After enjoying myself at the last Nexus event not too long ago, I couldn’t resist going back for another sample. With a new location, Wah Wah Lounge, and local progressive prodigy Steve May headlining, there was a good chance this one could be even better than the last.

I hadn’t been to Wah Wah Lounge before and when I got inside around 10:30pm I could see the Christmas spirit was alive and well with the Nexus crew, walking around with Santa hats and having decorated the place with tinsel. The always smiling Julian Reynolds had some nice cruisy progressive house going on which was a great background for relaxing and chatting on the couches, watching the people stroll in while sipping on my beverage.

While the upstairs room provided for Nexus was comparable in size to the last event at Bunker Lounge, the layout was more suited for clubbing and the atmosphere had increased tenfold. People had taken nearly all the available room to dance by 11pm when Denham Jay came on and smashed the speakers (literally) with some fantastic progressive trance. With a more favourable timeslot for this Nexus he didn’t disappoint and had the place going off.

The beer was flowing and the time was flying so before I knew it Steve May took over and had no trouble picking up where Denham left off. His set was a showcase of the variety of tunes that can fall under the ‘progressive’ umbrella. There were housier tracks, driving trance, some tracks with a slight electro tinge and a few vocals sprinkled throughout. It really was a fantastic set, the only downside was Steve’s ‘Vehicle Force Voltron’ t-shirt -everybody knows ‘Lion Force Voltron’ is where it’s at!!

Luckily X-Mike had no such wardrobe issues and it was up to him to ramp it up to the next level. While his first half hour was not really to my liking, things got better with some pumping tech trance and more epic material. The highlight of the night for me was his mashup of Burned With Desire and a Greg Downey tune, the packed crowd singing along was certainly a memorable moment. Jed and James Brooke kept the crowd rocking with some Fatboy Slim Right Here, Right Now action, alongside a great mix of current hits such as Radio Crash and Smack with a few older ones like Godd and Schoneberg thrown in there too. It was an awesome set, complimented by some nice laser action and the crazy lighting setup that goes up the wall and onto the roof.

When James Mac and Daniel Wood came on to close the night, I’d had enough dancing and more than enough beer. They did a good job of taking things down a bit to a more relaxed level and cruised along for a while, until I decided to leave in search of sunrise and souvlaki when they began to pick it up. While it is only early days for Nexus, this was a pretty successful night I believe and if they keep improving like this, I think they have what it takes to stick around.