I was not surprised to see the “sold out” sign outside the door at Ambar when I arrived just after midnight, because Kaskade has a large fan base in Perth. Still, it has been a while since I’ve been in attendance at a sold out gig and I was slightly taken aback at the number of people in the room. James A was spinning tunes to an already packed dancefloor, and there was a throng of people around the bar and in every conceivable space on the couches throughout the venue. It would be safe to say that the ladies love Kaskade, and there was an abundance of cocktail dresses, clutch purses and impossibly high heels on show tonight.

Shortly before the 1am start time for Kaskade’s it seemed that, en masse, anyone who was not already on the dancefloor surged towards it, leaving the couches and bar practically deserted. My two friends and I couldn’t even get close to the floor and had to make do with standing back amongst the crowd near the bar. I was surrounded by women that seemed almost Amazonian (those high heels again!) and couldn’t even see the DJ booth. The only way I knew that Kaskade’s set had started was when he said how great it was to be back in Perth playing at Ambar again, and there was a roar from the crowd as he kicked off with the opening track from his Strobelite Seduction release, ‘Move for Me’. I had expected that the first part of the set would be comprised mainly of Kaskade tracks, so I was surprised – albeit pleasantly – when I heard the opening strains of Roger Sanchez’s ‘Another Chance’ (but with female vocals?) as the second song of his set. Old school! It’s probably one of my all-time favourite tracks, so he scored extra brownie points for including it.

After this unexpected inclusion successive Kaskade tracks made up the next portion of the set, including ‘Steppin’ Out’, ‘Step One Two’ and my personal favourite from his latest release ‘Angel on My Shoulder’. The reaction from the crowd for some of these tracks was just astonishing. There was so much clapping and cheering going on you could have been forgiven for thinking the set was ending. It seemed like everyone was singing along with the lush vocal-driven house and any spot that was vacated on the dancefloor was immediately swallowed up by the crowd. This was definitely not a gig for the chin-stroker. I thought the Ambar sound system really gave the tracks some added oomph that is sadly lacking on my car stereo, and Kaskade would fade back a vocal or drop away a beat to great effect. Soon enough he moved away from playing his own material into more uplifting house, with the occasional snippet of a classic vocal thrown in, such as Crystal Waters ‘Gypsy Woman’ and Ce Ce Peniston ‘Finally’. My friends were raising their eyebrows at some of the choices, but there was still a great party vibe throughout the club. The dancefloor thinned out a little bit after a while, but I think this was due to people wanting to escape the heat. The numbers on the floor would quickly swell again whenever he featured one of his own tracks, such as ‘4am’ or ‘Be Still’.

I was expecting the set to wind up around 3am when I saw Flex making his way to the booth, but Kaskade continued playing on. By 3.30am a week of bad sleep had well and truly caught up with me and I reluctantly made the decision to leave, with Kaskade playing to a still fairly packed club. If I might ape a few lines from his track ‘Move for Me’ – it truly was another night out, another dance floor, another great performance from Kaskade.