Here’s an unbiased review of last years event, which has appeared on www.uk-cl.co.uk ( a big up to Wayne & Oli ).
Armin Only - Ahoy
Date: Saturday 12th November 2005
Address: Ahoy, Rotterdam, Holland
Occurrence: One Off
Hours: 10:30pm - 07:30am
Genre: Trance
Dress Code: Anything goes
Capacity: 12,000
Line-Up: Armin Van Buuren & guests
The massive arena that is Ahoy in Rotterdam, provided the venue for Armin Van Buuren to bring his Armin Only show to the next level, which he did in some style. Over 11,000 tune hungry clubber's arrived, and when the arena was nearly full, at 12:30, the warm up set suddenly stopped and the room fell in to darkness. Then, over the PA, came a rundown of Armin's career so far, before sparks flowed into the air, lighting up the stage and Armin appeared behind the decks to rapturous applause from the adoring crowd. The stage was shaped like an Armada ship, with other's in the background all bearing the Armada logo. Coming from either side of the stage were runways above the crowd and three laser's, one either side of Armin and once coming from behind him, completed the backdrop for Armin to provide us with an unforgettable show.
Armin got straight into it the swing of things, starting of with, rather appropriately,his own tune Sail. This was followed by the Paul Van Dyk mix of Kuffdam & Plant - Summerdream, with a start like this, we knew we were in for something special. The first hour whizzed by, with the dub mix of the massive Dogzilla - Without You a big favourite with the much varied Rotterdam crowd. Not long after that, came the first live guest appearance of the night, as a piano was set up at the end of one of the runways coming from the stage and classic pianist Jan Vayne arrived to play Serenity, which he wrote with Armin. The piano on Serenity went down well, but then Jan stayed on as Armin mixed in Communication, Jan again played the piano to it, but this rendition wasn't as good, he seemed to be out of key to the tune and the extra piano he put in didn't suit.
Jan went off to mixed applause, but Armin was straight back into the swing of things with Mark Norman - Touchdown getting the crowd back on side. He then went into some of the tunes of the Summer with the Sander Van Doorn mix of Message In A Bottle and the Nu Nrg mix of Where The Streets Have No Name, before it was time for another live guest. This time it was vocalist Ray Wilson with Eller Van Buuren on electric guitar performing Armin's Rising Star mixes of Yet Another Day and Gypsy. This had Armin jumping around behind the decks, obliviously loving the added element he has brought to his show. As they finished, ticker-tape flowed into the air, providing a site of red and white flakes falling on the crowd to a red background from the lights on the stage.
Armin took things a little harder after that with Marcel Woods - Advanced and Randy Katana - Play It Louder, during which ventured from behind the decks to go down one of the runways and wave and bow to the crowd, then as the Operation Blade sample kicked in from Play It Louder, he leapt around in unison with the crowd before making it back behind the decks in time to mix in the next tune. The next live act wasn't far off after that, with Susanna appearing to sing the vocals of Shivers over the Alex M.O.R.P.H. dub mix. She sang impeccably to the delight of both Armin and the crowd alike.
This was followed by Inertia - The Chamber, which had the three lasers going and also, for the first time, we seen flames shooting up from around the dj box in between the lasers. The crowd were absolutely lapping it up and it seemed like only a few more minutes before Racoon arrived on one of the runways to sing Armin's mix of Love You More. Armin followed that with the Deserves An Edit Dub of Perasma - Swing 2 Harmony before unleashing a gem in the form of Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 mix) to provide a moment of sheer delight for all involved.
Nadia Ali arrived on a runway not long after to perform Who Is Watching and Armin's mix of IIO - Rapture, then it was straight back to Armin on the decks as he kept things ticking along nicely with the Thrillseekers mix of Calling Your Name followed by his own collaboration with MIKE - Pound. The final guest appearance came from Armin's fellow Dutch dj's, Remy and Roland Klinkenberg, who made a brief guest appearance behind the decks to mix in their hit Till Ya Drop, but with a twist. Instead of the usual kick in, the music stopped and a tribe of young children appeared on the stage, playing bongo drums and blowing whistles, before the tune kicked back in again.
This brought to an end all the live guest appearances, and it was from here on that Armin really came into his own and the atmosphere peaked. Armin was doing what he does best, mixing quality tune after quality tune to perfection. John O'Callaghan's new mix of Agnelli & Nelson's classic Everyday had the Ahoy rocking, with all the laser and flame throwers now going in unison and the crowd loving it. Then came the feel good tune of the night, in the Tiesto mix of Paul Oakenfold's Southern Sun, with the whole crowd singing together choir like to the luscious vocals. The Spektrum mix of Push - Strange World sounded fantastic on the mammoth soundsystem, as did Solar Factor - No Return, another tune that was unexpectedly played, but went down an absolute storm.
It was now 6:30am, though it definitely didn't feel like it had been six hours earlier that Armin first appeared on stage. But the room was still as full now as it was then, as nobody could possibly leave during Armin's explosive set. Armin continued to bang it out, with Out Of The Past - Mystery (Fred Baker vs Vincent Gozack mix), which samples the classic Two Full Moons And A Trout and John O'Callaghan's excellent mix of Sophie Sugar - Call Of Tomorrow. Then came Armin's own mix of Solar Stone - Seven Cities, which got one of the best reactions of the night. It seemed Gabriel & Dresden's mix of Way Out West - Mind Circles was going to be the last tune of the night, as afterwards the lights came on and the MC thanked everyone for coming and thanked all the crew for making it possible. But, there was time for one more, as Armin finished of with his own Burned With Desire, featuring the vocals of Justine Suissa, prompting him to get up on the decks to dance with the crowd, before getting back down and throwing his headphones in to the crowd for one lucky clubber to catch. Armin Only the next level certainly lived up to it's billing, taking us to a level that we could never have imagined before.
Venue: 10 , Music: 10 , Crowd: 9 , Sound System: 10 Total: 39 / 40
Rating: Gold Award Review written by: Wayne Spelman wayne@uk-cl.co.uk
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