A name that rose from humble beginnings to quickly transform into a global dance powerhouse returned to Australia over the weekend, to present the the latest installment of Gatecrasher at Home nightclub. The unmistakable logo, the Gatecrasher Lion, sits proudly at the forefront of this brand which has no doubt left all of us with many memories of some awe-inspiring events such as Summer Sound System several years ago. The aptly titled ‘October Tune Fest’ is just one of the many huge events hitting our shores this summer as the electric vibe and atmosphere of the festival season kicks off (devastating our credit cards with a slew of must-have ticket purchases). The event featured several huge trance internationals playing alongside a stack of local trance and hard dance talent, including Gareth Emery from the UK and US trance producer Breakfast, alongside Mike Nickhol, Scott Richardson, Jumping Jack and many more.
We made our way to the club in the late afternoon, not really feeling like we were missing anything outside with the overcast weather overhead and made our way inside the club in the middle of Scott Richardson’s set. The contrast of walking in from broad daylight in the eerie darkness of the Home main room was both strange and mildly exciting. It was awesome to start the day walking into to hear Scott playing my favourite track at the moment Bart Claessen vs Dave Schiemann Madness (Super8 & Tab Remix). This tune is simply unbelievable with layer upon layer of creamy melodic goodness, and an unmistakable vocal cut that drones out over the synths. His set was half way through and was building up a nice driving vibe as the club started to fill up. Other memorable tunes during his set were John O’Callaghan Big Sky (Agnelli & Nelson Remix), Tiesto’s Lethal Industry and the final track Armin van Buuren In And Out Of Love. His set was awesome throughout and it is great to finally have a quality local warming up for international guests at Sydney trance events.
The next set in the main room saw US trance producer Breakfast stepping down the pace a little after a rocking finish from Scott. He laid down some great tech and fairly eclectic progressive trance with interesting driving melodies and hypnotic rythyms in the first hour. Many people in the crowd seemed to lose interest or perhaps had moved upstairs to check out the NRL final. This was being shown in the chill out room on a LCD TV which was a great place to sit down chill out and knock back a couple of beers. As we got back to the main room the lasers and lighting really kicked off in the second half of his set as Breakfast lifted the tempo and dropped a number of his quality productions he is known for including Sunlight and Horizon finishing up the set on an amazing vibe.
Next up Gareth Emery delivered what was possibly the best two hours of trance I have witnessed in a long time. He stepped up to the decks to massive applause and immediately dropped some massive tunes to kick off the set. The sound during his set was unbelievable really suiting the crisp layered basslines and dense melodic sounds. He seemed to be able to blend huge big room tunes together with amazing breakdowns without overdoing the silent breaks. He dropped a number of classics including Ratty Sunrise (Original Mix) which was spectacular! This old trance tune still sounds cracking on the huge Home sound system and was absolutely lapped up by everyone there. Check it out if you haven’t heard of this one. The crowd loved every minute of the set with the dance floor packed at all times and many unforgettable hands in the air moments. Emery was by far the definite highlight of the event with his great attitude, constant smile and tight mixing. He topped this off by finishing the set with his first big production under the pseudonym GTRMistral, which was simply unbelievable. Other tracks he dropped during the set were a remix of Delerium Silence and another track of his Another You, Another Me.
We only caught the start of Nichol’s driving trance set and from what we saw it was very impressive. This sound rolled on perfectly from the end of Emery’s set however we had to make a move and head off. Overall, this day event massively surpassed my expectations delivering smashingly good tunes all afternoon and evening from a number of quality names. Scattered throughout the venue were two other rooms where some other harder sounds were on offer. Props to Home and the organisers for putting on a quality event with good sound, production and line up! It was great to leave at a reasonable hour after having seen so much music hopefully more events like this will be put on. Thanks Gatecrasher crew and see you all at Godskitchen this weekend!
