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Tiesto in Concert - Review
Reported by Shaun
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Submitted 16-05-03 13:27
Never in the history of dance music had this been attempted before. One DJ, Eight Hours, 26,000 people! Lots of DJs of course have wowed clubbers with extremely long sets but never have they had an audience of 26,000 people for the duration. There is only one DJ in the world at the moment who could pull off this feat, the world’s number one DJ of course – Tiesto.
The Dutch like to do dance music big, as Dance Valley has shown, and this event was no exception. “Tiesto in Concert” was the most eagerly awaited dance event of the year in Holland and tickets sold out one month in advance. On May 10th fans from all over Europe boarded their flights and trains and looked deliriously forward to this once in a lifetime experience. I was lucky enough to be one of them.
The Concert itself was set in the stadium of the Dutch football club Vitesse Arnhem – the stadium was located about 10 minutes outside of Arnhem and was one of the stadiums constructed especially for Euro 2000. Thousands of people were milling round the arena desperate for the organisers to open the doors and allow them to enter. At 10:00 the doors did finally open and the masses poured into the stadium.
Unfortunately, the roof of the stadium was closed (I was expecting an open air event) but this did not take away from the enormity of the venue – think of the NEC main room and double it (height and width!) and you’re getting close to what this was like. The stage at the front of the venue was massive and it was immediately obvious that this was going to be one hell of a production. People quickly filled the spaces and settled down for the main attraction. Strangely enough there were no warm up DJs so we waited patiently in silence for Tiesto to start and at 11pm the first bars of music hit the speakers and the crowd roared their appreciation.
However, this proved to be somewhat of a false alarm as Tiesto was DJ-ing from behind a screen so that the crowd could only see his silhouette. Everyone was wondering when he would finally emerge from behind this but this just continued and continued. The music at this stage was progressive house and was perfect warm up music. Two massive screens showed film of Tiesto signing T-Shirts at previous gigs, cooking at home and drinking! The kind of thing you may see at a Madonna concert. Bizzare. But then in Holland he is more than just a DJ; he is a celebrity, the concert was advertised on TV, Radio and even on Coca-Cola cans – these things would never happen here in the UK. Just when I was beginning to think that he would never get in front of that damn screen the music stopped and the venue was plunged into darkness.
A compere then began to read out the list of Tiesto’s achievements and gave him a very long introduction; the crowd at this stage were bursting. In the back ground the sound of “Barber’s Adagio for Strings” was gradually getting louder and louder and then from within a disc shaped booth in the middle of the stage Tiesto suddenly appeared, fireworks blasted off all around the stage and a lightshow flickered into resplendent life. The tune broke and the whole crowd threw their hands in the air and danced to their hearts content – the show had begun!
After the initial mayhem has died down one thing became very apparent – Dutch people don’t dance! There was us English clubbers going mental with hands in the air, grins on faces and legs a-bouncing but the Dutch, for the main part, just stood there – vaguely swaying from side to side and occasionally even making the effort to put their hands up for about 5 seconds. I asked someone there if the crowd were not enjoying the music and he replied that they were loving it but this is how they always “dance.” Truly weird and unfortunately this meant that there was a lack of atmosphere during the whole event – something I had certainly never considered would be the case.
Anyway back to the music – the theme of the night was “The World” and every two hours there would be a short stage show whilst Tiesto would go backstage for a small break and a costume change (no, really.) For the first part of the night it was Europe and he wore the Dutch Football team T-shirt, the backdrops displayed monuments from around Europe including some from good ol Blighty. The music at this stage was still very much on the progressive trance tip, after banging out a few anthems to get the crowd going when he first emerged he settled back into his groove and did his usual thing of building up the music, then slowing it down only to build it back up again. Tiesto sets are never flat; every one I have heard has been like a rollercoaster – always dipping and rising – the perfect kind of set in my opinion. After two hours came the first interval and it soon transpired that we were about the enter the South American part of the night, he went off stage for a break and onto the stage came about 50 South American dancers and drummers! They played a samba beat for about 5 minutes before Tiesto came back into the booth – this time with a Brazil footie shirt on. This is when it became apparent that this definitely was a “concert” as opposed to a run of the mill club night! The music moved up a gear and the night was now in full swing. Further intervals came throughout the night, one of the best was the USA break were about 20 cheerleaders came on stage and about 5 Harley Davidsons were roaring around! Quality entertainment. The funniest was Australia, which of course was represented by a Didgeridoo player 
Also during the night were guest appearances from Andain and the fantastic Jan Johnston – she performed all her biggest hits “Skydive” “Flesh” and the tune of the moment “Venus” – an excellent PA and proof that the trance “diva” can actually sing live!
The production at this event was simply astonishing – I have never seen anything like it. At one stage about eight to ten lasers were going off across the stadium and the spectacle was simply amazing. Fireworks regularly were exploding out from the stage area and the sound quality (near the front anyway) was excellent. The Dutch sure know how to put on a show I can tell you. Nothing I have seen in the UK (including the big Gatecrasher events) has come close to this.
Towards the end of the night as everyone began to flag a bit Tiesto moved firmly into fifth gear and banged out uplifting trance for the last two hours or so – anthem after anthem was played including his own brilliant “Suburban Train” “Flight 643” and “Lethal Industry.” Other tunes included the legendary Tiesto remix of “Silence” the brilliant “Silver Bath” by Plastic Boy and “Forever Waiting” by Mr Sam Baker and Dj Fred. Truly wonderful stuff but alas the Dutch crowd were still looking like they were visiting an Art Gallery instead of being part of dance music history. If Tiesto dropped a tune like “Silence” at a similar event in the UK you can only imagine the hysteria that would follow but here the crowd got excited for about 1 minute and then went back to standing there vaguely swaying from side to side.
At 7am the night finished and Tiesto came out from booth and thanked everyone for coming (I think that’s what he said anyway – it was in Dutch) the lights went on and people slowly started to filter out of the venue.
So – what a night! Tiesto once again came out trumps for me and cemented his reputation as my favourite DJ in the world. The night in terms of music and production was absolutely blinding but the lack of atmosphere did let this event down – Tiesto and the production team deserved better – next time, do it in London! Was a superb event though and one of the most memorable clubbing nights I will ever have. History in the making and I was very pleased to have been part of it. To see it for yourself check out the DVD of the event which will be released soon.
Tiesto is playing Godskitchen on June 20th – go along and see just what all this fuss is about, you will not regret it
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Other Features By Shaun:
Nastydirtysexmusic, Interview with Tim Sheridan and Smokin' Jo
The Big Three in Ibiza reviewed: We Love Sundays at Space, Subliminal Sessions at Pacha and Cream at Amnesia...
Interview with Tim Davison.
Review of SW4 - Clapham Common, 21/08/04.
Review of Cream, Amnesia opening party.
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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Comments:
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From: The Scene on 16th May 2003 13:57.49
Nice review Shaun 
From: Ian Betts on 16th May 2003 15:55.24
God work shaun, I know what you mean about the Dutch not dancing - I was amazed at how little they go for it when I was over there recently.
From: timmyd9 on 16th May 2003 16:30.30
It was simply an unreal night and weekend on the whole. Top review Shauny!
From: Dee on 17th May 2003 07:22.41
Wow, awesome review Shauny!  Sounds like it was amazing, would love to do something like that...
From: BottleofWater on 18th May 2003 20:14.01
I knew i shouldn't have read this review, now i wish i had gone. It does sound quite bizarre, but good never the less.
From: Pandora S-K on 20th May 2003 16:02.18
Add your comments here !
You lucky thing!! I'd of loved to have gone to that...Great review!
From: Tom Foy on 20th May 2003 19:33.13
Wicked review Shaun! Soooo wish I had been there with you guys. The production/show sounded cool too - imagine cheerleaders at Gatecrasher - class!
From: Pickled Pat on 22nd May 2003 12:51.06
Great! I am truly envious!! I have not seen Tiesto in 3 years, but this event sounded AWESOME!! Fireworks, Harleys, Dummers or Didgeridoo... ahh class production!
From: delsa on 2nd Jun 2003 12:34.06
sounds like a truely world class event
From: zmerlin on 24th Aug 2004 13:46.59
Just finished watching the DVD... It was truly awesome!
However, I've just got a question for you guys. On the DVD (Which is just a copy of the live event), Andain sings "Beautiful Things" and it sounds *exactly* the same as the version on the Nyana CD. Like, not even slight changes in her voice or anything, the Nyana CD version and her singing live are identical.
I get the feeling that at the live event, she was just lip synching... Did anyone else who watched the DVD or saw the event notice this? Agree? Disagree?
Still a totally unreal event - Wish I could have been there.
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