With the rain holding out and the crowd getting in early it looked set to be a packed house for a night of loud music, lasers and general kiddie-type naughtiness. The crowd was a total mix of young utopians and veterans there to relive the Ultrasonic era (although predominately young utopians…brightly coloured…and fluffy). It was also a noticeably friendly crowd, which is sometimes hard to come by at large events such as this.

With four different arenas (5 if you count the unfindable VIP lounge) all the different genres of music were pretty well covered. The breaks room had awesome visuals happening and the music was excellent moving from breaks to deep house and back and forth and generally throwing the crowd up onto the floor and into spasms. There was heaps of room to move and plenty of wall space to slump against (which looked to be the more popular option). The hardcore room was exactly that…damn hard! It was a good thing there was easy access to outside from that room because a few minutes in there and you needed air! The dance floor seemed consistently full all night and the chipmunk lyrics had everyone singing along. The mashup/trance arena was in the foyer and the high ceiling combined with the glass wall and the lasers suited the music perfectly. It was a bit of a mixed bag (mashed bag perhaps?) of styles ranging from really trancey stuff to harder trance and occasionally even bordering on hard house but the merry band of dancers kept on dancing. The standout set was definitely Yoshi who was a great introduction to Ultrasonic (even though it was a different arena).

The main arena was continually wow after wow after wow all night. Bexta played a fantastic set mixing some of her old stuff in with her harder edged new stuff for a banging sound. By saying live set though wouldn’t that require live playing as opposed to purely mixing because as far as it could be seen Bexta did not have additional equipment with her (perhaps this little reporter is wrong though?) Fenix was the lead up set to the main act and he played a fantastic set although his style was perhaps not ideal for that time of the night because it meant a pretty big change of tempo from him to Ultrasonic vs. Public Domain. Mallorca Lee screaming “funky beats…funky funky beats” over and over signalled they had arrived. Within 5 minutes of being in control he had thrown the powerhouse lettering and 2 logos that were sitting onstage off into the crowd and the rest of the night saw big chunks of styrofoam continually being floated above heads through the crowd. Mallorca is an absolute madman on stage but he certainly put on a show with his out of control dancing, screaming and continual jumping around. He certainly loved that spotlight! Highlights of the set included Public Domain – Bass in the Place. When the bassline of this kicked in the crowd became a moshpit of screaming and jumping and when the crowd was washed with Underworld – Born Slippy the entire place melted. The guys kicked on until 5 and then the night slowly wound down with Pee wee, Nik Fish and then Chesters traditional morning anthems set.

Powerhouse promised the most spectacular production ever seen and they certainly delivered. This time around the whole arena was utilised with approximately 64 coloured lights staggered throughout the seats on the various levels and flooding the crowd in various shades of blues, greens, purples and a blinding white. The lights danced across the roof, across the crowd and across the string of different sized mirrored balls hanging from the centre of the dome. The effect from this was amazing! The most outstanding aspect of production however was the 4 different laser heads. One argon 6 colour laser head above the dj booth, one either side of the screen and a 2 colour head at the back of the superdome. Topped off by a smoke machine and mind-blowing visuals onscreen and it can safely be said that the production is perhaps the most superior to date at an event of this kind.

The sound quality had been improved upon from previous Superdome events. The other 3 arenas had fairly clear sound with excellent bass quality. The main arena carried that beautiful deep bass that pounds through your chest and makes your stomach quiver. The clarity was excellent in most places although the reverberation was a bit much at times if you were seated in the top section.

Overall Powerhouse should be proud to have their name on such a high quality event. The music was fantastic, the production was unbelievable and the crowd didn’t stop til that very last cheesy track of the morning. Congratulations.