2008 July « Home @ Miliux

Introduction
It was generally a decent party, but certainly not the best i’ve been to. This view was shared by my friends who has been to other major hardstyle parties in the Netherlands. There is a mixed reaction amongst the group of friends depending on whether it’s their first Dutch hardstyle party or one of many.

The Aussie Meet
In Amsterdam on the day of the party, there was an unpredictable precipitation which hindered the logistics or having to effectively organise the meet in general. It was only when i had to take chances by temporarily vacating myself away from the place of meet and search for the nearest internet cafe as another form of communication, was when trouble started. I quickly strolled to the Amsterdam Bibliotheek (library) and logged onto my email to send details on how to reach to me by phone. Just before my natural reaction in composing a message, i already got email from Louise citing to contact them through their Australian mobile number. My instant reaction was ‘is it possible? Can i actually contact their Australian number while they reside in Amsterdam?’.

After my brief email reply, i travelled back to Centraal Station’s concourse and protected from the rain, and gave them a quick phone call citing a new place of meet. About ten minutes later, i met them and gave them a tour of the library and had a quick bite at the restaurant.

After lunch, we descended to the City Centre near Damrak and meet the other crews from Australia. They were sitting in front of a coffeeshop on a bench just chilling, after, if i should guess, some joints. There were five blokes originally from Perth who travelled to Europe for a party and continuous festivities. One was studying in Germany and from my re-collections, i think the rest visited him as a chance to ’see’ Europe. They saw Europe alright. Staying in Amsterdam for a week doing what most bold tourists does. Many rounds of joints mushrooms and pub crawl within the confounds of the city canals. They said that a week of Amsterdam in Amsterdam is far too long…? That doesn’t help me at all considering that a year of residing in Amsterdam is too short?

All of us had a brief stop at the mushroom store (no prizes in why) and another coffeeshop were we all sit around this small corner at the front of the ’shop’. Pretty much chatting for an hour and eventually we split up with the guys from Perth wanting to have a nap and the Louise and friend wants to continue the tour.

Black Denim Shorts
We eventually met up with another bunch of Aussies who were residing in London and Greece. They both were in desperate need of new clothes from head to toe. So i scrammed them around the pedestrian mall in the City Centre finding what was indeed impossible. A black denim short that stretches to the ankle. I stopped counting after 15 shops we visited. Poking our heads in each stores, asking series of questions to the staff, and in many cases they didn’t have a clue what we were talking bout. Any stores which has the word ‘denim’ in their store description would be inspected by the Black Denim Shorts patrol. Yes fellas, the Dutch men don’t wear black denim shorts. Anything that exhibits skin from ankle to the feet is considered indecent and would be swiftly be taken to the Dutch etiquette class. Or was that the conclusion we inconclusively thought up?

Just 30min before the official store closing at 6pm, these two blokes had to make drastic decisions. Whether to buy the black jeans and cut it up or not be allowed entry to Black at all. Quick decisions lead to some results…till the last minute. Just buy the black jeans, and tell the staff to cut it up in front of us. Then came the shoes, black socks searching. Finally completed about 6.10pm, when a bloke refused to get out of a shoe store unless he found a pair he wanted.

Arrival
Just fast-forwarding the story…(yes, it was an exhausting day before the party)… we arrived in Bijlmer ArenA station at 9.10. Everyone was split depending on the gates that are designated by the ticket from A to J. I couldn’t join them because i had to collect the ticket from the box office. Just when i thought that the crush capacity is over after that train ride to the station, i now had to face another exhausting and frustrating time for 2 hours. When Europeans are desperate, they quickly step-aside the etiquette and just push ahead. Six lines eventually meet up in front of the box office’s window. Just when i thought it cannot be worse than this, many women almost got squeezed off or totally sandwiched by Europeans at least 1.90m tall and having to endure the almost suffocating experience of breathing their cheap deodorant originated from their armpits and from their back. How indignifying.

I never thought it would take such push and shove just to get my ticket. Furthermore, the blokes who landed in Schiphol Airport at 10pm actually were waiting behind the entrance gate J until 11:10pm. Drew whisked me to the locker room and so i shoved my belonging and my hoodie inside. Then strolled to the dancefloor to finally get the party started, with me included.

The Party
Once i got there, the music was great. Wonderful pure hardstyle from Fausto and as natural the crowd reacted with enduring lapses of dances and spontaneous hands in the air moments.

This is by far the most energetic crowd i have ever seen in hardstyle parties. I really don’t care about them taking drugs since its their personal thing, but at least they are having fun and not making any trouble amongst them.

Interior Design
I will give credit that they have put effort in the interior design. The floating jellyfish looking like bunch of space ship tripods beaming their three lights onto the crowds below. They bounce around vertically with strings attached. The centre stage looks like a Van de Graaff generator (look it up if you don’t know) with electric spikes beaming out.

There are also catwalk like paths spanning across the long-width of the football field. Not just walkway but about ten water-jets on each side of the centre which are choreographed depending on the melody. Some jetstreams can be sprayed radially and images are projected with spotlights as if the waterjets are projector screens. Pretty much the dancefloor was split into two with a walkway underneath the spanned catwalks on each side.

The bottom level of the stadium seats are open for public. You can sit there and watch or dance by folding the seats if you desire. But the vast majority did stay in the dancefloor until in times of grieved pain, they need to sit down.

The Music
As noted in the introduction, the music receives a mixed blessing from our group. Louise, Drew and I didn’t really like it. In fact, it was one of the worst hardstyle party when based purely on music. The amount of cheese inserted into Donkey Roller’s set is just insulting to the hardstyle movement in my honest opinion. The re-mixed tracks from Coldplay, U2 or whatever and then adding pounding bass just to give the crowd a head kick in dancing. We can admit that we had high expectations for this party. I considered this to be the pinnacle of all hardstyle parties without reservation. Purely based on the hype and the scale of capacity of course. But ID&T doesn’t sound like they have interrogated the DJs well enough to get some previews and check which tracks go in and out. Sort of like filtering the plethoria of crap many DJs seem to be playing. Us were more purist in form, and never liked how the hardstyle scene seem to be trying to bend over backward in attracting new members. Just like the sixteen year olds in Power House Production parties in Sydney only going there because of the cheese and happy hardcore.

At least there was a concession. Good that Dana was not playing on the night. Her repeated performance over the years is below average and should stay away from meddling with the equilizer. Nobody likes distorted music.

Evidently, three of us went out with a sour note. But as a complementary side at least we can say we have been to Amsterdam’s Sensation Black.

On the other hand, the guys who just came to Amsterdam from Down Under thoroughly enjoyed it. I can imagine that the pairs from Sydney and the group from Perth really got blown away by the magnitude and crowd of the party. Yes, there is nothing compared to what’s going on in Australia and i am empathetic to their reaction of disbelief and in trance.

I would like to finish up saying that i think over the last 12 months in Europe, the best moment in hardstyle party was in Qlimax Belgium and Sensation Black Antwerp. Both were not in Holland coincidently, but the vibe i got especially from the crowd and the will of the DJs of making the scene as conventional as possible. No more happy hardcore or cheesy rock band tracks, just humble and thrilling hardstyle tracks for us Old Skool…

Photos…finally
Here you see the centre stage and the revolving DJ deck around that white trunk in the middle. That MC sure is glued to that mike screaming or pretending that the crowd really cares.