Along with that ‘something in the air’ feeling that comes with the onset of Spring, so too comes the wave of excitement with knowing that many of the seasoned Internationals will soon be returning back to South East Queensland to kick-start the official festive season of electronic dance music. A few weeks into the seasonal calendar, with already a fabulous offering of Trance Superstars, Fridays @ Family presented us with one of the biggest, most respected and popular names in dance music – American DJ and producer Christopher Lawrence.

Arriving close to 12:30am, to my relief was glad that I hadn’t missed the start of Christopher’s set, but instead was drawn into the freely open Members area to catch the final few tracks of Baby Gee’s slot. Rather surprised at how ‘intimate’ the small crowd was – both on the Mezzanine and Basement floor – in the Main room for a Friday night, the atmosphere nonetheless was not as lacking. With the DJ decks again set up at the back of the Basement stage, the lighting and spectacular LED visuals were in full swing with their talented and seasoned controlling VJs performing their own amazing show.

Cordially socialising with a small crowd overlooking the dance floor, into the first minutes of his scheduled timeslot, Christopher was clearly at ease and relaxed in the very familiar surroundings from where he’d played numerous times previously. Casually making his way down to the Main stage, America’s Top Trance DJ prepared to take over from resident Baby Gee who was cranking out some great edgy harder trance tunes. At 12:50am, it began; the onslaught of relentless driving tech trance, that after a few tracks relocated balcony onlookers down to the dancefloor, to where they’d stay right through until 3:30am. With three CDJs at hand, but only choosing to use two, the chief of Pharmacy music prescribed the most potent dose of underground trance, that the Australian Christopher Lawrence addicts have in recent time craved. For the music junkies who hang out for Lawrence’s monthly Rush Hour fix, each track that he hits you with and the feeling it instills, you know he’ll never prescribe a repeat! Train spotting a Christopher Lawrence set is almost an impossible feat; recognising a few tracks, and trying to place who may’ve done the remix is a daunting task, so my apologies.

However, the tracks he adds to his musical concoction have properties like no other; with access to an eclectic array of cutting edge trance, the delivery of amazingly euphoric melodies layered over driving bass lines, had every dance floor devotee craving more. Only an hour in, and certainly earlier than some fans predicted, Lawrence kicked in the psy – not the goa or the Israeli formulaic type – but the edgy and intelligently layered percussive and mind-expanding psychedelic trance, unique to the dissident Lawrence sound. As if the physiological dose response of his 144 bpm track selection wasn’t optimal enough, Lawrence in his infinite wisdom further injected a few 152 bpm tunes, hitting us all good and hard!

For the smallish and literal ‘family and friends’ crowd who were still standing at the end of Christopher’s set, alas it was time for all good things to come to a close. At 3:30am with Dynasty most capably special-effecting Christopher’s final track, the humble man who proclaims as a DJ, “you’re only as good as your last set”, without question let his music do the talking, re-affirming that Mr Lawrence is no doubt one of the best DJs to ever grace the Family decks!