Well, where do I start? It was a trance lovers paradise. Me and my posse made an entrance at around 12:30, and headed straight to the Channel V DJ comp, hoping to spot a few TAs along the way. No sightings recorded, tho. Ducked into the comp to see a friend of a friend play an awesome set (finishing with Out Of The Blue), but ultimately lose. There was some discontent among the punters

Headed to the main arena and it looked fantastic. Similar kind of setup to PvD earlier this year, but with less money spent on the DJ booth and more on lasers and water-walls . Oh, yeah, and the sound. So often party-goers down here in sunny Melbourne complain about the poor sound. Well, on this occasion, it was clear, and really loud. I couldn't fault it.

Hadn't intended to see much of Judge Jules, but ended up staying for the whole set. He played a fair bit harder than the other two (AvB a& J00F), but whacked in enough tuneage to keep me there (Rank 1 - Awakening [Cosmic Gate Remix] was the highlight of the set for me.) Sorry, can't remember anything else Jules played. Unless Jules finished with Ligaya -- or did Armin mix in?

It was getting to that time of the morning (3am) when Armin was due to hit the decks, and 5000 people were at fever pitch -- not to mention the TA community front and centre! I won't beat around the bush here, folks; Armin was amazing.

It stands as the single best trance set I've seen. Now, I didn't see PvD in 2001, which was apparently great, but it would have had to have been something incredibly special to beat this. Tiesto earlier this year was great, PvD in May was a little disappointing, but Armin was something else altogether. This was a DJ at the top of his game, and he worked it like nothing else. Armin's animation behind the decks indicated that he was loving every second of it; God knows we were...

Some of Armin's set highlights (to be improved, no doubt, by stipsy):

Solar Stone - Seven Cities (AvB Remix)
Pulser - Cloudwalking (Beatpushers Remix)
Fingers Burnt - For A Devil
Armin van Buuren - Sunburn
DJ Tiesto - Obsession
Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar (Marco V Remix)
Riva - Time is the Healer (AvB Remix)
Prime Mover - The Weapon (Grinder Remix)
Push - Strange World (2000 Remake)
Cape Town - Pitstop
Matt Darey - Moody
Darren Tate & Jono Grant - Let the Light Shine In
Warrior - If You Want Me
Gouryella - Ligaya (Hiver & Hammer Remix)
Perpetuous Dreamer - The Sound of Goodbye

Edited: cheers to mikkaa and others for refreshing my hazy, scattered memory...

And he finished with Perpetuous Dreamer - The Sound of Goodbye; one of my all time favourite tracks

More to come when I get back from this wedding this evening *shudder*

Last edited by SQ-K on Oct-09-2002 at 10:07

omfg
strange world 2000 remake

if he plays this in perth ill cream my self. Sounds wicked, I cant wait!!!

dude! he played the sound of goodbye!?!? fuck yes! thats wicked that track i cant wait if he plays that or rapture

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6 days on the run... looking for a place to have some fun... Albrey Level 70 shaman - dark iron ftw!

Don't forget the classics armin through in as well PVD - For an ANGEL and Cafe Del Mar - Energy 52(Marco V Remix) any reservation i had about armin i take it all back this man is a fucken genius, what a night.

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Oh, life is bigger ,It's bigger than you,And you are not me,The lengths that I will go to, The distance in your eyes ,Oh no, I've said too much, I set it up

That's me in the corner, That's me in the spotlight, I'm Losing my religion, Trying to keep up with you ,And I don't know if I can do it, Oh no, I've said too much,I haven't said enough, I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing, I think I thought I saw you try.

But that was just a dream, That was just a dream, But that was just a dream, Try, cry, why try? That was just a dream ,Just a dream, just a dream, Dream

by the way SQ-K i was in the cafe arena listening to Pete Hav 2 play ripping it up with out of the blue, fucken awesome build-up how did he not win. I got a sneeking suspicion i might know u lol

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Oh, life is bigger ,It's bigger than you,And you are not me,The lengths that I will go to, The distance in your eyes ,Oh no, I've said too much, I set it up

That's me in the corner, That's me in the spotlight, I'm Losing my religion, Trying to keep up with you ,And I don't know if I can do it, Oh no, I've said too much,I haven't said enough, I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing, I think I thought I saw you try.

But that was just a dream, That was just a dream, But that was just a dream, Try, cry, why try? That was just a dream ,Just a dream, just a dream, Dream

sounds like it was a great night....you lucky buggers! so how was JOOF!? is there any chance of a tracklisting? argh i wanna hear all about it! And what was with that Dj comp...did you guys even know about it, or were you just ment to go there and spin with whatever they had.

please tell more

hee hee

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i'm sooo pumped up now.
i hope they leave some for the perth addicts

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huh?

awsome! i cant wait!
STIPSY! I WANT THE WEALTH!

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OMG THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoooooooo!!!!!!!!!

I think I got there about 11:30ish, walked around for a bit, dissapointed that it was in the indoor courts and not Vodafone at least. Saw a bit of Midro, wasn't what I expected, it was alright! Not nrg kinda stuff like I thought it would be.

Checked out the cafe arena, saw the Channel V djs going at it, not bad! Saw West Brom go 1 up against Newcastle too!! Haha! Sent a couple of text messages to people telling them they need to get their arses down there hehe of course nobody replied

Went outside for the "meet up". ie me and Renegade, then Stipsy came past hehe. We were outside when 'out of the blue' was playing sq-k!

Checked out the progressive room, looked pretty small (hehe more on that later!), Renegade decided he would go check it out. I hung around the cafe arena for a while then decided to go see Jules and bumped into Renegade again who had returned! Satoshi wasn't on for another 30 mins so we had another chat and then I went off to Jules, Renegade said he'd catch us later in the main arena. lol yeah right! Haha I think that makes it 3 out of 3 Renegade! You piker! Just kidding man.

Went down to Judge Jules, hung with Stipsy at the front while we listened and tried to ID tracks. I got bombarded by the fucking smoke machine, but some choice one liners from Stipsy kept me entertained, from a simple "boooo!", to "play some trance you fucking idiot!", to "there's a push remix and another one, this must be the wanker remix". lol also "ooh please play toca me fragma maite!" and "he's got ministary of sound annual maite fully sik!" hehe it was great.

A couple of tracks we ID'd was:
'Rank 1 - Awakening'
I can't remember exactly but I think it was like "Superchumba - Revolution" or something mixed with "Members Of Mayday - 10 in 01"
also love parade remix and something that almost sounded like an instant moments remix too.
A few good tracks, some good bass to keep me jumping! I'd never seen him live before either, I liked all the silly poses and facial expressions, also Mrs Judge Jules is alright too!!

Then Armin van Buuren!
That was mad! Seven Cities, Strange World, Time Is The Healer, Sunburn, and WTF??? For An Angel??????????? I decided to go get something to eat and drink when Armin was on and apparently he played For An Angel????? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I missed it!!
I was walking back when I heard Time Is The Healer and I started running all the way back to the front hehe.
Dub.Wave was in there, also Cafe Del Marco V, Sound Of Goodbye and a couple of other ones that I have in sets but can't be stuffed digging up now! He was crying at one stage too! He had tears in his eyes, well thats what it looked like to us!! Hehe whether it was from the atmosphere/music, allergies or drugs is up to you!

That was pretty mad, I'd never seen Armin play either and only had a couple of livesets but it was great stuff!

And then onto John '00' Fleming!!! Man I was so looking forward to this!!!! It was awesome!!!!! Astral Projection, Logic Bomb, a few tracks from his Global Gathering set and all this awesome stuff! It was brilliant!! We were going crazy and Stipsy goes 'man if this is what I think it is its fucking awesome, great breakdown!' So I'm listening and I can't tell anything and he said the name, but it was wrong! I heard a familiar sound and we both knew it, looked at each other and at the same time yelled Cafe del Mar!!! and started jumping up and down going crazy hehe! And then Lethal Industry to follow it! It was crazy!!!! I was loving it sooooooo much!!!!!

After forgetting to bring 'Politics Of Dancing' to PvD in May, there was no way I was gonna get nothing out of this one so I had my 'For Your Ears Only' cover secure in my pocket! When some guy who was on the stage came past I gave it to him and he got it autographed for me! It didn't turn out too good because of the pen and the cover but I was so happy!!! What a great night!

And encores!! Digital Blonde - Mooga (Hemstock & Jennings Remix), Thrillseekers - Synestheasia (or whatever it is!) and I'm not sure but I think it was Liquid Child - Diving Faces, its in a set I have from last year, great stuff!! And he would have played more but they were kicking us out and he had to stop! I think they were on a tight schedule and Mark James kept trying to stop him hehe. Haha which brings me onto another thing! We walked along to the side and went in to say hi to j00f and Mark was there of course, we said hi and were chatting away and I think Stipsy said 'how was the progressive room?' or something, and I blurted it man it was pretty small! Which I think pissed off Mark James or something, Stipsy said he had a funny look on his face hehe. I thought that was kinda funny I mean it was tiny! Compared to the main arena and pretty much any other club I thought it was small, I guess Mark didn't appreciate me saying so!

There were a couple of lows though, the bloody smoke machine!!!! God damn that was annoying, I got home (thanks for the lift Stipsy!) and my face and eyes are all itchy! grrrrr. It was damn frustrating but I didn't want to move away from the front hehe. lol also a couple of unsure glances from Stipsy when I was shielding my face with my jacket hehehe.
Also I couldn't see any t-shirts for sale as souvenirs so I was dissapointed. Weren't many posters to nick either! lol I ripped down the set times and main arena poster but they were all taped together with ministry tour ones so I was walking away with this huge sheets of paper, and more one liners: "wtf are you doing man?" "I'm taking a poster dude!" "wtf are you going to do with that??" "stick it on my wall!" "you idiot! look at it! 1) its demented and 2) its demented! you idiot!" lol

Hehe although the "meet up" didn't really happen I still met a few TAs!! Good to meet people I hadn't before like SQ-K and Inacoma and everyone else! HybridJunkie were you there?

Man it was a great night, I loved it! And I think I'm still on a high from it!!!!! Whooooo!!
IM EXCITED!!

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new set online, Summer Journeys

sounds like you had an awesome time Philby, cant wait till he comes to Perth.

I think Ill be the only Sydney TA on tonight. The rest are at GK now! BASTARDS!

Melbourne sounded awsome! Glad you all had a great time!

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Hey guys, great to hear you all had a great tine!!

Everyone write more reviews, its great reading them.
Sorry guys about not heading over, f**kn finacial circumstances got in the way of shit again, and then i was even more pissed off cos i couldve afforded it after all (if forgot about my tax return).
Yeah Armins the man, disappointed i couldnt go.