- As per usual how about we start this review off with the arrival, and try not mention the shocking banked up traffic that knocked us back a good hour just getting out of central London. As most of you should know the NEC is one damn big complex and we managed to park with fairly little waiting, as did most people. After we got out of the car we followed the herds of people heading towards the entry points like lambs to the slaughter. And Gatecrasher did a fairly good job getting the huge numbers of people through the door as quick as possible. Yes they were searching people thoroughly, but fair enough as I’m sure they would get a hard time from police and various other authorities when putting on an event of this size. I’m not going to give you my thoughts on their use of a couple of odd sniffer dogs, but I’m sure it put a handful of people in bit of trouble.
So we arrived at 10:00pm and were surprised to see so many of the big names on so early, Talla and Push (who ended his set with an epic mix of his ‘Universal Nation’) were both over by 11:00pm making room for DJ Tiesto (and his recent #1 DJ Mag ranking). What first blew me away as we walked into the main Gatecrasher arena at the event was the incredible sound system, so crystal clear, no awful echoes and not overly loud yet with all the power you would expect from an arena of this magnitude (and the same goes for the other two arenas). Together with the amazing production work and huge array of intelligent lighting, lasers, stage, and etc the setup of this event was top notch, exactly what is needed for this a line-up of this caliber, a line-up that had not a weaknesses to be found.
Anyway, back to Tiesto on the main stage, and his set started with a bang (literally) as the fireworks went off across the stage and this king of all that is trance started his hour and a half long set. He dropped big tune after big tune, which provided one very solid set of trance, and what else do you expect from one of the world leaders when it comes to uplifting tunes. But unfortunately we forced ourselves to exit the room and head for Underworld’s Live performance in the Bugged Out! Arena presented by Jockey Slut.
And did we regret this decision? Of course not!!!
Underworld was absolutely insane. After seeing them at Creamfields, we were expecting something special, but the intimate environment that was somehow created in this fairly sizable indoor arena was just perfect. And with a lot of the crowd there for the harder Gatecrasher or Tidy Trax sounds there was much room to breathe. Underworld played loads of epic tunes (but what do you expect from a group that has released some of the most amazing electronic sounds over the past few years), extended versions of their timeless classics and of course many of their latest works from their recent ‘A Hundred Days Off’ album. Their performance was just phenomenal. This did make the rest of the night seem kind of tame, but the night was still young and it was only a few moments past 1:00am with Armin Van Buuren already on stage in the Gatecrasher arena.
So off we went, met by queues to get everywhere, leaving and entering arenas, but from a event management point of view - control is needed to ensure that the place flows well and doesn’t get too jammed up – so there was no real complaint. All the reports from the second half of Tiesto’s set sounded quite amazing. Armin Van Buuren took to the stage with massive crowd approval, and provided some amazing building trance. At the same time in Tidy Trax arena the Lab 4 boys were putting on their Live performance that has taken them around the globe and back on various occasion, which was of course hammering away some quality hard house sounds.
At 2:00am, Yoji Biomehanika took over the Tidy Trax room, with his orange fluro hair and unique hard house style while over in the Gatecrasher arena Judge Jules and Eddie Halliwell took to the main stage. They put on a rare back to back set which was ended in epic form, seeing Halliwell scratching at an amazing pace providing some quality sounds to compliment the hammering bassline in the background.
The ‘crasher army was out in force, and could be spotted by their trademark glowing bits, spiky attachments, furry boots, patches, badges, and loads of other crazy accessories, not to mention a glow stick in each hand. And everyone seemed to be having a great time, good vibe’s were found everywhere; big smiles, loads of the usual random crazy conversations were being had and it was easy to see why. Gatecrasher only takes to the NEC twice a year, and each time the reports are amazing, and now I can see why.
FC Kahuna supplied the people in the Bugged Out Arena with some excellent Live music. Their deep bass-lines coupled with some sort after vocal work and amazing sounds made a great combination for some quality listening. At the same time, it was Mario Piu’s turn to take centre stage in the main arena setting up for the final set by Gatecrasher’s long time residents Scott Bond and Matt Hardwick, who as expected provided some solid trance beats in their special back to back set. They Rounded out the night with some anthem tunes including that of ‘Out of the Blue’ by Gouryella. Paul Glazby ended the night in the Tidy Trax room laying some hard hard house beats giving the punters something to remember as did Josh Wink in the Bugged Out arena, as their night came to the prompt 6:00am close.
Overall what can be said, the Gatecrasher crew, Tidy Trax, Bugged Out and everyone else that put long hard hours into this NEC.NXT event must have been happy with how it all panned out. The crowd was as vibrant as ever, each of the dj’s and artists put on a top class performance and the venue was just superb. I had heard great things about the NEC but it surpassed my every expectation. Toilets where all over the place always available, the size and access into the arenas was well perfect, and there was loads of room to hang out, sit down, relax or go nuts.
So it was out in the 6 degree’s of coldness that your standard November's morning in Birmingham presented and it was now time to focus on the task at hand... the early morning trek home.