In his 2006 live performance in Beirut, Hernan Cattaneo offered us memorable music which was encrypted in our Electronic Dance Music history. The music he played was totally new to many, as it introduced a lot of people to Progressive and Tech House. Just yesterday night, Hernan Cattaneo came back to Beirut in order to ensure that his place is still safe in our hearts and minds, majorly targeting numerous progressive sounds listeners and generally enclosing various sounds in different mainstreams.
I arrived to Biel Downtown at around 12:25 AM, and as I was listening to the warm-up, I received an unexpected phone call from my friends who were heading straight to Biel too. Sadly I got to hear really bad news about their car accident on a certain highway, leading to few injuries with the driver suffering of a cerebral concussion. At that time I had a strong feeling that the night will not be as good as expected. Fortunately after almost an hour of stressful thoughts, problems were resolved and everyone seemed somehow alright. Please people. Do buckle up, seat belts save lives !
Clearly I couldn’t listen to Kaa’s opening set; hence feedbacks are highly appreciated from whoever got the chance to listen to his set.
And due to the previous temporarily tragic incident, I could barely catch up to maDJam’s set, however from what I got to hear in general the warm-up was well built and as usual fine enough to set the right standards for the main set. The crowd was obviously ready to go on with the journey. Well done Ahmad, this is certainly not a negative appraisal as you mentioned to me yesterday !
The instant when Hernan took over the deck, the ambiance wholly changed in a way. Hernan Cattaneo kicked off with some transcendent melodies supported by full on progressive beats which eventually put the dance-floor on fire. With his fresh new hair cut, Cattaneo knew precisely what to play. As in my personal opinion his set was steady, solid and absolutely well delivered. His technical skills were gorgeously well refined, offering us a flow of progressive house and Tech to Techno-ish effects. Such musical experience would have been incomplete without Hernan picking up and transitioning the right tracks within scrumptiously sexy vocals set in the background. Besides, hearing some acid elements incorporated in averagely edgy bass-lines made everyone around me get pleasure of every single second and not waste any. Moving from a section to another, table to table, seeing familiar faces and listening to the music at the same time drew a huge blissful smile that remained on my face for quite a long period. As far as I remember Hernan also dropped John Digweed & Nick Muir – Tangent at around 3:35 AM, a moment I was personally anticipating and fortunately turned out a superb lovely one ! Such musical flavor, from good Progressive House to Techno influences, laid its effect on the dance-floor keeping us all with a vivid energetic spirit. Needless to mention, outstanding ending by Cattaneo ! Thank you so much Hernan for such classy and elegant music.
As usual, I left just right before Gunther & Stamina’s closing set, hence again any feedback about their act is highly appreciated.
No offence but very poor DJ-booth setup in my opinion, except that credits go to the upper lights disposition which was giving the booth more value than it originally is.
On the contrary, long vertical poles with great lightings were ultimately fabulous (It gave me quick flashback images of the machines in the movie “War of The Worlds”, especially because of the spot lights lol).
I never also got the point of the art work occurring during the gig, it’s a new idea alright and the designer/drawer/artist is quite talented however I think such concepts don’t usually match with a “raving” experience. My point is, I personally find such ideas to be put in use during some kind of ambient/dub/electronica experience and not full on progressive music, so that people can actually esteem such artistic skills and lastly give it and the artist much more value. However I believe this is my own subjective opinion.
Sound system was overall great, but you have to be in the front in order to enjoy it to the max.
The sound in the VIP/VVIP sections faced the same usual problem, thankfully groups of friends had a table right below the amplifiers and so the sound was fresh and good.
The corridor linking the V/VIP sections wasn’t as sexy as at Sasha & Digweed although this time it consisted of a bigger space, but the sound didn’t seem as close as what we previously experienced.
Service was pretty nice and respectful.
Crowd wise, I have nothing new to talk about. I’m just being thankful for the artists/music I am getting to see and listen to recently, caring less for what is happening anywhere greater than my circle radius; as long as I’m surrounded by great close friends.
Thank you !
and 
, MadJam went too high in my opinion, warm-up DJs are not supposed to drop bangin tracks, well the last 3-4 tracks of the warm up were all bangin and each one heavier than the other...
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