* VENUE: Forum de Beyrouth, a big and spacious exposition center, around 11,000 sq meter. Hence for that event a small part of it was only used the rest of the space closed with wooden planks sometimes covered with curtains. I assume only a max of 5000 sq meter was used which can be considered as a lot of room.
* STAGE - LIGHT: One very impressive big stage in the middle well decorated with a huge "UFO" decorative element hanging right above it changing colors and giving the stage arena a "grandiose" facet.
A big circular truss hanging right above the "UFO" element with a fair number of moving heads and very few stobs. 4 green lasers were also available with 2 on the right and 2 on the left of the stage. 2 normal laser beams and 2 others projecting green skies and regular/irregular shapes. These lasers had good radius but one donwfall: those standing in the middle, just in front of the stage, weren't really whiped by these lasers; one had to be either standing on the sides or in the middle but way behind.
* SOUND: A quite powerful one with a correct coverage. Wherever you were standing, sound would reach you conveniantly. Nevertheless, at around 3, it has been noticed that the volume got a little lower and people started to move forward, towards the stage to get more power to their ears.
* ORGANIZATION-MANAGEMENT: It takes around 10 to 15 min to enter the venue because searching (for security reasons) and ticket checking is continously happening. Inside, two bars are serving the whole crowd. Some queuing is needed in peak hours but still acceptable to some extent. Organization was acceptable and management fair.
* PERFORMANCES - INTERLUDES: Samba dancers, female lead singer, Martial show, Japanese musical traditional performance and others took place trying to give the gig a different maybe unique flavor but I think that these in fact weren't made for such gigs and therefore had a boring aspect. Hence some might have been entertaining and interesting but i don't think that these made a big difference in the overall event rating.
* ACT I: GREGOR SALTO: Purely house/tribal house, let's say bouncy house but maybe lacking some colors. He played until around 1:00 a
correct playlist warming up progressively people and setting the tone of the night. No explosif tunes but acceptable records that could carry the show and make people dance a little. Nobody was really expecting more from him.
* ACT II: KIYOSHI SHIMIZU: After the Japanese "entracte" (Musical-Drums show) Kiyoshi decided to start spinning at around 1:15 until 2:30. A very slow start lacking groove but I consider that prodigy's remix record ("smack my bitch") played later on, accompanied by the animator's (Tiesto's one i guess, forgot his name) dancing and MC'ing set the crowd a little on fire but i guess the wrong crowd. (Will discuss crowd later on) A poor tracklist, old-fashioned and worse, sometimes boring but still Kiyoshi was trying to approach the crowd, dancing behind his decks, bouncing left and right. He tried injecting some oriental. japanese melodies into his set but i guess it didn't really work out that well.
* ACT III: SANDER KLEINENBERG entered the arena at around 2:30 with fireworks in front, on the left and on the right. Typical "global underground" sound with sometimes repetitive, hypnotic tunes. He started building a solid tracklist the first 45-60 minutes but suddenly changed styles, went a little more in the dub and electro-tech direction, spoiling a little the mood and the overall quality of his set. Still he went backwards and went a little more 'trancy' with tunes such as "look in your eyes" (not sure of the track name) but useless because the place was already half empty. In a nutshell, MORE was expected from Sander, MUCH MORE, more sexy bouncy grooves, more pure rocky house, more versatile, smart and colorful tunes... A little disappointing performance.
* DJ/CROWD INTERACTION: All DJs have interacted the same in a very average way. Gregor was just moving his head up and forth, Kiyoshi left and right & Sander, other than his funky hear-dressing, was smilling, dancing a little, thanking people at the end by just getting on stage next to the animator and leaning back and forth. In short, normal, casual interaction, nothing really to mention or be fond of.
* THE CROWD: One word to decribe it: CATASTROPHIC.
Very dull, empty, boring and slow crowd. No enthusiasm or whatsover the whole night. Other than few groups present as the LR one, The TH one and few 'independant' clubbers one, people weren't really here for clubbing. Many were simly watching not dancing, not even shaking a little. Some were having conversations, maybe solving the Middle East conflict problem... Really disastrous and terrible crowd. Hence one should admit that few were trying the trigger some fire by clapping hands, whistling etc. but these noble actions had no clear effect with nobody or very very few following up and the atmosphere, ambience remaining the same, that is fade and cold. An average of 3000 persons attended the gig but many just entered, watched a little and then left. There was a high flow of in & outters. I presume that a peak of 1800 max. were constantly present inside. In addition a few ambushes, fights, took place during the gig, bothering people and burying deeper the overall atmosphere.
All in all, a nice try to create something new, something different in the event/gig world in Lebanon. However, results were a little acceptable... The overall setup was very good, organization-management somehow efficicent, DJ performance average, the animator excellent but the crowd was one major ruin, deteriorating the night and maybe the clubbing scene. Really, that night, the crowd gave maybe a bad impression of the Lebanese clubbing scene to those DJs. No or whatsover interest was shown from that crowd... I was sometimes wondering why some came in the first place. Hence, one should admit that real clubbers were there and were trying to make things better but this big fraction of people spoiling everything, some of them dancing 'dabki' (believe it or not), covered up and erased any noble intention and set its own tragic tone. Sander K. could have been better and the crowd way much better.
Note: Ashrafieh's blast although 'contaminating' a little the mood didn't affect the gig that much. People just went outside, spoke on the phone or sent messages, picked up an additional free drink
then went back inside.
