Friday 29th of December for most people would’ve been a quiet night in, ‘saving’ themselves for a big night or day of partying ahead of NYE/NYD festivities. For about 1,500 punters at Home nightclub, however, it was anything but quiet; as Sublime celebrated NYE two nights early by hosting hard dance supremo Ben Keen – aka BK – for one very special (and big) night.

Although I reside on the beautiful Gold Coast in Queensland, being a lover of all genres of hard dance I know Sublime for being one of – if not the – best trance and hard dance club night in Australia. A Friday night institution held at the coliseum that is Home Nightclub, I was excited by the prospect of seeing the most successful hard house producer BK play one more time. Jumping Jack, Nik Fish, Peewee Ferris, Amber Savage, all residents of Home, but for a hard dance lover in Queensland any one of those four is enough to head out and see them play (usually at Family nightclub) as a headlining interstate act. Such is the prestige of Sublime at Home that the Sydneysiders are lucky enough to call these four nationally recognised stars of hard dance ‘residents’ at their very own club.

It’s hard to imagine a nightclub with a better backdrop than that of Home. We made our way through the front door and into the main room a little bit after midnight. We were greeted with a main dance floor already near full capacity and absolutely heaving to the beat of Peewee Ferris. After playing some classic hard trance anthems earlier in his set he moved into some deep, thick and heavy tech towards the end as BK made his way onto the stage. With hundreds of productions, remixes, collaborations and compilations to his credit, BK basically IS hard house. What he says goes, and when the genre of hard house is exposed with new sounds and a change in direction, you can be sure that this man is the reason behind it.

Starting off on a thick, pounding, heavy, heavy (did I say mention ‘heavy’) tech tip, he damaged the main room with an array of dance floor destroyers. As the clock struck 2am you had no chance of having any room whatsoever to yourself, so we conveniently found a nice little spot above the DJ booth on the second level, which would be our stomping ground for the majority of the night. While the Sydney weather hadn’t been warm during the day, the main room at Sublime was absolutely dripping with sweat as BK tore the place apart. Moving from the heavy tech sound that he started with, he then moved to his more traditional hard house sound through the middle of the set, with an array of big room anthems. His collaboration of ‘Music Nation’ with Andy Farley was a highlight of the night as was his fellow production ‘I Don’t Know’ with Judge Jules, and his latest track ‘Pressure’.

While the mayhem created by BK was unfolding in the main room, local lass Kate Monroe was tearing the Cargo room apart, track by track, with a slamming selection of house beats with a distinct electro flavour. On any other night I would’ve stayed glued to the dance floor in respect of a classy hour and a half set, but BK’s set demanded attention. Back down to the main room, as BK brought his set to a close, the adoring crowd gave him a huge round of applause in acknowledgment of what was truly a great performance. Local favourite Nik Fish wasted no time in taking the tempo back up a notch as he started off with his traditional hardstyle sound.

While BK was good, Nik Fish was better. That is not to undermine BK’s performance, it’s just a fact that the best part of the night was from 3:30-4:30 and courtesy of Nik Fish. Following up was one of the darlings of the hard dance scene, Amber Savage, and by this stage all of my energy had been exerted during the previous two sets. Dragging our sweaty selves out of the club a little bit after 5am, and with a smile ear to ear, you didn’t have to be a genius to tell that I had just experienced one of the best club nights of my life; and there’s been a few! Sublime produced the goods for one very special night, there’s no doubting I’ll be back, and this time sooner rather than later.