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fter a long break from big events, there had to be an event that would kick-off the mad night life in Dubai! 3 of the biggest names in the EDM scene as we know it have managed to be united in one night, sharing one goal, one crowd, and one experience. Fluid & Chemistry productions have brought us an unforgettable and well organized night that many clubbers have dreamed of!
Blake Jarrell, Faithless, and Armin van Buuren!!! One of the TRI-FACTORS of Electronic Dance Music!!!
Part 1: Chemistry Productions
Me, Candy, and some friends of ours arrived at Za'abeel Hall at around 9:30 to find that the hall was very well designed for this particular event. It was good to see that at around 10 the hall was somewhat getting packed.
DJ Tony from Chemistry Productions was opening for the night with a great selection of progressive house. I was quite blown away when he played one of my personal favorite classics Ofra Haza - Love Song (M.I.K.E. vs. Zigi remix) (which is progressive psy btw!). However, I couldn't comprehend why he played Voodoo & Serano's blade track.
Moving on... After getting some drinks, we loitered around the hall, danced around a bit, and decided to finally head to the very front since they were about to start the performance soon anyways.
So..... FAITHLESS!!!!! Those guys don't need any introduction due to the simple fact that almost everyone (should be all) have heard their music before we got deep into EDM. Am I right or am I right?
The band came on at around 10:30 or 11 by warming up for a couple of minutes then kicking off with Sweep.
Transitioning slowly from Sweep into a sudden burst of Maxi Jazz's appearance, Faithless played the one and only, INSOMNIA!!! This track was VERY essential for the crowd since EVERYONE in that hall have heard it at some point in their lives. The crowd went MENTAL at that point during the gig.
After playing some great tracks - which I wasn't able to identify -, the band's next track was God Is a DJ. Brilliant! Just brilliant!!!
Even though Faithless were playing some down-tempo tracks here and there with Maxi's voice to cover up the slowness of the tracks, people were still on their feet and going crazy over anything that Maxi did! Haha!
Few moments later, my current favorite song by Faithless off their new album was played. BOMBS!. Having the name of the album itself, the track is really slow and I love the vocals a lot. I think I was pretty much the only person on the dancefloor singing along the chorus. Damn ignorant clubbers....
Mind you, the bald guy is the second vocalist in Bombs!
Moving onwards with the playlist that the band had decided on with, they played after a couple of songs one of their very famous ones. Music Matters. And it does eh? I'm sure at that point, Candy went nuts since she's been nagging about it before we even got there!!!! Damn candy-bar! After playing another track, one of the greatest Faithless tunes was played. I don't know how, I don't know why, but for some reason, people immediately knew what the band was going to play when Maxi Jazz stood in front of the mic and later on raised his finger implying "ONE"!
At that moment, the band got the idea that everyone knew that they were going to play We Come One. Maxi did his thing by pumping up the crowd everytime he said ONE... So people did the same... Every time Maxi said "We come...", the crowd responded massively by "ONE!!!". It was certainly a goosebumping moment for everyone.
Meanwhile, lovely Sista Bliss played the synths of the breakdown of the track while people kept on jumping on top of each other even though there were no kicks involved YET.
The track built up... and Za'abeel Hall's rooftop got its first crack.
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Meanwhile, Candy had gone to the bar on the side of the stage to get some drinks, only to come back with a huge smile on her face telling me that she met "him". I couldn't believe it. After giving her the sad eyes of a kitten, she decided to take me through the packed crowd again to where she had met "him". I saw good ol' maDJam there behind the bar, and I signalled to him hoping that he'd recognize me. And he did. Glad there was no mix up between Crow and Rock this time!! I asked him if Armin was around and I was told that he's around the VIP area getting a drink. In the mean time, Candy did the honors and took these: (me & maDJam, me & Afroboogie, me & Blake Jarrell)
w00ttttt me and Blake Jarrell!!!!! Thanks to maDJam ofcourse for hooking me up! Great guy who seemed a little shy at first haha.
And to return the favor, I took this hahahaha:
After waiting for a while around that area, who do I see coming down the stairs of the VIP area? YES! YES! YES! Thank you Candy for taking this pic!!!
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Back to the packed crowd and Faithless.
After the track was over, the band thanked the crowd in hunger for more, and left the stage.
Having had accepted the crowd's hunger, Faithless decided to go for an encore! Who the hell does a 2 song encore in this country?! Seriously... Doesn't happen a lot over here haha. Maxi Jazz was so pumped up that he just had to take it to the next level. Watch this space below.
2 songs were done with, the band thanked the crowd again and the crowd just chanted and chanted Faithless! Faithless! Faithless!. It was simply amazing!!
Great music, great performance.... Now it's time for the second part of the night.
Tracklist .:. Faithless
o1. Sweep
o2. Insomnia
o3. Hope & Glory
o4. Emergency
o5. All Races
o6. God Is a DJ
o7. Family Back
o8. Mass Destruction
o9. Everything Alright
1o. What about love?
11. Bombs
12. Drifting Away
13. Music Matters
14. I want more
15. We come 1
Encore
16. Muhammad Ali
17. Salva Mea
Part 2: Fluid Productions - Peppermint Xperience
Ok this is where there was a small break while Peppermint deployed its DJ booth back on stage, only this time it was in the middle (at first it was on the left). And who shows up on that stage? Blake Jarrell!! He's one of the reasons I wanted to go to that event.
Blake kicked off with amazing progressive tunes that filled the room with thick thick thick groovy kicks. I couldn't ID any of the tracks he played except one, which was a remix of Sander Kleinenberg's This is Miami. As usual people went crazy over the whole "This is.. Dubai.. Dubai.. Dubai.. Dubai"
Unfortunately for Blake, the crowd was not aware of his magical skills as a DJ and what he was capable of, so who did they cheer for? Armin van Buuren! How disrespectful to someone with high caliber and as a first visitor to Dubai. Shows how much people can be ignorant.
Blake Jarrell's set lasted for around 30 minutes only. He simply left. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he was pissed off or something. I wanted him to play more actually and I expected him to play Dood I Just Wanna Dance, which would do wonders on the dancefloor right after the breakdown in that track. He told me he might play it. Guess that didn't happen.
Now this is the part which everyone had been waiting for! After a moment of silence, Armin van Buuren walked up on stage and started his set.
Unfortunately there had been many technical difficulties with the sound system that only the monitors were working. Having tried to fix that, Armin was busy piling up his tracks. He started with a track that Markus Schulz played in ASOT 300 that had male vocals. Couldn't recognize it really. Seeing that the crowd was bothered by the sound system, Armin being a smart DJ, had to drop a bomb! MEGASHIRA!! Boom! Everyone was back on their feet. The set was simply great and the track selection was good. Tracks like The Sunlight (JPL remix), The Perspective Space (Markus Schulz remix), From Inside The Speaker, and many more were played.
Of course at that point during the event, I was worn out since I wasted all my energy on Faithless' performance. On the other hand, Armin didn't give a rat's ass about me and kept on spinning, and spinning, and spinning!
Tracklist .:. Armin van Buuren
o1. ID - ID
o2. Marc Marbeg w/ Kyau & Albert - Megashira
o4. Wamdue Project - King of my castle (Sander van Doorn remix)
o5. Breakfast - The Sunlight (JPL remix)
o6. Albert Vorne - Formentera What (Gareth Emery remix)
o7. Armin van Buuren - Rush Hour
o8. Rex Mundi vs. Ronski Speed - The Perspective Space (Markus Schulz mashup)
o9. ID - ID
1o. Pascal Feliz - From Inside The Speaker (Part 1)
11. Armin van Buuren - Communication Part 3 (Coldware Cold remix)
12. ID - ID
13. Filo & Peri - The Anthem (John O' Callaghan remix)
14. ID - ID
15. Armin van Buuren vs. Rank1 ft. Kush - This World Is Watching Me (Cosmic Gate remix)
16. ID - ID
17. ID - ID (this one had the blade tune at the end of it. sort of a copy of Randy Katana - Play it louder)
18. ID - ID
19.
2o. ID - ID
21. ID - ID
22. ID - ID
23. ID - ID
24. TNT - Children
25. Armin van Buuren ft. Racoon - Love You More
All in all, it was a great night. Thanks again to both Fluid & Chemistry Production teams. Hopefully they'll bring us more of these great events in the future.
I'm out!
Crow
thnx for the photos
:D !!!!! faithless seemed sensational!
.. bye bye blondie 
