I know I say this a lot, but trance is going from strength to strength in our fair city. So much so that not only does it have the strongest support of any 4/4 dance music sub-genre, but I would even go as far as to say that Melbourne really should hand over its crown as Australia’s “Capital of Trance.” Perth’s own home of trance Rise Nightclub has had a plethora of top ranking DJs grace its turntables recently, and a headline performance by none other than Germany’s Roger Shah promised to continue this purple patch of form. Summer would be back for one night at least as this talented DJ/producer is well regarded in trance circles for his warm “Balearic beats.”

Roger Shah (AKA Sunlounger, Black Pearl and formerly known as DJ Shah) has been around as a DJ/producer for almost as long as trance music itself. While I had assumed that he burst onto the scene with White Sands back in 2006, Shah’s career began taking shape some ten years prior. He hit the charts in his homeland of Germany with The Claps in 1999 and has since achieved success both in Europe and the UK with Beautiful (Glimpse of Heaven) and more recently his collaboration with Armin van Buuren Going Wrong. In 2008, Shah’s own imprint Magic Island was signed under the Armada umbrella.

As a live performer, Roger Shah is known for playing laid back progressive trance inspired by the Balearic Islands (the group of Spanish Islands where Ibiza can be found). Shah considers himself a hybrid between DJ and live performer, for he is known to include the use of keyboards, synthesisers and midi controllers in his sets. Like many trance DJs and producers, he has his own radio show which, like his record label, goes by the name of Magic Island.

My friends and I braved the wintry elements on our way to Rise, arriving as early as we could (which is, as always, still too late for my liking!). We knew that this would be a very busy night indeed, and as such we did not wish to hang around in the cold waiting to get in, but even as early as 11pm, the line seeemed as long as James Street itself. Rather than heading straight for the bar, we made haste for the dancefloor to have a jiggle and literally warm ourselves up! As ever, Simon Barwood was on hand to warm up the crowd – figuratively speaking.

Roger Shah’s set commenced at midnight. The atmosphere generated by the crowd hit fever pitch and would not let up until much later, thereby providing further proof that nobody does trance quite like Perth. The first hour of Shah’s set seemed as intriguing as German FKK culture (which loosely translates to “free body culture” – a German way of life that consists of sunloungers and stripping off into one’s birthday suit while enjoying the great outdoors, a culture that Shah’s Sunlounger alias appears to perpetuate). Some might say that this softer, cooler style of trance is perhaps unsuitable for a club like Rise, but I would believe the polar opposite. Shah’s sound worked like a dream.

Unbeknowns to me, Roger Shah has been a rather busy fellow of late, a fact that was drawn to my attention when I looked at the recent A State of Trance 2009 tracklist. I recognised one of the tunes that Roger Shah had played, Change Your Mind by upon hearing a sample from the aforementioned mix album. Other highlights of Shah’s set include Solarstone’s epic 7 Cities, One Night in Tokyo and of course Going Wrong. As if Roger Shah’s utilisation of a midi controller and his jovial stage antics were not enough, he was invited to play for an incredible fourth hour.

Even though I wished to continue rocking on, the long week had quickly caught up with me. Roger Shah deservingly left the Rise DJ booth to a rapturous reception and it looked as though there was still plenty of life left in this party yet. A tremendous thanks must go to Rise and to all those involved with staging yet another special night of trance.