[align=justify]I had been waiting for such a break for a long, long time, and with a single phonecall AMADEUS drew a monalisa smile on my face. The only proper manner in which to inaugurate my post is by (yet again) thanking AMADEUS in person for believing in me enough to give me such an opportunity and hand me such a responsability, which I am deeply thankful for. AMADEUS: it has been an honor.
I also wish to thank my sweet Dolphina for this natural and decent review she wrote right after the gig, before even going to sleep, just when the very first sunrays were on their course to reach our blue planet. She has been my number one fan since day one, and so I can only be endlessly grateful to her unconditional support in all its forms.
The final thanks go out to you, THerz, who made it there despite having class or work early on the next morning. I will not go into naming each one seperately, but it was all of you, one by one, who made my night yesterday. Of what worth if a DJ were it not for his crowd? A crowd that knows what it's listening to and appreciates it. You were my catalyst.
I am very glad to receive all this positive feedback, and some constructive criticism as well; it is this feedback which keeps me motivated, and this criticism which keeps me improving. So keep them coming, both of them!
I'll discuss my part of the night below, but I need to mention just how good AMADEUS' part was: pure raw vibrating energy! I may be mistaken, but I don't believe he ever played that much Tech Trance in a row, and the crowd was just digging it! And perhaps it's only me, but I sensed a certain inner happiness on AMADEUS' face during the set that I don't always see, as if there was something special about the night. So I guess it was special for all of us, each in his/her own way! I truly hope this night will be repeated, not just because I got warmup for the region's #1 DJ, but because it really was a special night - from the lineup to the music to the place to the crowd. Oh and Shadi: Satellite then Should Have Known? Too much bro... way too much!
Some of you may have noticed me pulling out my mobile from my pocket every now and then, that's because I was writing down the tracklist track by track, since SamEr wasn't there this time to ID what I was playing as he has gotten us used to doing in most of the gigs (what a nerd!
). So here's what I got to play last night, from the very first track till the very last, in the same order of last night's sequence. I didn't quite get to "peak" my warmup as I intended to since the main set began earlier than expected (a wise decision at that moment), but this should give you a pretty fair idea of how the night started, where my taste lies nowadays, and what to expect from a warmup session of mine (since you never know when. Those of you who were there could use the tracklist to relive certain moments of the set or to get tracks they enjoyed, while those who weren't there can drown in regret and learn never to repeat the same mistake again! [/align]
Savannah - Savannah La Mar (Sunlounger mix)
Envio - For You (Sunlounger remix)
The Nomads - The Holy Land Spirit (DJ Shah's balearic sundown mix)
Sunlounger - White Sand (DJ Shah's original mix) [so it's quite obvious how much of a Shah/Sunlounger fan I am!]
Allende - Dismal Clouds (original mix)
Super 8 - Get Off (Gabriel Batz remix) [dedicated to Canada's finest DJ export Gabriel Batz himself!]
Jones and Stephenson - The First Rebirth (Ljungqvist remix) [The moment samlbronkowitz walked in the club I just knew I had to welcome him with precisely this!]
Hammer & Funabashi - Moments (original) [Because JAD tagged along bronko and deserved a similar welcome!]
Matt Abbot presents Optima - Kinetic Storm (Peak versus JPL remix)
Lens - Dusk Till Dawn (Stalker remix)
Joonas Hahmo - The Fusion (Hawk remix) [requested by and dedicated to Proof in India - thank you for reminding me of it else I would've forgotten to play it!]
Static Blue - Going Home (Algarve's helium remix)
David West - Suffering Island (original mix) [requested by and dedicated to SamEr whose absence in gigs is always greatly missed]
Mike Shiver - Morning Drive (Probspot remix) [dedicated to TH's resident Probspot fan bxtreme]
Andre Visior - Skyline (Funabashi club remix) [JAD, this is the track with the guitar that you asked me about and that I told you I had just gotten the previous day]
Airwave featuring Jon O'Bir - The Promise I Made (vocal mix) [dedicated to ALESUND in Washington DC]
Under Sun - Capoeira (Hawk remix)
Cape Town - Proglifter (original mix) [Dreamboy requested DJ Fire - The Closest Thing To Heaven so I gave him his favorite track of 2006 instead!]
Duende - Luna Negra (Dudestadt remix)
Koris versus DJule present K and D - Orange Dub (Mesh remix)
Matt Cerf - Let Me Breathe (Noel Sanger versus Shawn Mitiska mix)
Binary Finary and Jose Amnesia present Cloudbreak - Difference (Hydroid versus Santiago Nino dub fire mix) [bronko pumped his fist in the air to this without knowing that it's by his beloved Binary Finary!]
David West - Make You Mine (dub mix) [requested by and dedicated to fellow DJ Raneem - I hope you get your own break soon!]
Cressida - Slightly Agravic (original mix)
Karen Overton - Your Loving Arms (Markus Schulz and Elevation intro mix) [dedicated to AMADEUS, Johnny, and e-sam... they know why!
:mrgreen::lol:]
Leon Bolier and Elsa Hill - No Need To Come Back (original mix) [grande finale dedicated to my baby girl Dolphina.]
[align=justify]Some of these tracks may be found in my most recent recorded set that you can download here: http://www.trancehits.com/viewtopic.php?t=11626
I am sorry if I failed to fulfill the other requests as they just wouldn't fit or were of tracks I personally dislike, and a special sorry goes out to Bassel for not fulfilling his request of 4 Strings - Take Me Away (Purple Haze remix) as I was expecting AMADEUS to play it himself (which he eventually did) and so I didn't want to snatch it away from him... he is the main DJ after all!
I had about half a dozen tracks that I still wanted to play, the creme de la creme of my set actually, but it was already high time to hand over the decks to the man of the night, who mixed over my last track to then move on to his earth-shattering set, which in DJ language is a sign of respect to the preceding DJ, and so I cannot but salute AMADEUS back in return.
As for a brief and non-detailed self-evaluation (just as this reply is non-detailed
), looking back now at the trackselection I am pretty satisfied (minus the peak issue discussed above). Technically, I could've been 10% better were I to compare my mixing in the club with that I pull out at home, but given both of the novelty of the mixer to me and of the amount of pressure I was enduring due to playing in front of a serious crowd and being heard by professional DJs, I believe the 10% could be relatively justified, especially that it consisted in minor offbeats that I was quick to recover from at most times but no major trainwrecks whatsoever, while I'm generally satisfied with the transitions (minus the bass problem that the club was suffering from which might have highlighted a certain roughness in my transitions although I'm all OCD when it comes to the EQ). I will make sure that next time the 10% will be reduced to 5%, for as a human I am compelled to learn from my mistakes, and I learned a lot from last night (not meaning I did a lot of mistakes! ).
Anyway, I hope I managed to live up to the high (very high) expectations you had all set for me, and I hope my taste proved to be aligned with yours and that I was able to "warm you up" adequately before the storm. As much as it was a great honor to be chosen by AMADEUS himself to warm up for him, it was equally a challenge to DJ before such an established name as himself, and so I also hope (too much hoping going on today) that what turned out to be my warmup session was a set worthy of such a high calibre DJ as AMADEUS.
Thank you all one by one again and again for your support; it has always been, was last night, and will always be much appreciated.[/align]
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