So much talk, so much pre-event hype – this was without doubt one of the most highly anticipated events of the year. With no less than 6 international acts on the bill supported admirably by Melbourne’s finest trance & hard dance performers Pharmacy {Poison Apple} Black & White Edition 2 was always going to be one for the ages. It should be noted that this review is from an ‘outsider’. Currently residing in Darwin after my first 22 years on the Gold Coast, this was my first major event in Victoria’s capital. Living in Darwin for work I’ve been deprived of quality dance music and a good night out, so this event was sorely sought after.
The bill read as a who’s who of the world of trance and hard dance with *M.I.K.E./PUSH, A*S*Y*S, Dark by Design, Marcus Schossow* and Sophie Sugar headlining the event; aptly supported in the mainroom by Hellraiser, Jewelz, Trent McDermott and Steve Strangis. Not to be outdone was an array of local hero’s in the second room, hosted by Interview and Hard Kandy. Jumping out of my skin prior to the event, I cased out the QBH location prior to the event, walking past it earlier that day to find – what I thought – looked just like your average Victorian pub. It certainly didn’t look like it would house one of the best venues I’ve been to in Australia!
Arriving a little bit before midnight, and there was already a long steady line of punter’s ready to get inside and cause some mayhem. The staff were friendly and polite and the long line, which was possibly 40m long, thankfully moved quickly as it was freezing outside; especially for a bloke from Darwin! Walking through the doors and up the stairs the Victorian pub charm of the outer exterior was replaced by one of the best dancefloors and club setups I’ve seen in my travels around our great nation. The place was already over three quarters full with punters and ravers stomping out to local hero’s Trent McDermott and Steve Strangis. Admittedly I only caught the tail-end of their set, but the lush trance sounds that came out of the magnificent club PA system was euphoric, uplifting and downright dreamy.
The stroke of midnight and up stepped the first international act for the evening and one of my all-time favourite producers and DJs, trance immortal M.I.K.E. He’s better known under his long list of aliases that included trance super guises Plastic Boy, PUSH, Solar Factor; to name but a few. This first performance of the night for M.I.K.E. would be his DJ set, with a PUSH Live set to accompany proceedings a few hours later in the evening. And his DJ set was an hour of tech trance teasers that tantalized the audience with more ups and downs that Keanu Reeve’s career. Guy Gerber Stoppage Time was one of the highlights for this particular reviewer but even that was exceeded by Nebula, which tore the roof off and set the bar ominously high for the next performer.
That next performer was Marcus Schossow, who stepped up to the wheels of steel at 1am for a 70 minute set fusing traditional tech trance with progressive house. Schossow flew the aussie flag with an unexpected opener, the D.I.M. remix of The Presets My People. Post event the reports on Schossow’s set were ‘mixed’, to say the very least! Punter’s either loved him or loathed him. I was one that was leaning towards loving him. His opener was unexpected but I thought was necessary to change the tempo and style of his set. Highlights of his set included his very own Swedish Meatballs, Lost for Words, a ultra cheeky bootleg of Mousse T’s Horny and his last track in closing, Simon Patterson’s immortal single Smack.
A little bit after 2am and M.I.K.E. was back, this time in his super altero ego guise, PUSH. Seeing PUSH play live on the bill means one thing – trance is back baby! The sojourn is over! The next 50 minutes was eargasm from start to finish as PUSH took us back down memory lane with some of trance music’s finest moments, and the liveset was one of the finest trance performances I’ve seen in the past few years. Opening with a sampler of Universal Nation, PUSH destroyed the dance-floor with the traditional PUSH sound, big room uplifting trance that was so prevalent through trance’s golden era in the late 1990s. Midway through the set PUSH played, what was later asked, a possibly 20–30 minute mix of Universal Nation. Absolutely mind-blowing.
Next up was Sophie Sugar, the blonde bombshell who’s currently dating Greg Downey. Now some extremely attractive female DJs, for some reason or another, are tainted and stereotyped as being all beauty and no braun, but for Sophie Sugar she definitely backed up her looks with world class DJing ability and for a lot of the punters, she was the set of the night. As the clock edged it’s way towards 4am and Sophie Sugar wrapped up her set, the trance for the night was put to bed and up stepped one of the world’s leading hardstyle DJs and producers Frank Ellrich, otherwise known as A*S*Y*S. A*S*Y*S truly is one of the world leaders in the world of hardstyle and can be regularly found damaging dance-floors at a number of Q Dance events in Holland. His set at Pharmacy was a proper representation of his world class ability. After starting with his own single Acid Nightmare, he took the place apart track by track, with monsters such as Pavo’s Tekno Music and Electro Slut by Kamui, as well as his own ball tearer’s Lost in Acid and NMFRR.
It was during A*S*Y*S’s set that the only blight on the night occurred. A fight consisting of around 8 ‘muscle men’ against just 1, yes ONE helpless punter. I was only two or three metres away as I looked on in horror as these gassed up heroes gang bashed the poor bloke. As he dropped to the floor they kicked him and one picked up a bar stool to attack him with. Unfortunately for the bloke who had become a punching bag, the security guards at the venue either knew who the group of attackers were or they just didn’t want to get involved, as three or four of them watched on and did nothing to prevent the onslaught. I was warned by friends in Melbourne that this has become an all too familiar site in their town and unfortunately this great event was to be blighted by this fight.
The night for me, and others around me, was never the same after that. The vibe of the night was ruined and there was tension in the air. You could feel the expectation of another fight within the crowd and soon after I left with my crew and headed home, as the enjoyment of the night was now lost. For those who stayed on they were treated to a hard dance avalanche by Dark by Design (Gaz West), who truly is one of the world’s leading hard dance performers of the past 12 months. For those left there at 7am, they were also treated to Australia’s king of hardstyle Hellraiser go back2back with Jewelz.
In summary I cannot speak high enough about this event, it truly was a sensational evening. The atmosphere, venue, crowd and most importantly music, was all of the very highest possible ilk. I’ve been going to dance music festivals, raves, club nights and events for nearly a decade now and Pharmacy Poison Apple is in my 5 top events of all-time. It was simply that good!
Medea312 says...
So it is official the world hates me - how can karma mean that i didnt go to the one event that was so awesome!
campbellt says...
That's tipical security for ya. You want to have authority but when it comes down to taking charge and dealing with unforsen event you security buffs don't have the balls. Your the poeple that do this for a living if you can't handle it get a real job! How are customers ment to feel safe inside a club when i security can't even handle small fight like this one. Have you heard the term OH
campbellt says...
OH
amanadili says...
And with these fights starting up over the most bullshit reasons by well known types of individuals and bouncers not having the balls to break it up properly because they're mates with them, it is such a wonder why the rave scene in Melbourne, that is world renowned, is going down the toilet. It makes me so F***KING angry......... I nearly got knocked down by these idiots when I came out of the toilet but was out of the way just in time before it got really ugly. A downright cowardly act - 8 ganging up on 1 mostly likely over something so insignificant. Every single unfortunate event over the last 2 or so years have been caused by these f**kwits who feel they've got something to prove. The only they're proving is that they're cowards - 8 vs 1. Back to Chapel St to the lot of you and stay there. !!!!!