A dedicated and very much eclectic crowd gathered on Saturday night for the arrival of the one and only Terrence Parker, after the unfortunate postponing of his tour earlier this year. It was worth attending for the people watching alone – between the club kids who love to groove and a guy wearing fairy wings, it was all happening at Civic Underground.

The resident Our House DJs did a great job warming the crowd up, fostering some dancefloor divas owning the floor with some killer moves – but you could tell the crowd was antsy for the one and only Detroit house master. More than half an hour of waiting later, the crowd was anticipating the moment of his arrival – but little did they know Terrence had subtly already made his way to the booth before anyone realised, and the dance floor suddenly swells in size once this realisation is made.

We ease into his set with some tropical house beats, and these awesome dancers looking something straight out of a 70s disco music video get on the stage and vogue and twirl like nobody’s business. It’s hypnotic to watch! Thirty years of experience shows, the old guard plays raw vinyl and uses old school tricks scratching and levers and the whole shebang.

Good Detroit house coming to Sydney is rare, and the drought is rewarded with some awesome tunes. The production is perfectly matched, sound quality is great, not too bass heavy yet enough to get that feel, lighting and lasers and gimmicks are eschewed. The music requires none of the gimmicks many DJs are too heavily reliant on today. An hour in shit gets real – there are even more people on grooving to house beats, and it’s obvious that we are going to go on a journey with Terrence, with a scheduled three hours of some sweet house.

Terrence stays consistent with his sound, not that this is a bad thing, a great DJ can read the crows and switch it up accordingly. A great example of this was when he tried getting some electro in there the crowd clearly found it jarring, and went back to his house roots. There have been reports he has dropped We No Speak Americano in previous sets, so I’m relieved. The closest thing we got to unbearably overplayed songs making an appearance would have to be when oddly enough All I Do is Win was dropped. Another oddity making an appearance was chocolate handed out by the promoter, an adorable token of appreciation for the crowd.

One of the highlights of the night has to be the moment where the bass kicked in and he dropped the classic Gypsy Woman by Crystal Waters, which saw the crowd go wild. Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner got a disco house re-interpretation, but the best moment was when Terrence spun Billie Jean, with that instantly recognizable intro, let the song play out, then plays it again acapella, levers the shit out of it, and then weaves it into a house track. It was musically genius and done so well.

Terrence Parker knows his stuff, next up is a Broadway show tune – not just any show tune though, Seasons of Love from the musical Rent. Rather than throwing out all the recognisable dance floor fillers in one go, with minimal mixing and thought as most DJs seem to do these days, Terrence spaces them out and carefully plans the moment to drop what may seem quite unusual but makes the offbeat work, all set to some killer house beats.

It was the most fun I’ve had out in a while, with Terrence’s set extending past 4am, and it was well worth the delayed wait. Good soul house combined with an unpretentious crowd made for a night that shouldn’t have been missed by anyone serious about their house music.