Going out on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day seemed a little sacrilegious to me, not that I’m a staunch Christian – just old-fashioned, so a party on Boxing Day seemed to be the best alternative, especially after enduring three horrible nights at work. I was also curious to experience a Gatecrasher party, as I had never been to one before. Boxing Day night probably wasn’t the best time to hold this party, as I imagine a lot of people had to work on Wednesday, but for shift-workers like myself, students and anyone else fortunate enough to have the entire week between Christmas and the New Year off, it was perfect. I wasn’t expecting a huge crowd because of the reasons stated above, and was pleased that there were enough punters in attendance to constitute a decent party.

The three internationals (not including Norman Jay) – Dave Lee, Gareth Emery and John 00 Fleming – were reason enough to attend Gatecrasher. I think I have seen Dave Lee before; I have definitely seen Gareth Emery but missed “Mistral” due to a camera malfunction, and John 00 Fleming is in my top 10 list of favourite DJs. Add to this list a selection of Melbourne’s finest, and you would have been mad to have missed this event. Unfortunately, poor organisation resulted in several locals not playing and others being missed due to changes in the set times. Never mind, Melbourne clubbers are pretty tolerant, but I was annoyed about missing Jules Plees due to delays getting into the Metro. Why it takes so long to gain access to a club of this size is beyond me. How hard can it be to accept someone’s ticket, sell a ticket or mark someone off a guestlist? Ok, that’s all the whinging I’m going to do in this article.

Melbourne’s leading trance DJ, Steve Strangis, was in full flight when I hit the main dance-floor, which was sparsely occupied at the time. I have seen Steve play on numerous occasions and I am always impressed by his diversity. He adapts his style and track selection to the occasion, and in the case of Gatecrasher, played the perfect introductory set to the first international of the night, Dave Lee. Both Steve and Dave play a combination of uplifting melodic and uplifting progressive trance. Their seamless mixing is a pleasure to listen to and by the end of Dave’s set the dance-floor was full in anticipation for the next international, the young but very talented Gareth Emery.

In 4 short years, Gareth, aka GTR, has gone from being a hot tip to No. 34 in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs. He plays to a standard way beyond his 26 years and was a clear winner with the crowd at Metro. GTR plays trance and tech trance. He changes from one to the other effortlessly. He is not only a superb DJ but a producer of fine dance tracks, the most famous of which (so far) is “Mistral” and I am not exaggerating when I say that the punters went “off” when he played this classic. I was lured onto a podium to fully experience the effect of this track, and that doesn’t happen very often. So, all in all it was a good night.

But wait, there is more! As so often happens, just when you thought you had experienced the best a night has to offer, John 00 Fleming appears and as good as Dave and Gareth were, this man manages to up the anti and take punters on a wonderful journey through the various genres of trance. This guy must love flying. 4 weeks ago I saw him at Earthcore. Since then he has been to Brazil and back. In fact, he has been to Australia 3 times this year and when asked in an interview recently if he would visit more often if we weren’t so far away from the UK, his predictably modest answer was that he didn’t think he should come too often because people would get sick of hearing him play! I DON’T THINK SO!

John started his set with a remix of Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna”, which, along side “Adagio For Strings” by Samuel Barber, is one of the most over-used orchestral compositions of the 20th century. It was a long track interspersed with excellent loops and overlays. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the rest of the packed dance-floor. It laid the foundation for the rest of John’s set which was mesmerising. Another highlight for me was “Cities of the Future” by Infected Mushroom. John is very much into psy-trance so the inclusion of this track in a predominantly trance set, was both welcome and appreciated. John clearly loves what he does. He is an inspiration to both young DJs and old, and his enthusiasm stems from his life experiences, which have been challenging, to say the least. Believe me John; Melbourne trance fanatics will never tire of you!

Ben Evans had the unenviable job of taking over from Fleming and he did an excellent job. He maintained the interest of the crowd and was both entertaining and innovative in his track selection. Playing on the main stage is a huge compliment to a young DJ and I truly believe that this personable young man has a huge career in front of him. Closing the night was Papa Smurf and I am ashamed to admit that I have never really paid much attention to this popular Melbourne resident when I have had the opportunity to do so. What a mistake that has been! I loved his tech-trance tracks and will definitely be looking out for him at future events.

Due to insufficient ticket sales, there was only one other room open at Gatecrasher so all the set times were wrong and the Vamp and Interview rooms were combined. I managed to see some of Julian Reynolds and Virginia Le’s versus set and was also lucky to witness the skills of Norman Jay. I am sure he is used to much larger crowds listening to him but he didn’t appear to notice the lack of punters and, even though I am not a huge fan of electro-house, I was certainly impressed by his tunes and stayed longer than I intended.

Overall, Gatecrasher appeared to be a successful event. Of course, there were the usual chin-strokers who regaled me with tales of “how it used to be back in the day”, and I am sure it isn’t quite as memorable as it once was, but I had a blast as did most of the people I talked to on the night. QBH might have provided a more suitable venue, in order to capture that old skool rave feeling, but I certainly went home happy and I hope that wasn’t the last time Gatecrasher visits our shores.