing that made his set special, it was the way everything came together. He proved he could mix and scratch, track selection was seamless and he was having a really good time up front feeding off the crowd’s energy. I was lucky enough to arrive downstairs as “Urban Train” started and for a while Home turned into a huge moshpit. It was one of those amazing moments that’ll forever put tingles down the spines of anyone that relives it for many years to come. Exactly where Tiesto finished and Jumping Jack started is a bit blurry but before he was done Tiesto played the song of the night for me, Airwave’s “Breathing” plus a few other anthems. The dancefloor thinned out a bit when Jumping Jack started and it was nice to finally have some room to dance. In some ways I was looking forward to JJ’s new uplifting style more than Tiesto or Tong, so it was a real shame that by then I just wasn’t up for it. The trance sound was all a bit much, my feet were hurting, I looked at people dancing and thought “haven’t you had enough already?” and sadly it was time to go home. Looking back it was one of those special nights I’ll always remember. Congratulations to all who were involved, organisers and punters alike. It worked so well thanks to the progression through musical styles provided by the DJs and vibe generated by the crowd. I’ve never met a more diverse and friendly bunch of people at a club night, and that’s what really capped the night off for me. I’m really glad I was one of the lucky ones that got to experience it.
