As most local trance heads will agree, Echo has become one of, if not the leading trance night in Adelaide. Many memorable nights have been had by all over the years and last Friday at Gabriels in HQ when Echo brought Scott Bond to Adelaide again was one of the most pumping nights in Echo’s long history.

On walking into Gabriel’s just before 11, I was greeted to a straight-up darker flavour of trance for the last couple of tracks on the tail end of Glenn Bennie and Nic Borrelli’s set. Quickly following this was Echo veteran Matt Parker who immediately kicked us into an uplifting, cruisy vibe. Once again, Matt dropped one of his Echo trademark tracks Du What U Du by Yoshimoto which is fast becoming one of my favourite tracks at the moment. I swear I love it more and more every time I hear it. The way Matt finished his set as well was absolute vintage. Any trance lover will swear by Gabriel and Dresden and Tracking Treasure Down always gets a dance floor happening. This is a trance classic and a great way to finish a set.

Solace and Statik were up next and really smashed home the driving, uplifting nail. The floor flooded and everyone was riding high on the awesome vibe. As I looked all around the floor, all I could see was positive people with no uptight attitudes who were loving the tunes and atmosphere. I must say, I never expected to hear a remix of Children by Robert Miles though. I don’t know which remix this was but it was hot. A treat a little later dropped by Solace was the smashing Global Warming remix of BT’s Remember.

Scott Bond then hit the decks with the punters waiting on the floor with anticipation. Bring us to Gatecrasher was my thought – and there we were as the set started. Catapulted all the way to the northern hemisphere, the floor filled even more as almost the entire club crowd got up to dance. Just about every seat in the house was now empty. “Get in” as they say in the UK and energy levels were definitely taken back to their peak. I almost dubbed the night The Night of the Remixes when I heard an upbeat, trance remix of Seven Days and a Week by BBE. Not long after that, the track Chasing Cars was dropped at the right time and hands were raised in the air. From driving to uplifting, we were not disappointed and this set was fantastic from beginning to end. Adagio for Strings brought the house down and just when we thought we had heard enough classic remixes for the night, in comes Lost Tribe classic Game Master. Now I really was lost for words and gave loud and long applause at the end of Scott’s set.

Kenny Koncept and Cetra carried us through to the end of the night and had some of the trance fanatics still going on the floor. I was watching this one from a distance though as my Red Bull power supply had finally run out.

With the end of this night comes some sad news. Matt Parker has quit from the Echo nights to follow his passion for house. Chatting to Matt on the night, he said house is where his heart lies and we can continue to see him play at Cherry Bomb most Saturday nights in the future.

As for the next Echo night, one is not on the cards as yet but I know all the local trance faithful can’t wait, especially me.