Thursday 27th November ‘08 was a momentous day for Queensland, as Paul van Dyk came to Family. The man entitled ‘God’ by his peers in the industry has been at the forefront of the dance music revolution for the past 15 years. Never one to be pigeonholed in the trance genre, PVD is a self confessed producer, DJ and artist of ‘electronic music’. Call it what you like, the man they call god is one of, if not the biggest names in dance music; and he was in our backyard for one special night.

As I now reside in Darwin, I don’t have the privilege (and it is a privilege) of attending the Family nightclub every weekend. It’s one of Australia’s best nightclub venues, and on this night of night’s we made our way to the club a little bit after 10pm and breezed through the entry line, past the friendly door staff and security and moved into the halo ground that is Family Nightclub.

Although relatively early in the night, the club was already started to swell, with those punters present rocking out to some chunky tech and electro house from Baby Gee. Always the entertainer, Gee rock n rolled his way through his 2-hour set, finishing with some slamming selections that left the mouth watering for the next DJ and fellow resident Family all-star Syke.

It must be noted that I am unashamedly one of Syke’s biggest fans and it’s terrific to see his been given the appropriate recognition for his depth talent by scoring a residency at Family on Friday. If Syke was nervous warming up for one of the biggest names in dance music, he certainly didn’t show it. Punching out a raucous set filled with progressive to tech trance thumpers. Highlights included a storming remix of Faithless Insomnia as well as cheekily dropping a dulled down remix of Underworld’s seminal classic Born Slippy. As the clock approached 1am, the man everyone paid to come and see approached the DJ booth and the nightclub became a beehive of activity. God was here.

Starting off on a strong, thumping tech trance tip, PVD instantly had the crowd in the palm of his hands as he worked his magic through a mind blowing first hour. Big vocals, wavy synths and huge kick-ins were the order of the night as PVD tantalized and teased his audience with the utmost aplomb. To try and explain how ‘heavy’ the sound was would be impossible, but to put it in context there were many times throughout the night that I thought Family’s famous soundsystem was going to explode, such was the power of music PVD was putting through it. To put it in one word; EXPLOSIVE. It was power PVD at his absolute best, turning back the clock to circa late 90s when trance was king and he was given the title of god.

Moving through the set there were highlights a plenty, with PVD getting through a stack of his own tunes, new and old, with new selections like Castaway, Let Go and Complicated complimented by some old, but timeless trancers like For An Angel; which received one ofthe biggest reception from the adoring crowd for the night.

One of the highlights for this reviewer was PVD’s mind-blowing mash-up of New York City, which lasted no less than 15 minutes. PVD’s polish was incredible as he smashed out the instrumental version with the Out of the Sky acapella, mashed into Orange Bill. The result – an absolute eargasm.

He masterfully mixed the new with the old, turning back the clock regular with timeless bombs like Agnelli & Nelson Everyday, Underworld Cowgirl (Joint Operations Centre Remix) and (another) highlight of my night, Binary Finary 1998 (Terranova vs. Leeds remix). Other notable highlights were Simon Patterson Smack, John O’Callaghan & Guiseppi Ottavani Our Dimension, Filo & Peri Shine On and quite late in the night he again dropped the fabled New York City, this time with the Super 8 & Tab remix.

As the clocked ticked towards 4am it was time for the great man to leave his adorning audience but not before an encore; and what an encore it was. 15 minutes of fame he punched out a mash-up of his own work that culminated in the closing track, his very own masterpiece Nothing But You. Exhausted, emotional and euphoric, this reviewer was in a state of heaven as PVD left us for one last time.

As if the sweaty masses weren’t exhausted enough yet, there was still time for 1 hour of power from Australia’s #1 DJ TyDi. There was no respite as he kicked on were PVD left off, smashing out a storming selection of thumping trancers including a few of his own productions. Having been glued to the dancefloor for the better part of 3-hours straight for PVD, as the clock moved further away from 4 and closer to 5 it was time for this reviewer to head home. And head home a much satisfied man.

Once again Family Nightclub proved why in my opinion, it’s the best nightclub in Australia. The physical venue speaks for itself, a four level clubbing Mecca for the Queensland faithful. The resident DJs, the staff, the security… they’re all some of the most professional and friendly in the business. All in all they delivered one of the most memorable clubbing nights in recent memory. For the trance fans out there, if PVD’s performance is anything to go by then my fellow trance fans, who have battled through some lean years for the genre, have a rosy future to look forward to. Trance is back baby.