Holland’s ID&T entered the local festival scene with a bang on NYE with their Sensation party, and on Good Friday they were ready to follow up with Trance Energy. Boasting a huge lineup of local and overseas trance talent and a venue with no sound restrictions, the stage was set for epicness. But could they deliver the goods? That was the question on my mind as I began the trek to Calder Park.

That’s right, Calder Park. I was a bit surprised at that, but it made sense in that it was a wide open space and relatively isolated so noise restrictions wouldn’t be a problem. Walking under the ‘PREPARE TO DANCE!!’ banner through the tunnel to get in we were greeted by tunes straight away as Jody McLeod from Nova 100 had first set on the ‘Judgement Sundays’ stage. She made sure if you needed a Nova 100 fix you were covered, but Every You Every Me by Placebo was a nice surprise. The ‘Zebra Progression’ stage had some smashing dark prog courtesy of Dean Benson and Phil Moore, Blinky playing live on the ‘Majik’ stage had his driving progressive trance going and Trent McDermott playing Wippenberg Chakalaka and Nadia Ali Love Story on the main stage ensured there was a nice variety of music early on. I thought Trent a bit hit and miss though, and was eagerly awaiting the first international, Sied van Riel from Holland.

He played an awesome set, for Riel! It had deeper more progressive moments at the start, then he built things up with some techier tunes and banging progressive trance. For his first trip out here I think he did alright! Marco V was up next and proceeded to hurt my ears straight away by turning the volume way up. The fact he seemed to start with a more commercial type and electro-ey sound didn’t help for me. I guess that’s what happens when the latest record you own by someone is five years old!

I took the opportunity to try and recover some hearing and wander around the venue a bit more. There was a decent size crowd around and people were still streaming in at 3:30pm. At this point I noticed the sound bleeding from the various stages. It seemed that if you weren’t right up the front you got the sound from somewhere else mixing in. The Majik stage was particularly affected by this, even being under the tent around twenty metres away from the front you still got sound from both the Judgement stage and main stage coming in. The Zebra stage had less of a problem in this regard being an enclosed tent but had its own issues and seemed a bit echoey at times. Compared to other festivals such as Stereosonic and Future Music Festival the stages seemed closer together which made it quick and easy to get around, but I think it made the sound problem worse. Strategic placement of shipping containers helped a bit but it just didn’t feel right dancing away to one DJ’s tunes then hearing a mix of other sounds take over in a breakdown.

Like I said though, if you were right up the front it wasn’t a problem and that’s where I was for BT on the main stage. He was the biggest drawcard of the event for me and needless to say I was pretty pumped up! Speaking with ITM on the day, he mentioned that in the Sydney gig he was a little unprepared for how fast the act preceding him would be and he freaked out a little. He changed his set accordingly and I’m glad he did, as he banged it out in what was the highlight of the event for me. He played a mix of old and new upcoming material and the crowd lapped it all up. While Dreaming, Flaming June and Force of Gravity were all very welcome the biggest reaction by far was for Love Comes Again. The huge crowd singing along going nuts was an awesome moment and my favourite of the day. BT was going off too, you could clearly see he was enjoying it as much as everyone else! With so much awesomeness crammed into his one hour set it was going to be hard to top, but Melbourne favourite Sander van Doorn did his best. King Of My Castle and Roundabout went down well in a set that had some nice heavy percussion throughout.

Simon Patterson was the next big name I was looking forward to, so before then I made a couple of stops around the grounds. Anthony Pappa was good value as usual with tight mixing and use of hot cues. Mark Sherry was recommended by another mate so we stuck with him at the Judgement stage. It was a good choice as he played some nice harder trance without being cheesy. There was a good crowd appreciating it too. From there it was back to Zebra for Matt Darey. I’d never seen him before so didn’t really know what to expect. Like with Marco V, I only know old productions from him but he started off better with the epic progressive (epic progressive? the worlds are colliding!) track Smile When You Kill Me from Jerome Isma-Ae. He was going well with some nice prog but lost me halfway through, every time I looked into his eyes I saw the future, and it was meh. Agnelli or Nelson (there was no ‘&’ for this party) was rocking the Majik stage with Underworld’s Cowgirl going off.

By now it had been dark for some time and the much-lauded production values of ID&T had begun to come into play. To be frank, having this event throughout most of the day and in an open outdoors environment was a letdown. Compared to other local events, ID&T is known as much for the shows they put on as for the lineups, and in this area my expectations were not really met. Each stage had its own small lighting setup, but the main Trance Energy stage was the only one where a real effort seemed to be put in, and during the day it’s mostly wasted.

When we went back to the main stage to catch the tail end of Sean Tyas however, the lasers and lights were in play which was great, as there were heaps on each side of the huge stage setup. Tyas finished up his epic and uplifting set and it was time for Patterson. We were treated to a fun introduction along with some flames and fireworks, which was one of the production aspects I was looking forward to and again it’s a hallmark of ID&T events. I thought it was pretty funny and well done and a nice touch compared to some MC yelling “hey insert town here, give it up for insert act name here!!”, too bad not all the acts got one though! Patterson played a blinder of a set, mixing up psytrance style bass lines with uplifting melodies and tech trance percussions, it was fantastic. Thump went down a treat with the crowd but since I didn’t know any other tunes it was a nice feeling to just enjoy what he was playing. Sean Tyas was enjoying it too, rocking out with us in the middle of the crowd while being mobbed by fans.

Judge Jules then took over to play the last international slot on the main stage, which I think was a bit of a waste. He’d already played on his own freaking stage, why does he need another set? He was predictably cheesy, starting with a Barack Obama sample which didn’t seem to get much of a reaction but Numb by Linkin Park got a better response from the crowd. And the crowd at this event deserves a mention. A few friends had remarked that the western suburbs were out in force but that wasn’t really an issue for me, it seemed like the usual mix of posers and party people with the majority of roided up topless guys luckily concentrated in one stage. What was an issue was the group of shifty little… (I’m looking for a word that rhymes with hunts) going around trying to steal wallets and take from bags. It was pretty low and after one of them realised I saw him in the act they ran before I could stop them. Hopefully security caught up with them at some point!

Overall I think the event was a success, and a couple of girls on the shuttle bus back said they had free tickets, no expectations and had a blast. My expectations were a bit high I guess, I think I wanted something more unique than another outdoor day festival, but considering it was an outdoor day festival just for trance I think it went well! The acts I came for were awesome and I definitely had fun throughout the day. The weather was great, I had no problems getting to the toilets or drinks in spite of a coupon system, and it was easy to get to on public transport. So I think we can chalk up Trance Energy 2009 up as a success and look forward to next year’s!