Surge With Steve Hill - 21.8.2004

It was Saturday night and time to head to Altitude to check out the much awaited launch of Surge here in Melbourne. I arrived to find James Young hard at work playing some good solid tunes which were getting the growing crowd off their seats and steadily onto the dance floor. Half an hour later and the energy levels at altitude were increasing and I knew we were in for a big one with more and more people on the dance floor and the venue filling fast!

Next up was Stewart Rae and thanks to James he had a full dance floor to start with - and he certainly started with a bang! Not one for easing us along gently the first offering from Mr Rae was the barn-storming anthem "O (Overdrive)" by Scot Project, by now the crowd was gathering momentum as Stu put them through their paces with tracks from Ferry Corsten, Cosmic Gate and many others who I couldn't name but like the sound of all the same. He finished off with a couple of rippers from Vinyl Groover & The Red Head including their latest little gem "Midnight Express".

Next up to drive the wheels of steel, Paul Doran. Just when I thought I was going to make it to the bar for a much deserved beer I found myself back on the dance floor enjoying a set of beat-perfect UK trance filled with driving baselines and uplifting melodies. The party was now in full swing, Doro did a fantastic job of building the energy level even further with tracks like "Surrender" by Alphazone and plenty of other blinders. The place was full the rafters and going off like a packet of crackers... I said to my mate: "It doesn't get much better than this does it-" and he simply replied "I've got two words for you - Steve Hill!"

Steve Hill aka "Mr Bishi" - a man who needs no introduction - was up to bat next and I think it's fair to say he hit a home run with the crowd, his first offering to the roller-coaster of a party going on all around him was a cranking little piece of red vinyl entitled "Revelation" by Alphazone. Steve followed this track up with track after track of quality trance including the soon to be released remix of "Love Resurrection" and an absolutely storming remix of "Airwave". By now any thoughts of that elusive beer that I felt I needed so badly had subsided as I joined the crowd in showing our appreciation for what was another stunning performance by Steve Hill.

Steve Hill, in short you played a blinder mate!

Steve Nichols had the unenviable task of following Steve Hill, this didn't seem to phase him at all as he put together a seamless set of uplifting trance which kept the momentum of the crowd running at full pace. We were all reaching for the lasers as Steve guided us through the next stage of our journey. Highlights from his set included Neon Lights - Shine, the Alphazone remix of Ralf Novell - Wrong Love and a finale of Taiko - Silence. By now it was nearly time for Miss Mel to get to work behind the decks, as I looked around the crowd on the dance floor were showing no signs of slowing, I guess I was right when I thought I was going to be in for a big one!!

For the final act Miss Mel got to work and served up a good old-fashioned helping of harder trance to well-and-truly finish off any punters that had anything left in the tank at the end.

In summary, a top night was had by all! All the DJ's played fantastic sets and the crowd got exactly what they came for - a great night of consistently great tunes mixed by some of the finest local, international and interstate DJ's. I can only speak for myself when I say that I had great difficulty in leaving the dance floor, I never did get that beer in the end... Ah well, maybe next time. Or in retrospect, maybe that's more than a little unrealistic. My advice to you is if you want to have a beer at a Surge party do it before you get on the dance floor!!!