Together at Home once again have another big overseas act, another hugely anticipated night! Whenever you hear the name Armand van Helden, for some reason you can’t help but associate it with deep and funky basslines and kick ass house music. I sure as hell hoped that Armand van Helden would turn Home Nightclub upside down. On the night, even the fire alarm tried to grab some of the attention! It was definitely one of the best nights of the year so far. The privilege of witnessing such an influential figure in the house music scene was indeed quite amazing and having a very close view of it all definitely made it even more memorable. The first time I heard the track ‘Hear my Name’, there was this little child in me wishing that hopefully Mr. Van Helden will come to our shores pretty soon, 3 and a half months later, here I was at the perfect venue to witness him.

The night  started off pretty well and I got there pretty early, so early that Eclectic Avenue and Back to Mine were still closed, went straight up to the Terrace, smiles all around. Yogi was playing an early set of great soulful sexy house, (some tracks of his own) and was the perfect warm up for the terrace regulars. Downstairs, Jackster was keeping everyone warm with his own blend of deep and chunky house tunes, like ‘I’m a Good Man’, ‘Calabria’ and ‘You are Everything”.  The Main Room is absolutely going off early time… definitely a good sign! Playing before AVH can’t be easy but he handled it very well and worked the crowd brilliantly.

The time has come and it’s Armand van Helden’s turn to bring the house down. The main room was packed wall to wall. With his love for classic rock very much apparent in his new album, and the current trend of rock music finding its way to the club scene once again, Armand’s set was very much all this and more. The beat, the bassline, the guitar riffs, the sexy yet funky vocals, it sure was a set to remember for the tunes, the atmosphere, the crowd and the lighting. For the two and bit hours that he played, everyone was truly satisfied, I’m sure we all could’ve asked for more but don’t we always do that?

Being lucky enough to see him up close for the whole duration of his set, Armand van Helden sure was a joy to watch. He made everything look easy, the mixing was very smooth and he played the crowd just right to keep everyone guessing. Armed with a big black folder of CDs all specifically labelled, it sure was nice to see someone as big as him use CDs for his entire set, giving a preview of what the future holds. The crowd enjoyed every minute of his set, from his own house anthems ‘Hear my Name’ and ‘My My My’, to a heavy remix of Junior Jack’s Stupidisco, the new Eric Pryde remix of Call on Me to remixes of White Stripes, Blur and Nirvana.

Thinking I was gonna get a bit of a breather was absolutely stupid of me. Alex Taylor was now up and being a huge fan of him, I should’ve have known better. He played a very impressive set, the transition was great and the crowd was at it again. Opening with ‘Four to the Floor’ followed later by ’Born Slippy’, ‘Strict Machine’, a chunky house version of ‘Are you gonna go my way?’, his own rocking remix of Hi-Fi Mike’s new track ‘I’ll Carry You’, ‘David’, ‘I am tha 1’ and AVH’s mix of ‘Professional Widow’. It was a great way to finish the night off.

Another great night at Sydney’s premier nightclub, I apologise for not being able to say anything about Eclectic Avenue and Back to Mine as I simply just could not leave the main room. From what I heard it seemed like a great night all around.