Armin Van Buuren Official Review May 09, 2009

[DonSerj]

[UnFoRgivEr]

[ziz00_909]

[Fawzi]

[A-Cube]

[TRANCED]

Will you get off Armin's back already?
Couldn't he have just been in a bad mood or something??

No one argues how good Armin is. Falling off the standard a couple of nights is no big deal. (it's our bad luck that it happened on our event.)

I was toooooo tired during the event.
Armin didn't play as i expected, till the last hour or so, when i started yelling: FINALLY! THIS IS ARMIN! (check tracklist)..
I had in mind many many good tracks that I wanted him to drop, but i guess he had something else in mind.

Organization/ Lights/ fireworks/ pigeons (Wtf??)/ madjamd's ou2 ou2 (3anjad wtf????!! lol).... were all great, and a great event over all.

[speedytaz]

Very true.... Armin did seem in a bad mood .... he didn't even wanna talk on the mic after the event... madjam was putting the mic infront of him and he was turning away ... obviously something was off something was going wrong.... and either madjam was drunk at the end... or there was smth else worng .... keeped on saying .... mix fm loves armin ... lebanon loves armin ... my mom loves armin ... my nany loves armin ... oww oww .. come onnn ... killed the whole mood .... murdered the whole event... literarly stupidd... and i wouldn't be surprised if we wait another 4 years for armin to come back ...

the event itself from the start was gr8 ... the ads were gr8 ... the organization was gr8 .... first wave ... second wave tickets,.. very clever marketing strategy....security and everything was gr8 .... although again ... my friends had regular tickets and they spent the night with us in VIP ... always same mistakes... but it's ok ... vip zone 1 was much better than zone 2... sound was a little low in the back part of VIP zone 2... but got better when we went forward....
1 thing that i have always wondered and never could understand is the laser show... i've been to events abroad and i still don't understand the stingyness mix fm or any other organisors have with lasers..... 1st an event with THIS MAGNITUDE.... needed more than 3 lasers... at least 5 .... second.... vip sections are ALWAYS ... ALWAYS left out.... the only event i saw with lasers for the VIP section was at above and beyond ... which made the event worth while ... EVEN the existing 3 lasers were not GOOD enough for the event.... they were on only 25% of the time ... so i think it could have been better laser wise....
mixing wise... i noticed a mistake or 2 ... but OBVIOUSLY there was smth wrong with the equipment... there is NO way armin ... would make mixing mistakes... live ... come on ppl ....
yes we did not expect THIS tracklist ... but it was amazing alltogether...
WOULDNT miss any event ARMIN makes....

tracklist... the only ones i remember were ...
Arnej - dust in the wind
nothing at all
in and out
this is silence
unforgivable

Mix FM .... please 1 request..... more lasers.... you guys made over half a million in 1 night .... i think u can spend 12000$ ... to rent 1 more laser... or even 2 .... and at least point a few towards the VIP sections... regular ticket holders have a better view and better show than vips doo ...

[TranceFusion]

Here's my (long) review!
NB: you lazy people better find efforts to read it, it's worth the time!

Before i go into the details i want to say that no matter how that night looked like, i still love Armin and i want to see him again! I believe Q since he's a professional DJ, saw Armin 8 times and said that Armin never made such mistakes.

Outline:
I- The big important stuff!
II- The funny stuff!
III- Conclusion!

I-
I'll start by saying that some security guys need to look for another job where the job description fits their behavior - acting like robots! Why am i saying that? Here's why. I am twenty-fuckin-four, 24, 24, 24 with a vip ticket! And when a security guy thinks that i am below 18 then sorry but "Houston we have a problem here!". If i were 19 i'd understand his doubts. I was with my friend Psycho and another friend that i haven't seen in more than a year. I told the security guy that it's the first time that it happens to me and hopefully the last. Because of the lack of fuckin common sense in the brain of that robot i had to run back to the vip parking (the farthest one from the building, the one without asphalt) for my id and run back to the entrance. Then he said "ma twakhezna". Yea... shove this "ma twakhezna" in your ass! Wasted 15-20minutes looking for my friends because of him. I arrived at 00:10am and i was finally among my friends at 00:50am! Apart from that incident with that low IQ idiot, the entrance was really good with black light verifications. I liked that!

Setup of the stage was the best i've seen in the history of Lebanese Trance events. Very creative and modern DJ booth with nice screens below it. The setup of the dancefloor was also cool with a U-shape like e-sam said. However at first i thought that on one side there was the VVIP area and on the other side the VIP area. Turned out there is a Zone1 for VIP and a Zone2 for VIP! (same for VVIP) I have to say out loud that this specific point was a bad idea. We were 2 groups of friends who reserved 2 tables and B018 called our friend Rima (table reserved on her name) to tell her that those 2 tables are indeed next to each other. Turned out at the event that one group was in Zone1 and the other group in Zone2. So we got divided by B018's lack of ........ (fill in the blank space) and by MixFM's bad idea of separating the VIP area. We had to leave one zone to go to the other zone in order to see our friends. Not cool! What i also didn't like about the VIP area is that to go to the regular area we had to get out of the building, go around to its left side and pass again through the security to enter the building. Why weren't there stairs leading directly to the regular area? Every time i was going in (in total 3 times) the security guy was doubtful because my blue thingy wasn't attached well on my wrist (not my fault!). This is the first time i had so many problems with the security.

As expected, a lot of people showed up. I have a feeling that it was a bigger crowd than at Tiesto's event in 2005! DJ Remy played really well, loved the music during this warm-up! I already saw him in July 2008 and i really wanted to listen to him again. Glad that Armin brought Remy with him! Now, something that no one or just one person (didn't read all opinions) mentioned. The crowd was huge! So obviously it got really hot inside BIEL, as if we were in a microwave (that's an exaggeration, but you get the idea)! We weren't dancing like dancing-addicts and we were already sweating like never before. What happened to the ventilation?

Remy finished at 1:15am and the time came to introduce Armin van Buuren. The intro lasted 5 good minutes and was really really really BEAUTIFUL. I'll show you the full intro very soon, once i succeed in uploading that freakin video lol. I don't want to describe what happened during the intro, the video will tell you everything!

Armin showed up, the crowd went INSAAAAAAAAAANE! And he kicked off the set with, as expected, Imagine followed by Arnej - Dust In The Wind. To be honest at the beginning of his set i personally felt that it was still a warm-up. Isn't that what Remy was supposed to do and successfully did? The energy was going up and down most of the time during the first 2.5-3 hours and even at some point in the first hour he played a really mellow track that is only for home listening! Luckily that was the only time a 100% home-listening track was played with time Armin started to play better and better. More uplifting meant more pleasure for me! And i was actually shocked that he played very few vocal tracks so that's a big plus here. At some point in time i went to the VIP entrance to take pics and record a couple of films of Armin from behind. A 50year old security guy was in front of me and didn't mind that, but later a tall macho security guy playing the tough guy sent me away "it's forbidden to take pics here". I asked "why?" and he replied "because! leave!". So again, FUCK THE SECURITY! Although overall they do a good job, some of them still manage to ruin someone's mood at every event and this time it happened to me. Fuck them big time. The way i was treated by the security at this event totally ruined my mood for around 1 hour. I don't know why Armin made bad transitions but it's something that can happen to anyone at any time. No one's perfect. At 4am when Armin started to play better i began enjoying my time more and loved the laser show. The lasers were rarely (why?? ) displayed but when they were, it was really nice! Also a very important point, Armin interacted PERFECTLY with the crowd! He even said hi to me most probably cuz he saw my t-shirt with the Armin logo haha i was behind the DJ booth. One thing that he always does, and others do less often/sometimes/rarely is the smile. He smiles almost all the time! And that's a true honest smile. You want to see a fake smile? Christopher Lawrence haha!

A bit before 6am as expected Armin played In & Out Of Love (bleh) and Communication (yea!! ). I was waiting at the VIP entrance for a pic with him and maybe an autograph but unfortunately i couldn't. I'm not completely convinced that this is the way Armin wanted to leave the place since i know that normal DJs are treated by MixFM like politicians targeted by hitmen and DJs themselves like to at least say hi to a few fans. An army of security guys took Armin out. I see many pics on internet where Armin enjoys taking pics with normal fans like us, but here nothing. Anyway i'm not gonna commit suicide because of that, especially that in August there is a huge chance that i'll see Armin again in Poland

II-
The funny stuff!
First situation:
I was stuff in the traffic. Many teens were standing there. My guess is that they didn't have their tickets and the soldiers weren't letting them in. When i was going to enter BIEL's terrain a cop came to me with a boy. We talked in arabic but i'll translate the short convo to english:
Cop - listen can you please take that boy inside with you? His friends are inside and there are tickets on sale.
Me - no there are no tickets anymore (i didn't see any point of sale at BIEL and since there were 1st and 2nd wave i'm assuming that there shouldn't have been a point of sale at the door)
Cop - yes yes there are
Boy - there is at $40
(knowing the prices of the regular tickets - 45 and 50 - and the magnitude of this event, everyone wanted to see Armin and only someone whose family member died or had a terrible accident would have left then)
Cop - come on take him with you
Me after a short silent moment - how old is he? (he didn't look nor 18 nor 19, definitely not 13, i say 15-16)
Cop - i don't know, come on take him and i'll open you the way
Me - mmmmmm (i was gonna refuse and the boy came to my passenger's door to open it, it was automatically locked from inside)
Cop - thanks, i'm opening you the way
After going in with the boy i asked him if friends are there, when i reached the vip parking i told him:
Me - this is where i have to park, now get the fuck out of my car (i said in arabic "dabber 7alak halla" so i dunno how to translate it but yes i had a rough tone)

My point is not that i took an underage with me, he would have got in with someone else if not with me. My point is that a COP didn't check the boy's age and still let him in! Corruption right in front of my eyes and those "cops" still expect us to respect them. Fuck this society big fuckin time. Where the fuck are those parents, where the fuck is the law, where the fuck is this police!!!

Second situation:
I was stuck in the traffic and next to me stopped a car with 4 wazawez. While i was warming myself up with nice Trance stuff (at that moment it was Signum - The Timelord), they were warming themselves up for Armin's event with....... TARAB!!!

III-
Overall i'm quite satisfied musically. I rate Armin's set 7/10 and the event 8.5/10. The security -20/10. I find this set a bit better than the one he played at Sunrise Festival 2008 in Poland (rated for me 5-6/10). Personally i consider that both Armin and Markus are perfect when it comes to interaction with the crowd. They both do it really really well but in terms of energy level, Markus definitely owns Armin. However even Markus sometimes plays less energetic sets (example: Godskitchen Poland on 18 April 2009, it was a progressive set for home listening!).

NB: Madjam said ou2 ou2?!?! WHEN?!?! Akalna bahdale wlo!! Btw, the teens outside BIEL's terrain also shouted "ou2 ou2 yalla yalla". Bahdale akhou manyouke in front of older Lebanese citizens/parents going back home and passing by BIEL.

[K-reen]

[speedytaz]

[TranceFusion]

[K-reen]

[speedytaz]

[TaGGaT]

[maDJam]