Beep. Pickup in Yarraville, to Toorak Rd. Yarraville? Ugh. Better be a good one. At least it should be a decent fare. I felt like I needed a boost after hearing the footy score. And the cold. Damn heater was playing up again, this car had done so many kilometres I was suprised it still worked at all. Oh well, no point moaning about it now. I wasn’t too far away actually, and things did improve when I got there. Two hot girls and a guy, not bad.

“Toorak Rd hey? Where you guys off to?”
“A place called Trak, getting our clubbing on tonight!”, said one of the girls.
“Trak? Never heard of it, what’s it like?”
“We’ve never been there either, but it used to be called Silvers”
“Ah, Silvers, I remember going there a few years ago, we used to get smashed on free sambucca cause my mate’s cousin’s girlfriend worked at the bar!”
“Haha nice! Well we hope it’s good, we’ve got tickets but some friends said the lines to get in are really bad”
“Oh? Well I can’t see you guys having any problems!”

I winked at the guy and he kind of forced a grin, putting his hand on one of the girls legs. I guess he was her boyfriend or something. The other girl saw me and winked back though. Nice I thought, and we drove on.

“So what kind of music is it then?”
“Trance! Sean Tyas and W&W from overseas are on, and there’s a local girl Emma Hewitt singing live. It’s a night for Armada Music, Armin’s label. It should be fun!” said the winker.
“Ah ok, I’ve heard of Sean Tyas, I’m into a bit of trance. Don’t know the others though”
“Yeah we’ve seen W&W before, they were great! Looking forward to seeing them again”, said the non-winker, flicking her black hair. “It’s been a while since we did some dancing and Sean Tyas always puts on a show”, she continued.

I switched the radio on as we stopped at a railway crossing, there wasn’t much in the way of good clubbing tunes though. Suddenly the guy pointed out the window and started laughing, “Hey look, he’s taking a leak!” We looked out and laughed at someone taking the opportunity to relieve themselves in the bushes by the railway crossing. “That reminds me, I think I might take the chance too!”, he said and jumped out of the car to join him!

We had a laugh and continued on, I dropped them off soon after and drove away feeling reasonably happy about the weekend. I would much rather be out there dancing away the cold than driving around town, even for an Armada branded night. As much flak as they cop from some people about taking over the trance world, a label with such a high profile running a successful night locally with regular international guests is probably a good thing. A few hours and boring jobs later it was still in the back of my mind. After dropping off a couple who were well on there way I ended up driving down Toorak Rd again and standing outside the club was the crew I dropped off earlier. I opened the door waving and they stumbled their way inside.

“Hey guys, how was the night?” I asked, eager for tales of dancing and revelry.
“Heeyy it’s the raver taxi driver!”, exclaimed winky happily. A couple of champagnes perhaps?
“Yeah we had a pretty good time, it was fun!”, added the other girl. “Was it hard to get in?” I asked the boyfriend, as I was curious after the stories. “No, we got in fine with tickets, but security was a bit tight I think, they scanned my ID but not the girls. It was weird moving around the place too, if we left the main room to go upstairs, we had to lineup for half an hour to go back! And you couldn’t take your drink! It was pretty stupid I think” he complained. A bit of alcohol and his accent, Dutch possibly, made it sound a little funny.

But what about the tunes I was wondering? And the venue overall? Even if security was a little over the top it doesn’t necessarily impact the rest of the night. If it was a nice place maybe I would head back on a night off. “So how was the rest of it though”, I enquired.

“Well I thought it was great fun other than the security”, commented Winky. “The sound was pretty sweet, and the main room setup was good” she continued. “*Trent McDermott* was on when we got in, I liked the Faithless remix he played, it was a pretty cool set for a warm up”. “The live drummer guy was pretty funny though”, added Dutchy. “He kept trying to pump up the crowd with his little kit. At least he wasn’t dressed like half the guys there, I mean seriously mates don’t let other mates leave the house like that!” We all had a chuckle, stopped at the lights. “So did you do much dancing though? Were the tunes hot?” I asked Brunette. “Yeah there was some great stuff! W&W were pretty sweet, it was a good bouncy set, nicely epic in places but not too over the top. I liked AK 47 but not the one with the dubstep in it.”

“THE BOTTLE!!” interjected Winky, “it’s all about The Bottle!”
“The Bottle!!” the others shouted it out and giggled, making a motion like they were tapping the side of a Coke bottle. Not getting the joke, I still smiled and nodded and drove on. “What about Tyas though? How was he?”

“He rocked it!” exclaimed Winky, doing a little dance with her hands at the recollection. “He played some smashing tunes like Banshee, some remix of Blue Monday, it was great! The lasers and lights were going, it was awesome! Needed more purple though!” Dutchy and Brunette nodded and agreed. “Yeah it was pretty sweet. Emma Hewitt was singing with both internationals, she was awesome, had a lovely voice and was really getting into the crowd. It was a great show, even when we were stuck in the line to get downstairs Jed and Joey Vella had us bopping away. The shoe tap to chin stroke ratio was spot on!”

Damn, I thought, sounds like a pretty good night! Too bad I had to be stuck here in the cab missing out. Oh well, there will probably be another one in the not too distant future. “Well sounds like you guys had a great night. Do you think it would be a success?” I looked back after a second, it seemed Dutchy and Brunette were too busy to answer. Luckily Winky was still with me. “Well it was pretty fun, the people weren’t too bad, the tunes were good, and the venue was pretty cool. Just need to tell the security to ease up a little I think!” “Cool! Well you guys are probably pooped, off home now?” “Hell no, the night is still young! But we need souvlaki to refuel first.” She winked at me again as Dutchy and Brunette were still occupied. “And who knows, maybe even some dessert later too…”

‘Well’ I thought to myself, maybe this Friday night in the cab won’t be so bad after all…