As winter well and truly settles into Sydney the final long weekend for the next four months flew by last weekend and as always brought with it a multitude of quality events to possibly attend. The recent change in management of the regular Tank nights has seen the club deviate from its predominantly funky/deep house nights to explore other genres. This night sees take fly the Renaissance flag hosting one of the best prog DJs on the planet: Hernan Cattaneo. This Argentinean DJ has for years had an intense worldwide touring schedule across some of the most desirable venues on the planet. He has released a number of Renaissance compilations (including two Masters Series releases and his recent Renaissance project Sequential) and been involved in countless productions, collaborations and remix work throughout the years. Joining Cattaneo on the night is PQM the producer responsible for several huge prog tunes such as While You Were Sleeping, Kane Bligh and Rowan Blades.

After an already full-on weekend of house parties, drinking and generally avoiding the rain; Sunday night finally rolled around and I couldn’t help but be extremely overexcited at the thought of seeing my favourite prog DJ at one of Sydney’s biggest and most impressive clubs. We decided to arrive just after midnight to try and beat the rush of punters heading in from We Love Sounds and arrived at the club just after midnight and made our way inside to explore the venue. Having not been inside since the changes to Tank I spent a good 15 minutes wandering around and taking in the general awesome layout, modern looking interior set in the shell of and older building with exposed trusses and stonework which one would struggle to not be impressed by.

On the main floor PQM had already kicked off his set playing a good mixture of old and new driving prog to an already rocking dance floor with plenty of smiles abound and in general quite a friendly crowd. As the set kicked along he belted out some excellent big room melodic tunes
Dropping tracks such as Emjae – Hold it Down, PQM – The Way and his remix of Led Zeppelin – Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. Towards the latter half the tempo of the set slowed a little and there was a fair bit of male vocals by his guest vocalist over the top of the mix which I didn’t feel really fit into the vibe of the set so we wandered off for a breather to explore the other rooms, grab a drink before the start of Hernan.

After spending a little while in one of the back rooms catching some of DiscoLou’s groovy house set we got back to our position on the main floor. Soon to a massive roar from the crowd the long locked Argentinean appeared at the front on the room and took over from PQM. For several weeks I was quite anticipating seeing Hernan Cattaneo play not solely because he has been a longstanding favourite DJ but if was going to plays material anything like the way he has done on the new Sequential release then it was going to be a smashing night and he definitely delivered significantly past my expectations. He absolutely destroyed the place kicking off with some dirty but funky tech tunes for the first half an hour and slowly building the sound into the dense melodic prog for which he has always been known for; all the while driven by huge bass lines and dreamy interludes.

All the while Hernan ensured the set moved ever so smoothly between massive tunes, huge build-ups and deep euphoric breakdowns setting an excellent atmosphere on the main room floor amongst the fairly subtle lighting and a plethora of mirror balls hanging overhead. He dropped several tracks from the new compilation including Paolo Mojo – 1983, Bedrock – Santiago (Hernan Cattaneo and Martin Garcia Vocal Remix) and then finished with the enormous Andy Cato – La Luna. After Cattaneo we did not stay for too much longer and decided to head, missing most of Rowan Blades set. He kicked off his set nicely continuing on the driving melodic however home and a warm bed was calling and from all reports it a great way to finish off the night.

Overall, this party was a superb way to finish off the long weekend evening of good music in one of Sydney’s most spectacular venues with the highlight of the night easily being Hernan Cattaneo all the way. The atmosphere throughout the club was amazing and it suited a prog night so perfectly with the layout, look and amazing sound. Compared to other events on this weekend the night was an absolute bargain with tickets only $25 and if you see anything good advertised at Tank in coming weeks/months make sure to check it out as all of the attitude the place used to be known for has disappeared. See you at the next one!