In the aim of inspecting Radio NRJ's very first large scaled local event, I headed down to Forum De Beyrouth with no expectations, the way any objective critic must.
Arriving there sometime around midnight, the warmup was well underway by the resident DJ of Crystal - Anthony. Commercial House track in track out, which got the commercial crowd hyped, but the more serious listeners disinterested. Nevertheless, this gave me the time to check out the venue, and me liked! FdB was transformed into one megaclub:
* A gigantic DJ stage with the typical large projections screen above it, while to its sides were big LED lights displaying the letter "V" (for Vendetta
) in different color assortments.* Two seperate VIP sections, fully packed.
* Pretty decent sound system, and an even more impressive light system with all the usual components.
* Excellent VJing (by who?) that was quite in sync with the music, a rare occurence.
* The bar located in the center of the regular area, in rectangular form; much more practical and efficient than the usual placement.
Around 1AM or so, the import of the night David Vendetta was introduced by a broadcaster/MC, and made his intro with his radio-raped Bleeding Heart, with Rachel Starr on the live vocals, and Micah on the live violin. It was a cool idea for an intro, but what followed from here was not as cool. For the next hour or so, Vendetta would only play his album tracks, with an exagerated abuse of the whole "live" performance, from the violin being used in almost every other track, to the same songs repeated over and over again, to some rapper shouting out the usual slangs and even singing non-Vendetta songs ("my dream is to fly" and the likes)... it was just not my thing. When I go to a rave, I go there to rave, not to watch a concert. Anyway, the crowd was really digging the whole thing, there was massive response all throughout the night and Vendetta was feeding off it. The non-album tracks of his set were almost entirely vocal-based, with a lot of improvisations from his vocalists and violonist. My personal peak of the night was when Rachael Starr sang her older track Till There Was You which is a personal favorite of mine, too bad it wasn't the Gabriel & Dresden remix. So all in all, Vendetta put up a show that appealed to most of the attendees, but you just can't satisfy everyone!
Luckily to those who didn't enjoy Vendetta's music, there were two heroes scheduled to follow up to his set. NRJ's Nesta & Ronin were deleguated the task of destroying of the afterhours, and not only did accomplish their task, but they devastated the crowd in the process! The moment the dynamic duo took over the decks wearing that trademark "Beirut In The Mix" shirt of theirs, Nesta & Ronin radiated their charisma all over the crowd, and took us on a wavy journey into many layers of underground House. Beginning with a massive intro heavy with chaotic echoing drums, what followed was nothing short of dancefloor mayhem. The heavy beats, the rumbling basslines, the trippy melodic snippets, the carefully engineered flow, and the energy level all mashed up to create one monstrous synthesis that even got Trance Nazis such as Raneem and myself grooving and stomping! Paired with totally pro mixing skills and amazing crowd interaction that would get a mummy up raving, the tracklist dished out by Nesta & Ronin was the cream of modern House music... and a Progressive Trance exception! Yes, you heard me right: as Nesta had already promised me earlier that day, he threw in the prog monster Tom Cloud - Mercury Room somewhere between those mad hosuey basslines, and it fit in perfectly - clearly the peak of the night for us two Trance Nazis! The set was over much, much earlier than we wanted, with Nesta pulling out his "victory cigarette" and Ronin greeting the fans, again making us feel as if they're one DJ cut in half! Xander picked up from where the boys left off, pulling out a pretty decent set as well that merits all acknowledgment and respect! Nesta & Ronin, however, were two DJs who saved my rave, and if this is the future of House music Lebanon, then there is no fear over House music in Lebanon. Nesta & Ronin: CHAPEAU!
Great job NRJ in terms of setup, organization, promotion, and all that follows! Looks like Lebanon has a new serious organizer to enjoy, respect, and support. KUDOS!
A great month is ahead of us too: Dionysos vs Raneem vs Johnny on the 8th, Leon Bolier & Joop on the 21st, Judge Jules & Matt Hardwick on the 29th, and a nice little surprise you'll be hearing from me pretty soon... \o/[/align]
i wasn't there but as DIO said it was great and good luck for the new rganiser
...then all its left to say for us is 
tilllll the nexttttt
