Someone has to do the warmup set for an event such as this and the man given this task was Mellen Events’ usual guy Adam Kelly. Often for an event starting at 9pm, a relatively early time, the first DJ ends up playing to a near-empty house but due to the people forced to line up early for door sales he received quite a reasonable reception. Kenny L was the next local DJ to feature on the lineup and proceeded to pick the tempo up a notch with a banging trance set. Tracks such as Ridgewalkers – Find and the anthemic bootleg of Cosmic Gate vs Freefall – Bilingual vs Skydive got the early birds dancing in their shoes, although strangely there seemed to be an invisible barrier four metres directly in front of the stage that didn’t fill until a certain man graced the decks.
For the progressive lovers there was one set that really took the cake, baked and delivered by Way Out West front man Nick Warren who cooked up two hours of groovy progressive house and distinctive breaks. Warren’s set had a very underground, unique feel to it and managed to get most of the crowd grooving along for the full time without resorting to playing a series of anthems. For his grand finale he pulled out an amazing progressive remix of The Killers – Mr Brightside which had everyone drooling for more.
After a somewhat disappointing set at Two Tribes last year, expectations were not particularly high for BT’s live set. Fortunately he proved the doubters wrong. After opening with his classic tune Mercury and Solace, he took everyone on a tribal and trance journey featuring a lot of his other well known tunes like Dreaming, DJ Tiesto ft BT – Love Comes Again and The Force of Gravity (Ferry Corsten Mix). There is always something impressive about a live set, be it the additional level of skill required to pull it off or the interesting array of instruments and tools to play with, and BT certainly did pull it off well.
Gabriel and Dresden, also known for their work under their Motorcycle guise, were given the next DJ set of the night. They brought the pace down a little and brought out many of their own tracks such as Arcadia and Josh Gabriel – Alive and even had BT play around with the mixer. As with the previous two sets, this one had a distinctive progressive feel to it although it seemed to lack the same level of energy towards the end.
The only uplifting trance act of the night, Above and Beyond, took over the decks next, opening with their banging new tune Above and Beyond ft Andy Moor – Air for Life which saw the BPM counter rise to its highest level so far. They played quite an anthemic trance set which kept most people dancing until 6am, closing with Ferry Corsten’s mix of William Orbit – Barber’s Adagio For Strings and their own popular tune Satellite.
There’s no doubt that this Godskitchen was very progressive compared to previous years, especially last year which featured predominantly hard dance acts. This considered, the combination of music, mood and crowd this year made for arguably the best Godskitchen yet. The challenge now will be to repeat the same standard.
