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| Armin Only - Ahoy |
Date: Saturday 12th November 2005
Address:
Ahoy, Rotterdam, Holland
Occurrence: One Off
Hours: 10:30pm - 07:30am
Ticket Price: €38.50
Genre: Trance
Dress Code: Anything goes
Capacity: 12,000 |
| Line-Up: Armin Van Buuren |
The massive arena that is Ahoy in Rotterdam, provided the venue for Armin
Van Buuren to bring his Armin Only show to the next level, which he did in
some style. Over 11,000 tune hungry clubber's arrived, and when the arena
was nearly full, at 12:30, the warm up set suddenly stopped and the room
fell in to darkness. Then, over the PA, came a rundown of Armin's career so
far, before sparks flowed into the air, lighting up the stage and Armin
appeared behind the decks to rapturous applause from the adoring crowd. The
stage was shaped like an Armada ship, with other's in the background all
bearing the Armada logo. Coming from either side of the stage were runways
above the crowd and three laser's, one either side of Armin and once coming
from behind him, completed the backdrop for Armin to provide us with an
unforgettable show.
Armin got straight into it the swing of things, starting of with, rather
appropriately,his own tune Sail. This was followed by the Paul Van Dyk mix
of Kuffdam & Plant - Summerdream, with a start like this, we knew we were in
for something special. The first hour whizzed by, with the dub mix of the
massive Dogzilla - Without You a big favourite with the much varied
Rotterdam crowd. Not long after that, came the first live guest appearance
of the night, as a piano was set up at the end of one of the runways coming
from the stage and classic pianist Jan Vayne arrived to play Serenity, which
he wrote with Armin. The piano on Serenity went down well, but then Jan
stayed on as Armin mixed in Communication, Jan again played the piano to it,
but this rendition wasn't as good, he seemed to be out of key to the tune
and the extra piano he put in didn't suit.
Jan went off to mixed applause, but Armin was straight back into the swing
of things with Mark Norman - Touchdown getting the crowd back on side. He
then went into some of the tunes of the Summer with the Sander Van Doorn mix
of Message In A Bottle and the Nu Nrg mix of Where The Streets Have No Name,
before it was time for another live guest. This time it was vocalist Ray
Wilson with Eller Van Buuren on electric guitar performing Armin's Rising
Star mixes of Yet Another Day and Gypsy. This had Armin jumping around
behind the decks, obliviously loving the added element he has brought to his
show. As they finished, ticker-tape flowed into the air, providing a site
of red and white flakes falling on the crowd to a red background from the
lights on the stage.
Armin took things a little harder after that with Marcel Woods - Advanced
and Randy Katana - Play It Louder, during which ventured from behind the
decks to go down one of the runways and wave and bow to the crowd, then as
the Operation Blade sample kicked in from Play It Louder, he leapt around in
unison with the crowd before making it back behind the decks in time to mix
in the next tune. The next live act wasn't far off after that, with Susanna
appearing to sing the vocals of Shivers over the Alex M.O.R.P.H. dub mix.
She sang impeccably to the delight of both Armin and the crowd alike.
This was followed by Inertia - The Chamber, which had the three lasers going
and also, for the first time, we seen flames shooting up from around the dj
box in between the lasers. The crowd were absolutely lapping it up and it
seemed like only a few more minutes before Racoon arrived on one of the
runways to sing Armin's mix of Love You More. Armin followed that with the
Deserves An Edit Dub of Perasma - Swing 2 Harmony before unleashing a gem in
the form of Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 mix) to provide a moment of sheer
delight for all involved.
Nadia Ali arrived on a runway not long after to perform Who Is Watching and
Armin's mix of IIO - Rapture, then it was straight back to Armin on the
decks as he kept things ticking along nicely with the Thrillseekers mix of
Calling Your Name followed by his own collaboration with MIKE - Pound. The
final guest appearance came from Armin's fellow Dutch dj's, Remy and Roland
Klinkenberg, who made a brief guest appearance behind the decks to mix in
their hit Till Ya Drop, but with a twist. Instead of the usual kick in, the
music stopped and a tribe of young children appeared on the stage, playing
bongo drums and blowing whistles, before the tune kicked back in again.
This brought to an end all the live guest appearances, and it was from here
on that Armin really came into his own and the atmosphere peaked. Armin was
doing what he does best, mixing quality tune after quality tune to
perfection. John O'Callaghan's new mix of Agnelli & Nelson's classic
Everyday had the Ahoy rocking, with all the laser and flame throwers now
going in unison and the crowd loving it. Then came the feel good tune of
the night, in the Tiesto mix of Paul Oakenfold's Southern Sun, with the
whole crowd singing together choir like to the luscious vocals. The
Spektrum mix of Push - Strange World sounded fantastic on the mammoth
soundsystem, as did Solar Factor - No Return, another tune that was
unexpectedly played, but went down an absolute storm.
It was now 6:30am, though it definitely didn't feel like it had been six
hours earlier that Armin first appeared on stage. But the room was still as
full now as it was then, as nobody could possibly leave during Armin's
explosive set. Armin continued to bang it out, with Out Of The Past -
Mystery (Fred Baker vs Vincent Gozack mix), which samples the classic Two
Full Moons And A Trout and John O'Callaghan's excellent mix of Sophie Sugar
- Call Of Tomorrow. Then came Armin's own mix of Solar Stone - Seven
Cities, which got one of the best reactions of the night. It seemed Gabriel
& Dresden's mix of Way Out West - Mind Circles was going to be the last tune
of the night, as afterwards the lights came on and the MC thanked everyone
for coming and thanked all the crew for making it possible. But, there was
time for one more, as Armin finished of with his own Burned With Desire,
featuring the vocals of Justine Suissa, prompting him to get up on the decks
to dance with the crowd, before getting back down and throwing his
headphones in to the crowd for one lucky clubber to catch. Armin Only the
next level certainly lived up to it's billing, taking us to a level that we
could never have imagined before. |
Venue: 10
Music: 10
Crowd: 9
Sound System: 10
Total: 39 / 40
Rating: Gold Award |
| Review written by:
Wayne Spelman |
wayne@uk-cl.co.uk |
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