Above & Beyond @ Forum De Beyrouth (4-4-2008)

[DIONYSOS]

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[Icepick]

One of the memorable nights....

I Entered also around halfway through Nesta And Ronin set...while gazing at the nice setup and listening to amazing House music...Great transitions and interaction with the crowd.

Waiting for Above and Beyond to enter, and here it is...opening with an amazing track...A set full of pure energy and nothing but amazing melodies...loved every single track..although expected a bit more uplifting...my moment of the night was Oceanlab - Satellite....what a tune, one of my all time favs.

Fady Ferraye delievered astonishing set with filthy house that i adore...but couldnt stay for long..

Upsides:
- Great Sound ( Not so clear on Vocals )
- Lights and Lasers

Downsides:
- The square in the middle took too much space the crowd was just stepping on each other...which brings the next point, very crowdy, couldnt walk or move much!

All has been said by Dio, amazing event \0/! Great meeting you all again !

[Nesta]

What a night!!!! wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwww
Thx dio for this amazing review and thx to all the people who showed yesterday!! It was a memorable night!!

Till the next !!!

[Raneem]

you fucking made me regret being in Canada! LOL!
It feels good to read a great review about this event!

[@mr]

B-Live and Nrj seem to be a very effective and professional partnership, and have proven their standards in this event.

Lebanon is finally back to its roots and standards in gigs.

[TNT]

that was GREAT!

i arrived at 11...very good warm up for me...nice tracks ( minimal tech prog house ) and solid mixing.

tony and jono's entry was awesome...the first track got the crowd crazzy!!! and the rest of the set was awesome for me exept some commercial/milked tracks here in lebanon like new york city... like said icepick the square in the middle was too big and the crowd was stepping on each other specially when the hanging dancers came...didnt like those a lot... but overall the set was exelent!!! i enjoyed every second of it...

anw Dionysos said already everything...but that was a GREAT event..pleasure to listen live to above and beyond...but the only thing i missed is afterhours...i left before ferraye started!
i hope they ll come again... \o/

[DJ_TRACID]

i loved the night great tracklist tracks like Luminary - Amsterdam, Monkey Forest... LOTS of ppl attended it was amazing really the setup was cool but the soundsystem was bad that was the only problem too much bass but all in all i enjoyed partying the group
c ya @ the next event

[Shy--Ism]

I arrived to the venue at around 11:15 as Ronin & Nesta were warming up for the main set. In my opinion those guys have the potential for Dj’ing and so it kept them very active behind the decks. However, I still think that the warm up could have been much better, although it was just good. And for many people that kept on whining about the quality of the warm up, well it’s noticeable that warm ups actually differ from a gig to another: a build up for a main house set is different (totally or slightly) from another open up for a main trance set (which is also applicable on sub-genres). Hence if it’s a matter of taste, I guess judging the warm up randomly is so reckless, and speaking from a Multi-music fan myself (incl. House AND Trance), I’d say that the warm up was averagely good and nice. Anyway good job guys !

At around 1:00 AM, Tony and Jonathan took over the decks after a nice short opening introducing both two members of the three infamous guys behind the name Above & Beyond. The main set was actually well built, starting smoothly yet edgy with a nice set-intro that kicked off the night, while the flow of the music remained as usual melodic with some lovely breakdowns, and lots of tech-sounds especially when it comes to jumpy basslines. In a matter of fact, both Tony and Jono tried their best to keep the diversity curving in the set in order to play pleasant tricks with the clubbers: either lift your fist, or gracefully nod your head. Yet it was clear that sometime after 2:30 AM, you just couldn’t but be in full motion in order to communicate with the music being played. The Djs dropped a lot of good tracks lingering the live ambience throughout the whole night and somehow working on making yesterday another successful night to be mentioned in Lebanon’s Electronic Music Scene history. I don’t like using this word, but if ‘commercials’ as some would say, taking into consideration famous original artist productions, were played then it’s needles to say that this has nothing to do with the music quality ; it was good overall. And if, for some reasons, the music wasn’t that appealing; well the crowd interaction offered by Jono and Tony should have put a smile on many visages down there. Both of the Djs couldn’t resist and started interacting intensely, stood up and waved the Lebanese flag - what made the crowd go nuts. Clearly this kind of interaction has been done many times before, but last night the affection was quite forceful and severe. I really liked what both offered us, and the main set was well-done and successful in my opinion.


The set-up was excellent, although the Dj booth was rather a little bit high when seen from the regular section, yet just ideal if you were in the vip/Prestige sections: placed in a huge square that included rounded mirrors, it was all about one huge rectangular screen preceding four other smaller screens showing a lot of action and funky traits, it was definitely wicked and the combination of some hot colors was profoundly vivid during the night! With bars well placed in all sections, the Bacardi service in the prestige section was off the hook and also orders in the bars down in other sections. A huge double-squared stage centered the regular section, with a well-formed paper square shape above it including lights that kept on changing all over the night, and many lasers penetrating and stabbing it while also reflecting in other regions. While people enjoyed dancing on the stage, two flaming performers were hanged up and started acting like two flaming creatures, it was actually creative. The sound system turned out to be clearly good, as you can still chit-chat with your partners while enjoying the music, the melodies and vocals when there were some. Crowd wise, I guess we got used to it in Lebanon and in almost all the big events, but the place was almost full and there was always enough space for everyone to dance if desired.

Nice successful night by B-Live & NRJ for their first debut start, as no matter what circumstances (good or bad) happened that night, I know that I enjoyed it with the group I was with, and the cool escort we all had. Unfortunately I had to leave early since I had classes today at 7:30 AM, so missing Ferraye in the mix was a big mistake. Toodles!

[A-Cube]

Well whoever missed out on that night relived it through this review...at least I did ...it was no surprise the setup was one of the best that was done...great job by the DJs and the organization...

Do I smell Dave Seaman and Danny Howells coming up soon??

[lebanese_raver]

One of my worst events ever! the only 2 + things about it that the sound was good at the back and the visual were also good.

I left at 1:40... no more trance events for me.

[Radima]

[Radima]

[Deema]

[TranceFusion]

I finally got to see Above & Beyond live in the mix! oh sorry, i mean that i got to hear them. Cuz when it came to "seeing", you could dream about it. I have a suggestion for the next events i think it would be a great idea to set the DJ booth 10m above the ground, and in addition have the B-Live/NRJ logos even bigger than yesterday. I mean... when one goes to a DJ event, it's also to see him live in the mix, not just listen to the set and dance. I know that memories in the head will stay forever, but it's always nice in the future to look at pics from this or that event. And concerning Above & Beyond 2008, that's impossible. So seriously now, next time set the DJ booth lower so that we enjoy seeing how they mix and take pics of them. Personally i like this. I don't mind the logos at all, but don't put them right in front of the decks please. I saw many many pics of events worldwide, and never the logos were in front of the DJ like this. They can be for example hanging above the booth. Why not? That's the only negative point when it comes to the setup of the Forum, but it's a big negative point if i come back home with zero pics. The podium was a good idea but it was too big. I didn't like the show with the fire and the angels floating in the air. This event doesn't have a theme like Sensation White where there are disguised people.
The sound system was something totally new to me. On the first row it's too loud but i liked it. Very clear
Concerning the crowd... again many wazawiz, many on the fucking E and i dunno if many but there were kids (below 16). Hopefully one day they won't be allowed to get in but i doubt that it will ever happen in Lebanon.

Music-wise i enjoyed A&B's set the first hour was mostly tech-trance but then it got much better from 2am till the end at 4h40am. So i give the tracklist a grade of 8/10. Good tracks were played. Jono & Tony are amazing DJs. I loved how they interacted with the crowd. It was also nice to hear Tony's words at the end of the set. I didn't dance during the set but i did enjoy the 2.5h of melodic Trance. My mind was satisfied music-wise

In general though i attended better events so i'm 50-50 happy about this one. I hope that A&B are gonna leave a crater on the dancefloor of Godskitchen event tonight in Poland and i hope that next time i attend their event i'll have much more fun and will come back home completely satisfied.

---

Lebanese_Raver, i respect your taste in music but you are very impatient. A&B started their set at 1am and you left only 40 minutes later. If you stayed at least 30 minutes longer you would have changed your mind and decided to stay till the end. I hate tech-trance but i stayed.


EDIT: i wish that they played more tracks from DJs like Super8 & Tab, Nitrous Oxide (Amnesia ), Adam Nickey (Never Gone ), Mark Pledger - Worldwide, their own Oceanic. This kind of tracks...
Home was played but unfortunately some tech remix instead of the brilliant Club Mix <--- that got me really depressed.

[tarantula]

lots of tech, lots of commercials, lots of kids, that does'nt mean i did'nt have fun fady ferraye made my night, no more trance for me anymore i quit
HOUSE RULZZZZZZ