inthemix | Event Coverage | Nexus feat. Simon Patterson & Sean Tyas @ Metropolis, Sydney (21/03/08)

Ask any avid trance lover as to the leading producer in driving and uplifting trance at the moment, and the same name will inevitably be repeated: Sean Tyas. On a personal note, the relentless energy associated with all things Tyas, and his unparalleled ability to deliver a consistent procession of modern anthems, makes him a man without peer. Put UK based rising star Simon Patterson on the same bill, add Sydney’s newest trance night, and last Saturday we had a guaranteed recipe for trance euphoria.

First mention needs to go to the Metropolis Hotel; it’s an oft maligned venue, but the Nexus crew have duly refurbished it perfectly to support their new project. After a cordial greeting from Hotel management, we were ushered up a large spiral staircase into the Metropolis’ main foyer where I immediately detected the dulcet tones of Commander Tom’s Attention booming out of Nexus’s side room ‘The Chamber’. Stopping only briefly, we soon made our way past a brightly lit pokie room and a myriad of comfy seating, towards a well furnished bar being dazzled by lasers emanating from a much larger arena, ‘The Domain’. After grabbing a beverage, and fighting through plumes of dry ice, we were delighted to see local trance superhero Scott Richardson set amongst two prancing horses, and checking out what lay before him. While we only caught the end of Richardson’s set, we were overjoyed to hear him drop the current Activa bomb Remember, Coast to Coast’s Cut Me, and in a surprise to us all, Oceanlab’s timeless anthem Satellite.

Simon Patterson took over from our finest local around midnight, and immediately proceeded to blow us away. Literally. Patterson’s opening track Fallen Tides was pounded out at such a level that many punters in the main room were blasted several feet backwards, towards the relative safety of Nexus’ third suite ‘The Teepee’. On the plus side, the unbearable noise allowed us to get a quick squizz at the Metropolis outdoor area, which we were glad to find had also been well appointed: plenty of sofas for those needing to rest their weary legs, pool tables, a smokers lounge, and best of all, DJs playing music of a less jarring inclination. Before long, the Nexus gang had remedied the devastating volume in the Chamber and we were able to enjoy the rest of what Patterson had to offer. Over the next 90 minutes, Patterson reeled off a cosmopolitan trance quiver, ranging from tech to uplifting, the high points of which were his own Bulldozer and Smack, O’Callaghan & Kearney’s all time favourite Exactly and best of all, a stomping remix of Pink Floyd’s timeless classic Dark Side of the Moon.

As the time drew near for the remix king to destroy, we noted the delivery of a large number of laminated signs adjacent the DJ booth, all of which bore the names of Tyas productions. With hungry trance lovers fishing feverishly amongst them for their favourites, the scene was set for Tyas to deliver an insane trance spectacular. Amidst a chorus of raucous cheers, an unshaven Tyas quickly began where Patterson left off, and over the next 2 hours, the great one began a Tyascization of the Nexus populace. Within minutes, the Swiss based New Yorker had banged out his own remixes of Nish’s Blue Sunshine, Bobina’s Lighthouse, and the highlight of the evening Nyctalopia, which had this trance fanatic jumping around front and centre holding one of the aforementioned signs aloft.

Tyas continued unabated, rattling off his best, whilst laughing uncontrollably as more and more requests made their way to him via the laminates. As if this wasn’t enough, another Sydney trance regular appeared with his own erasable sign, requesting not only new remixes from Tyas, but also performances from one of Sydney’s finest professional dancers who had been spotted taking the night off, albeit assuming the usual position – out in front for all to see. Back to the tunes, where other notable Tyas moments included the widely acclaimed One More Night Out, Diary of Jane, Drop and of special note Oceanic, which had been incessantly demanded by one devotee. With Tyas informing the lad that he didn’t have the track with him, the forward thinking young man simply delved into his own record bag, and produced a vinyl copy. Accepting the challenge, Tyas set the Technics in motion and in a moment of sheer glory for all of us, still utilising the now obsolete apparatus he struggled madly to come to grips with the complexities of needle-based mixing. With just a few seconds left in which to mix in, Tyas did eventually get there, smashing Oceanic in over the top of the old track, Tiesto style, but not before the prancing horses before him had made a celebratory gallop around the heaving Metropolis!

Within no time, what I’d waited almost a year for was over, but not before my mate and I had made a brief foray backstage to meet the man himself. After a quick “thanks for the tunes” and a photo for posterity, I bade the great man goodbye, with a promise to join him at Judgement Sundays in Ibiza. Meanwhile, Nexus and the Metropolis Hotel had provided a night of stonking tunes, with Patterson providing the perfect entrée and Tyas delivering a set which only served to support his stranglehold on the high-energy trance community.