Initially installed 3 CDJ2000s, Xone:92 & EFX1000- started the live broadcast around 10:15 with a mix I pre-recorded earlier of a few "bedrock moments" including Giorgos Gatzigristos- Binary Star System, Jim Rivers- Empathy from 2008, Guy Gerber- Stoppage Time from 2004 (one of my all time favorites!) and ended with James Zabiela- Tylium from 2009- all this was played ONLY on air, then started the opening set roughly around 10:50 as the doors opened.
I also got word that Timo Maas wants to use the DJM-800- bless pioneer for having the digital outs! Installed the mixer next to the Xone during my set which only took a few minutes.
Lots of people were watching the "football" so it filled up slowly from 11-12:30 when the access road to the parking lot was jam-packed until about 1:15am.
There was a breeze that was picking up during my set and Ronin & Nesta- on their second track were faced with a few drops that turned into a heavy downpour for about 5 minutes- the crowd were ELECTRIC! Great warm-up from the guys that managed to get people moving while setting the stage right for Timo Maas who got on around 12:45.
Rain was not expected, but thankfully we had enough sheets of wood and plastic bags to protect the DJ booth- respect to Ronin & Nesta for keeping their cool & the beats in sync while controlling the CD player under a trash bag
Timo was awesome- playing a new sound to the crowd- with a couple of his Mutant Clan productions & an amazing track by Sebbo from last year that got an incredible response. Most of his set was taken live until 2am
Digweed got on around 2:30- I should say re-started the night at 2:30 with a 3-min intro track and then built and built in waves, forms, genres, sizes, frequencies, loops (CDJ2000 has that quantize option), delays (EFX)... playing just the right sounds as the sun slowly came up- thankfully a few clouds in the east kept the sun from directly waking everyone up- like a subtle teasing sunrise- and his track selection reflected that. Only recognized about 7 tracks, the rest was from another dimension (the future!)
Digweed went on til 6:30 when Gunther & Stamina played exactly what worked for the last 40 min until the end around 7:15am... Always great stuff from them
From the giant LED headphones to the right amount of laser- it was a perfect run done by the light engineer/controller...
So many positive people, beautiful air, lips are a bit dry but it's all worth it!
For me the highlight was dancing for about an hour on the "VIP-Bridge" in the back- I hope we'll be using it at the upcoming events more often.
Digweed was very happy as he tweeted today: DJJohnDigweed: WOW - Thank you Beirut amazing party on Saturday night - Mix FM put on another fantastic night - see you soon ...
All in all an amazing way to kick off our summer events!
In case ya cant download the sets from my FTP, save these links instead:
maDJam Opening Set
http://www.lebanesedjs.com/madjamsets/m ... 202010.mp3
Ronin & Nesta Warm-up (11m40s the rain started to pour hard- u can hear the crowd react to it)
http://www.lebanesedjs.com/madjamsets/R ... 202010.mp3
Some pics for ya
