It was the night before New Years Eve, and Sublime wanted to put on their own party to end the year with a grand finale for all their loyal punters. A celebration for the year that had been, but also a taste of what lay ahead for Sublime in 2006.

The regular resident favourites were there, including Savage, Ferris and Fish. But the highlight – of course – was the international guest, DJ Wag, and also the Grooveinc room. That’s not to say that the residents weren’t playing at their hard bass kicking best. But the night was about something different, something special. It was a night to showcase a highly talented DJ who has left at least one or two songs forever in the footprints of hard trance, but also being able to support a newer generation of artists, stepping up to make a mark in the industry. Four rooms played host to a variety of music from hard trance and hardstyle, through to house and breaks, and even a bit of hardstyle that was a little harder and faster than normally expected. Voodoo played host to Amber Savage, Peewee Ferris, DJ Wag and Nik Fish. Plus an unexpected short main room set by TOB. While in Beat-fix, MC Losty as always hosted and Elroy and Q45 belt out the breaks. Cargo saw Matt Roberts and Kate Monroe supplying the funky house and the specialty of the night saw the Grooveinc team dish it out in the silver room.

A change in the usual set arrangement occurred as Amber Savage took the early punters down the road of some anthems and then into some tougher hardstyle. Peewee followed through with some more hardstyle, before moving into some hard driving trance in anticipation of Wag’s set. DJ Wag played a couple of well known songs including ‘Getting High’ and the smash hit favourite ‘Cocaine’, then played half of a set full of newer material that I personally hadn’t heard before. Driving but also semi-progressive trance was in order for the night from Wag, which is another sign that Wag, along with other well-known international DJs, are roaming out in untouched lands that are only really starting to be explored and embraced. A great, enterprising set to say the least. It was great to see an international showing off his latest workings rather than a journey of his past best. Although, Wag didn’t play one of my personal favourites, ‘I Wanna Feel The Music’, but after thinking about it I realised it wouldn’t have been appropriate for the kind of really hard and driving trance set which Wag played on the night.

Home throughout the night was filled with aspects and ranges of all three major dance genres of hard dance/trance, house and breaks. Allowing the new generation of punters to experience music tastes a little different to their own personal favourites while also having the opportunity to support some of the most exciting up and comers of Sydney’s and Australia’s hard dance industry. The Grooveinc room showcased the future rising DJs of hard dance in Australia such as Scott Beker, Xdream, Spank, TOB (NitrouZ b2b Nemesis), Elwood and Anarchy Angel. Every one of those DJs played their sets hard and with real workmanship in their mixing.

A small issue was Voodoo’s closing DJ running a little late for their set, but it gave a perfect opportunity for DJ Wag to extend his set a little and also for the guys of TOB (Terrorists of Bass) to venture onto the decks of Voodoo. They served up some real hard, banging, and devastating hardstyle with class to excite the punters early in the morning. Nik Fish then ended the night with some classic hardstyle tracks to welcome the next day in and the close of another Sublime at Home.