Trance and I are old mates. We go way back. We used to hang out quite a bit earlier this decade and shared some pretty amazing nights. Over the years, I started to find Trance a little too demanding (he was always talking about lasers) and we started to drift apart. We stayed in contact though and used to catch up every once in a while, mainly for special events. With the news that the world’s number one DJ was bringing his unique brand of Trance to Australia for a series of intimate gigs, it was time for me to catch up with my old buddy.

There were a couple of unusual things about this gig. First of all, it was on a Sunday night – again! I’m not sure why Paul van Dyk has such a tendency for playing Sunday nights in Sydney but this is the second visit in a row that has required the early formulation of a Monday sickie excuse. The second unusual thing was the venue. Seeing a DJ of this calibre in an intimate setting like Yu is certainly far from the norm.

Doors opened earlier than normal; Matt Nugent was warming up the room and doing an admirable job. He kept the sound decidedly techy and was showing obvious restraint, which is something often lacking in DJs of lesser quality who get a chance to open for a big name. Some nice early highlights included the new track from Shlomi Aber Blonda and the Deadmau5 remix of James Talk’s Remote. While his sound was far from trance, he laid down a great platform for van Dyk to in turn raise the stakes. By 10.30pm, the club was primed and ready to pop.

Paul van Dyk stepped up to the decks before schedule at about 10.40pm. He wasted no time setting the scene for what was to come, laying down some very melodic numbers early on and avoiding some of the techier stylings that he has been known to feature in recent sets. A non-vocal version of the huge new tune New York City was dropped early on and judging by the crowd’s reaction, plenty of people already have their copies of his new album.

Now while PVD might be the world’s number one DJ, his DJ set up is far from normal. His rig comprises of Ableton running through a Xone 3D hooked up to 2 midi keyboards and a controller. While I was under the impression that he also uses Serato, I could not see any evidence of this over the shoulders of the enormous bouncer who was discretely using his enormous girth to keep a polite distance between the DJ and his fans. Understanding how all this technology works is one thing, but being able to completely command and harness its potential is another. While full of familiar tunes, very few of them appeared in their original form with van Dyk manipulating and adding new elements on the fly.

For an album tour, there was an amazing amount of classic tunes littered throughout his almost 3-hour set. Updated versions of Sasha’s Wavy Gravy, Iio’s Rapture and Gat Décor’s Passion were wrapped up with some of his new album tunes like In Circles and Stormy Skies. He also varied the genre dropping in some electro house like Dave Spoon’s massive hit At Night. Technically, his set was stunning.

The last part of PVD’s set was pure trance bliss. An epic breakbeat reinterpretation of For An Angel was mixed into a harder club version of his current single White Lies. Following hotly on the heels of this was the singalong schmaltz of Filo & Peri’s Anthem. He finished things up with two of the biggest tunes from his 2004 release Reflections, Time of Our Lives and Nothing But You.

Somewhat abruptly, PVD finished just after 1.30am and almost instantly, the crowd dwindled to half its previous size. Despite calls for an encore, his time was up and the atmosphere also left when van Dyk exited the DJ booth. More than anything, I think this was symptomatic of the gig being on a Sunday night and everything starting and finishing a little earlier than normal. Patrick Carrera’s job was to keep those who remained on the floor dancing and while he was playing some good tracks, there were clearly some issues with the mixing. Whether this was due to technical difficulties with the equipment, or technical difficulties with the art of DJing, I’m not sure.

All in all, PVD demonstrated why he is the name on the top of the heap. An accomplished DJ, a consistent and talented producer and a friendly German, PVD has it all. And it sure was good to see my mate Trance again.

Wanna relive the magic moments? Check out the clip below…