Review of Armin Only Mirage - Beirut 2011

Here is my humble review of the recent Armin Only Mirge event in Beirut.

I don’t recall when exactly this was announced, but I think it was back in November 2010 or around that time. Armin Only is basically a huge show that is focused on the man himself, his productions and his collaborations with other artist. This was the 6th installment of the event (Or so I’m told) after playing in places like his native Holland and in Beones Aires, and it is the first time such an event is brought to the Middle East. Mix FM were the ones behind the event, which was held at Biel in Beirut. Biel is a big venue, but I don’t think they have ever had all its halls used for an EDM event, but then again this is Armin, the world’s # 1 DJ (as per the much-maligned DJ Mag annual poll for the past 3 or so years), one of the most consistent performers and the undisputed king (and face) of trance. Millions of fans listen to his weekly radio show ASOT (A State Of Trance). Going back to Mix FM, kudos to them for putting this together. Organizing an event of such scale go almost flawlessly is something definitely worth getting a lot of credit for (Please note that it was ‘almost’ flawless, more details on the small areas where things could have been done better below).

The ticket pricing was a bit steep (But it is justified if you read on), I did not do any research on that other than checking the price of the regular (silver) tickets (Where my friends and I were), there were Gold, Platinum and Diamond, now I have no clue whatsoever what the specific differences between the tickets is, but what I know is that the tickets ranged between $75 to $200, considering that $75 is what people normally pay for a vip ticket at events gives you an idea of Armin’s appeal to the Lebanese crowd (Needless to say it was quite costly to make this event, but still). The high ticket price was no hurdle in stopping people from going to what was advertised as the “biggest event in history to be hosted in Lebanon” (At least biggest of this kind).

Getting to the venue was straight forward if you did not have a car to park, if you had one then you’d have had to wait for quite some time to get into the parking as the roads were narrow and there were hundreds of cars queuing to enter the parking. Anyhow, not a major thing there and it is quite expected since the roads surrounding Biel (The venue) are narrow 1-lane roads. Once in front of the venue there was a huge queue waiting to get in at the Regular tickets entrance. Now what was communicated by the organizers is that the doors will open by 21:00 and that AvB will start his set at 22:00 sharp, I was outside at around 21:30 and the doors were still not open. People were allowed in once the doors opened in small patches, but a weird route had to be taken (Instead of a direct entry from the side entrance we had to enter a small foyer sort of hall then into the venue, which took time. We were standing outside for 20+ minutes and tickets were checked twice. I understand the logic behind gradually letting people in to the venue but the process was risky, some pushing here and there may have resulted in a stampede and at least people getting hurt. The last ticket check was at the door leading to Biel where there were only 3 or 4 people admitting thousands of people. Another thing (bit minor though) which could have been done is to double the number of people with one checking the tickets with another person giving the drink vouchers instead of the same person doing both.

Once in (at around 22:00), you could tell how massive the venue is. There was only some atmospheric music, hardly any edm really. There were no signs of AvB and it was rather obvious that he won’t start his set before 23:00. All the areas of the venue apart from the very back where the massive bar was were pretty much packed, but we managed to make our way through to the front with relative ease, and that is where we stuck for most of the time. Music started playing at around 22:40 and went on for 2 hours (The Armin intro started at about 00:40). The tracks in the warm-up ‘set’ (Which was probably pre-recorded) varied, kicking off with some prog and going on with some big trance hits from the past few months. A couple of live tracks (“Who’s Watching” with Nadia Ali & “Closer” by Susana) were teasers to what would soon follow. Personal favorites from the warm-up were Schulz’s “Perception” (vocal mix), Mark Eatson’s “Let Go” and AvB’s brother (Eller, no?) playing Zocalo out live on his guitar. There was a (fitting) grand 5-minute into to the Armin-thon that would follow, think the track was Mirage, with Eller, Susana, several performers and a band with all instruments in support (and of course some smoke machines, lasers and fireworks). The stage was basically hidden behind two big moving screens which were moved around the whole night, the visuals on these and on the main screens behind the stage were breathtaking and complemented Armin’s set throughout.

Amin’s set was definitely prepared for in advance, it certainly had chaotic flow to it (in a good way), as the bpm and the energy would shift with every transition and sometimes every single minute, he’d be dropping a monster uplifting big room choon then suddenly you’d have Sophie Elis Baxter (The much-talked about surprise apparently) popping out of nowhere for the sound to tone down a bit before it suddenly pick up again with another massive track. The night was full of unpredictable twists and turns that would make it akin to a thrilling bestselling novel with endless plots, sub-lots and the likes. A lot of tracks (especially his) were tweaked with unidentified remixes, but then again this show is his baby so it’s not surprising. I gotta say that as hyper and energetic Armin seems to be, I’ve never seen him that pumped up before, his excitement lasted for the whole set. Epic.

Now I have been fortunate enough to see Armin Van Buuren play live at least once a year since 2006 (In 2009 I saw him thrice), but this has truly been one of the biggest and most impressive performances I have ever witnessed by a producer/dj live. “Life is made of small moments like these” is what the marketing guys behind Above & Beyond would say about their gigs, and moments and majestic performances like these make you appreciate trance even more an they make the cold that I got right after heading out of Biel at 7am seem like a minor nuisance. Thank you Armin, MixFM and Beirut for throwing one hell of an event. The visuals, speakers and sound, lasers, set-up, crowd etc etc were top notch.

For fellow ID junkies, here is a draft. I copied and pasted it from my phone with minimal updates (So expect a lot of “ID”, “Vocal choon”, “some adjective + choon” etc etc etc. If you happen to recall specific IDs of tracks, remixes etc. There were several classics which I totally forgot their names and/or the producers’ names then please let me know :). Thanks Ramy Barghoud for helping out IDing several tracks.
Warm-up:
Some IDs
“Who We Are” Luigi Lusini
“Closer” Susana feat. Omnia & The Blizzard (Live performance by Susana)
“Departures” Robbie Rivera (Cosmic Gate remix)
“Let go” Aruna with Mark Eteson (Nic Chagal remix)
ID
“Right back” Yuri Kane
“Who’s Watching” Armin Van Buuren ft. Nadia Ali (Live performance)
“Back To Earth” Cosmic Gate (Arty Remix)
ID
“Zocalo” Armin Van Buuren feat. Gabriel & Dresden (Live performance by Eller Van Buuren, Armin’s brother)
“Perception” Markus Schulz ft. Justine Suissa (Vocal Mix)
“This Moment” Nic Chagall (Prog Mix)
ID (vocal track, “Drowning in your love”?)
ID (vocal Armin track)
Couple of other IDs

Avb's set actually started at 12:40
Mirage (Intro Mix with a live mini-orchestra)
“Alpha” W&W
“Exploration Of Space” Cosmic Gate (Back 2 The Future remix)
“ThIs Light Between Us” Armin Van Buuren ft. Christian Burns (Live Performance)
“Tomorrow” Marcel woods
Mirage (I think, lol)
ID (famous track Schulz plays it often, several ID tracks during the next hour or so are tracks played quite often by Schulz on his live sets and his weekly radio show GDJB)
ID another Schulz fav track
“Aisha” Armin Van Buuren presents Gaia
“Tuvan” Armin Van Buuren presents Gaia
ID techy track
ID another Schulz fav
“These Silent Hearts” Armin Van Buuren ft. BT
“Loneliness” Tom Craft (Remix ID)
“Jurame” Miguel Bose (Armin Van Buuren remix)
“This World Is Watching Me” Armin Van Buuren vs. Rank 1 ft. Kush
“Begging you” Cerf Mitiska ft. Jaren (ID remix)
Aly & Fila track (Can’t recall its name at all :()
“Not Giving Up On Love” Armin Van Buuren Ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Live Performance)
“Pandorra” Ali Wilson
“As The Rush Comes” Motorcycle
Some new track by Nadia Ali (Live performance)
“Rapture” Nadia Ali (Live performance)
What The F**k, some remix of it (O_o)
ID (Schulzy track)
ID (Melodic track by Armin)
“Found A Way” Jon O'Bir feat. Fisher (Joint Operations Center remix)
ID Anjunabeats track \o/
“Broken Tonight” Armin Van Buuren ft. Van Velzen -
“Nothing Else Matters” Max Graham ft. Ana Criado (Aly & Fila remix me thinks)
“Banshee” Sean Tyas
ID (slightly vocal)
“Every Other Way” BT ft. Jes
“Not Going Home” Faithless (Armin Van Buuren remix)
“Unforgivable” Armin Van Buuren ft. Jaren
“FAV Rain” Armin Van Buuren vs. Cosmic Gate
“In and Out Of Love” Armin Van Buuren ft. Sharon den Adel
“Never Say Never” Armin Van Buuren ft. Jacqueline Govaert
“Communications Part 3” Armin Van Buuren
3 or 4 IDs
“Going Wrong” Armin Van Buuren & DJ Shah
ID live performance (I surrender?)
“Who Will Find Me vs. Not The End” DJ Shah ft. Adrina Thrope (Armin Van Buuren mash-up)
“Use Somebody” Kings of Leon (Remix ID)
“Remember Love” Armin Van Buuren, Paul Oakenfold & Paul Van Dyk
ID (uplifting techy choon)
Few more IDs
“Sanctuary” Gareth Emery (Sean Tyas remix)
Coupla uplifting choons
“For An Angel” Paul Van Dyk (Played out live)
“Satisfaction” Benny Benassi (lol)
“Seven Nation Army” The White Stripes (Played out live)
A few classics, forgot their IDs
“Synaesthesia” The Thrillseekers (Not sure if it was the original or the Alex M.O.R.P.H. remix)
“Till The Sky Falls Down” Dash Berlin (Remix ID)
Few more IDs
“Shivers” Armin Van Buuren
“Burned With Desire” Armin Van Buuren (Live with the all the vocalists)
Set ended at 6:44am. 6-hour set
Several tracks I did not ID but Ramy Barghoud helped with, in no particular order (Please note that in my own tracklist the track name came first, in Ramy’s track list it is the other way around. Can’t be arsed to change the order!):

Funkegenda VS Steve Angelo What the knas
Steve Angelo - Rave and Roll
.W&W - AK47
Marcel woods - advanced
Ernesto Vs Bastian - Thrill
Till the sky falls down is the nitrous oxide remix
AVB - Serenity
AVB - Orbion
Daniel Kandi - Symphonica
Marc Simmz - Forbidden city
Binary Finary - 1998
AVB - Down to love
AVB - Virtual friend
AVB - Sail
Rank1 - Airwave
Rank1 - Led there be light
ARmin And Ferry - Minac (with some vocals saying turn off the lights)
Energy 52 - Cafe del mar

Feel free to add any tracks/IDs etc that you recall from the night! Hope you enjoyed the review

End Of An Era

Back in the day when Nokias were the shizzle (seems like centuries ago), they used to have a simple yet straightforward feature which informed you of how long all your calls to date have been, now I’m sure the fancier and more sophisticated smartphones of today have the same thing, but I stop caring really .A phone in this time and age is anything but a phone, ask a certain Steve Jobs what he thinks about his iPod Touch that makes phone calls and he will brag about every single feature on it, other than its capabilities as a phone. I’d appreciate the technology in phones a bit more the day people are able to take DSLR quality images on them, but this is rather far-fetched now.

Now, what does that have to do with photography/omography etc.? I have upgraded my ‘entry level DSLR’ and basically ended my old 400D’s service, since the new one (550D if you are wondering) does everything that the 400D is capable of and more, and it’s definitely more technologically advanced, lighter, faster etc. Now the reason why I upgraded is that the gap between my 400D and the 5D was just massive and the contrast in quality was quite annoying. I wish I could somehow calculate the total # of shots that I took with the 400D in a way akin to how the total length of phone calls is measured in phones. My guess is that it would surpass the 100,000 mark.

Whatever the total number of shots is, the 400D (Known to you N. American peeps as the Rebel XTi me thinks) has been a very, very loyal and resilient servant which has proven its worth time and time again, and it has never failed me when I had the occasional brain fart of forgetting to charge my other camera’s batteries. I will vividly recall driving to Muscat, Oman only to realize after getting there that I forgot to take my 5D’s battery along (Major brain fart there). The 400D’s performance was top notch, it sure wasn’t on par with its bulkier sibling, but heck, it saved the day and I got some good shots out of that spontaneous journey.

My ancient Canon Powershot S2 IS finally has a new buddy (Or I’d rather say ‘body’, since the 400D will be lens-less) to keep it entertained while both gather dust and get the occasional look of sympathy while they lie gracefully on my desk.

More randomness

So for the 2nd week in a row I spend Thursday night (and pretty much the whole of Friday morning) in bed with a heavy head and a physically, mentally and emotionally drained body. My recent (slight) change in lifestyle should have changed things and made me a bit more laid back and mellow, but based on this, it seems it has done the complete opposite. Maybe I’m just making a big fuss out of nothing and this is normal. At least it is not affecting anything, and it is just proving the fact that I’d rather spend more time at home rather than head out and ‘socialize’ (How ‘social’ can one get in such a relatively small town?).

Every day of my life now I realize how valuable the commodity of time is and how crucial it is to manage and control it well, which is not an exactly straight forward task for someone who grew up being forced to do things and be put on the right track (The right track being set by others, of course. Oh the beauty of being a push over). At least then I had my ambition restricted by what those around me dictated, namely because I simply had little or no signs of it (ambition) and because I spent a large portion of my teenage/early adult life being told what to do in a field/industry I had mild passion for. The move to doing something I actually enjoy and having time and resources to actually do and initiate projects I fancy at work and in my personal life has been a bit tricky, but heck, it’s always fun to learn and to cope. If the previous chapters have taught me anything, it’s probably that the more one struggles with something, the more they learn on the long run.

Some of the personal (fun) projects I’ve initiated:
- Starting to play more video games
- Bashing my personal laptop unintentionally
- Avoiding the world, somehow
- Starting a freelance photography business. Google/FB/Tweet “Omography”, a less serious initiative is “Om The Road”, which can only be found on FB now.