After the serious disappointment of NYE 2000, where the events in Adelaide made us all wonder why we didn’t head to Melbourne, Adelaide promoters all out-did themselves this year. Along with great events such as Dawn 2001 and Utopia (if you are that way inclined), there was Adrenaline at St Pauls and this was where I was lucky enough to find myself.
The night started with the usual problems – gates weren’t opened on time and there is something seriously scary about the security dudes who work at St Pauls – but hey, it was new years and there was nothing that was going to ruin my night.
The line-up was very impressive, including the rave debut of two
up-and-coming DJs Quantum and Submission, but I was there to see one man alone – Karim. Having no idea what this guy looked like and only hearing a few of his tracks before, I was anxious to see if he lived up to what my friends had told me. And we were all thankful that he made it to the rave at all. Apparently his plane had got in early and local DJ Renegade had no luck finding him when she got to the airport to pick him up. He had just jumped into a taxi and found himself a hotel!
But he made it eventually (it was a good thing he wasn’t playing until 5am) and I can tell you it was worth the wait. The NRG scene has been getting progressively stronger of the past year in Adelaide and this man was here to show us how it was meant to be done. With a loyal group of Hoover loving fans dancing around the stage, Karim played the tracks that have made NRG.
(Isn’t it nice to go off to tracks that you actually recognize?)
Karim was also a really friendly guy, taking photos with a disposable camera between tracks and trying really hard to have a conversation with us. To top it all off, we had the talent of Ribz on the microphone. This was Ribz’ last Adelaide gig and he has headed home to the bleak UK.
In the end, Karim played a two-hour set, until 7 am, and then came on again at 10 am for another two hours to close the night. It’s a shame that I was stuffed from dancing and had to bail at 8.30am (I swear I just had to go home!).
And as for the rest of the night, there were five rooms that I can remember seeing, including one outside. Along with the main upstairs room, there was a house, drum’n’bass and hardcore area. The arena outside was playing some kind of music that I have no idea how to describe, but hey, there were lots of people there dancing!
In the end, it was one of the best new years I’ve had. I even met some DJs who had come down from Sydney especially for Karim’s set and to play. I had a hard time believing that there wasn’t a gig in Sydney that would soooo much better, but I guess they wanted to see Karim pretty bad.
And for those of you who missed him on NYE (where were you?) he’s playing an encore set at Heaven II on January 18. No excuses this time!
Hope everyone else’s NYE rocked as much as mine did.
