Becoming a father a little over a year ago has really pushed me to ask myself the hard questions: What kind of world do I want to leave for my son? How do I want him to view me in 20 years? What will my legacy be? When on earth is the next time I’m going to get to party my balls off?

The answers to the first three questions I’m still working on. To the latter: New Years Day, 2010. Cause if you can’t get your groove on for New Years, well, what hope is there?

And what a spectacular New Years day it was. It started off with a little jaunt at Summadayze (thanks Kez!) to get our dancing shoes fighting fit for the night ahead: Trust Us, a massive dance event spread out across Brown Alley and La Di Da showcasing the finest DJs in underground dance music.

And when I say the finest, it is no exaggeration. Trust Us, a collaboration between a range of Melbourne’s underground dance crews – including Sunny, Poison Apple, Darkbeat, Mixed Messages, and Rock Like This – boasted over 70 DJs spread across seven rooms in two clubs.

Rocking up to the party, the stretch of Kings Way between Brown Alley and La Di Da was a conveyer belt of happy, bleary eyed punters. Seeing the people streaming between the two, all with a tiny trace of the Melbourne Shuffle in their step – we knew we were up for a good time.

For an electronic music connoisseur, it was a veritable feast of breaks, techno, house and progressive. Given the sheer number of DJs on offer, it required a good amount of strategising beforehand to determine the best plan of attack. And like all good parties, that carefully crafted, well considered strategy went straight out the window as soon as we set foot on the dance floor.

We arrived just in time to hear D Ramirez getting stuck into his 3-hour monster set. Playing in the finest room in at the party – the multi-level downstairs bar at Brown Alley – Ramirez played to a packed house, and the party-goers needed no further encouragement to get their groove on as he played a beautiful mixture of house, techno, and progressive beats dropping both his own Satur8 and his collaboration with Mark Knight vs. Underworld, Downpipe.

Not wanting to get stuck in one place for two long, we eventually peeled ourselves away from D Ramirez to get our breaks fix with Skool of Thought. And get our fix we did. Although not as packed as the downstairs bar, the loft bar provided the perfect backdrop for Skool of Thought’s bass heavy set. After leaving SOT for a brief interlude in the Garden Bar to catch the local talent, we decided to head over to La Di Da, to what more the evening had to offer.

Upon arriving at La Di Da, we were informed that Derrick Carter was going to be on later than expected, due to a delayed flight in from Canberra. Lucky us – in his place was Dutch DJ Misjah. Having never heard of him before, I didn’t know what to expect – this guy (with apologies to Carl Cox), played the most explosive set of the entire night. His deep and funky beats were woven together seamlessly, and he had the crowd absolutely rocking pre-Derrick Carter.

Derrick Carter’s follow up act was a bit of a let-down; Chicago house, for all the ground it broken for dance music, hasn’t, to my ear, kept up with the times. While it is fun to be transported back to the origins of house music, tonight was all about the cutting-edge, and unfortunately DC just didn’t bring it. After leaving Derrick Carter and La Di Da, the remainder of the night was spent with Anthony Pappas, who knows how to work a Brown Alley crowd as well as any DJ.

So in all, a quality way to ring in the New Year. And if I go back to my original question: I may not know what the future holds for my son, but at least one day I can look him in the eye and let him know that in 2010, his daddy did it right.