inthemix | Event Coverage | Infinity Launch feat. Christopher Lawrence @ Queensbridge, Melbourne (23/08/08)

The biggest player in Australia’s party scene, Future Entertainment, caused a serious stir in Melbourne when they announced that Famous would no longer be the Saturday night party at QBH/Queensbridge, replacing it with… wait for it… a trance night! Always ones to see an opportunity and follow a new trend, they’ve snapped up the next hot thing and are running with it.

Ever since the Armin and Tiesto tours, the Melbourne dance scene has seen trance become more and more prominent, and the promise of a regular trance night has sent trance-heads into a spin! The forum threads on inthemix are enough evidence in itself. To kick the night off with a bang, Future called in well established trance/psy/prog DJ Christopher Lawrence, along with a whole host of local talent. Building up to the night, the whispers across Melbourne spoke of “will it be welcomed? Will it be able to pull the numbers every week? Who will they get to play?” By Saturday 23rd August, Melbourne’s trance scene was well and truly ready for the event – bring it on they said, and Future sure did!

Steve May kicked started the night in the main room, however I arrived just in time to see the start of Ben Evans at 11pm. The venue was already filling up as numerous clubbers fled from the freezing cold winds and rain outside. The crowd was diverse, with trance-heads, PHD-hoodie-wearing ravers, Famous-going types, and older fans of trance. Back to the music; Ben Evans from the respected Interview crew turned out a set of proggy-psy trance to a mixture of devoted fans and a whole lot of people who’d probably never heard psy before. Ben is one of my fave Melbourne DJs and it was awesome to see him stay true to his style at this event, even though it was getting a mixed reception from the crowd. Highlights from his set were Ace Ventura’s Presence, Mute’s Space & Time, Plant Attack’s Ix Lam At, and Sun Control Species’s Spines, and by the end of his set I think he’d opened some eyes to his psy-prog sound!

By midnight, the venue was heaving as everyone tried to get in before the 2am lockout. Next up was another local favourite, Mike Nichol. He turned on the sound that I think many were hoping for – big room uplifting trance. Obviously with fans in the crowd, he started his set off with Sly One vs Jurrane – Second Summer (Original Mix) with what I found out later had a Mike Nichol Intro Edit. Screaming girls and guys pushed to the front as they eagerly wanted more. The night was truly beginning now! Vocal trance is something Mike does well, slipping in one of my mega fave tracks right now, Giuseppe Ottaviani’s No More Alone, and the crowd loved it! Throwing in some flashbacks really stirred up the old trance-heads as well, with Agnelli & Nelson’s Everyday (Original Mix) (which loads of us loudly sang the words to!), Tdr – Squelch (Sander van Doorn Remix), and Art of Trance – Madagascar (Ferry Corsten Remix). OceanLab’s Miracle (Above & Beyond club mix) stopped everyone in their tracks as the crowd sang along – it would have been a mad moment to drop the sound out and hear everyone sing. Mike finished up on Tegma’s Drums of Africa and left the crowd seriously begging for more!

Now for the main man, Christopher Lawrence graced the decks to a seriously hyped crowd. The million dollar question; could he keep it going? Although in my mind he played a deep and driving progressive/psy set, I got the feeling that some out there on the dancefloor (namely the younger kids) didn’t quite get it. They wanted more of the big room uplifting and vocal trance that Mike Nichol had served them. Lawrence definitely showed them a quality set though, it was quite underground and definitely less commercial, like the Global Underground days of Paul Oakenfold. There were some wicked hands in the air moments and some massive tunes too. There were many who got into it and were lapping up the new sounds of psy and tech trance, which was great. Lawrence looked great up there, energetic and happy with the crowd’s reaction. A great start to this new night!

By the time local hero Steve Strangis jumped on the decks the crowd had started to thin out a little, but that didn’t stop him starting off with a killer big tune, Vincent De Moor’s Fly Away – woweee! Pushing the crowd into overdrive, Strangis kept dropping in big track after big track, such as Richard Durand’s Weep, Robert Miles’ Children (Sean Tyas remix), Carte Blanche’s Cream, a stack of Anjunabeats’ tunes and one that got the whole crowd clapping, Simon Patterson’s Us. All his fans were pushed up to the front and were loving it as Strangis jumped up and down behind the decks with excitement! It all came to an end with The Doppler Effect (Joc remix). To finish up this launch night, Melbourne’s dance scene veteran and Hard Kandy’s Scott Alert played a pounding set for over two hours to the remaining crowd. He served up the classics, Motorcycle’s As the Rush Comes, Armin Van Buuren and closed with Tiesto’s take on Adagio for Strings. It was a brilliant end to a fantastic night.

Did we go to Infinity and back? The night sure seemed to be a success to many, but a disappointment to a few. The main room came alive to the sounds of trance and it was damn good to hear that rather than electro house. Besides the inconsistency of the sound played in the main room, the night went off with a huge bang courtesy of DJs dishing out music within their own style. Can this night survive a weekly residency at Queensbridge? We’ll have to wait and see, but one thing’s for sure, Melbourne loves trance anyway it’s served. Bring on next Saturday I say!