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Reviewer: Richard Brown
Saturday 29th March 2003
One Perfect Day 2003
The much cherished annual visit by German luminary Paul Van Dyk,
has come and gone for 2003, with the original superstar of trance
performing in Metros City for the first time. Raging storms lashed
the city on the night, and driving to the show as lightening flashed,
the electricity of the mood only built as the countdown to the drop
of the needle dwindled.
The reverence with which Van Dyk is regarded in Perth was evidenced
immediately upon entering the venue; an hour and a half before he
stepped up it was already at capacity. In this age of multi-room
festivals featuring oodles of internationals it has become rare
for a single DJ to attract this kind of crowd, but Van Dyk is the
kind of figure that got a lot of people into dance music in the
first place, so he still holds deity like status. With such weight
of expectation, and a history of delivering magic performances at
Globe over the past couple of years, the pressure on Van Dyk to
once again take the crowd to another plane was very high.
Perhaps for this reason, reactions to the man's four-hour set were
mixed. As Van Dyk was spotted lurking in the background as Chad
D (who provided a superb a warm-up) finished up, the crowd roared
even louder than the thunder outside. Looking laid back and playful,
Van Dyk launched into a high energy selection of tunes.
There was much talk prior to the event about what tack Paul would
take in his genre-selection, as lately his sets in Europe recently
have strayed away from his trance-powered roots. For the most part
his tunes took heed from powerful progressive backbeats, with a
distinctly tech-edged trance often soaring over the top. The sound
had a much harder edge than current trance-leaders like Armin and
Ferry, and only rarely flowed into the epic feel that marks Van
Dyk's vintage releases. A lot of the crowd seemed to be craving
the more hands in the air kind of stuff, with sections feeling they
hadn't been treated to a true PvD set. This comes as a bit of a
surprise to me, since PvD's live sets have never been about constant
massive breakdowns, but more quality, tough and unrelenting bass
lines with a high energy quotient, and only occasional expeditions
into soaring vocals, piano, synths etc. The sound was a bit techier
than previous occasions, and in some sections a little too minimal
for the occasion. But I for one still found it a scintillating set
of music for the most part, with a far more relevant sound than
most trance purveyors, many of whom people seem to prefer these
days.
While the reaction was mixed regarding the general tone, there's
no doubt that crowd-pleasers from PvD's production efforts went
down a treat. Particular highlights were the airing of Another Way
and Avenue as well as the seminal Robert Miles tune Children. The
new single Nothing But You also went down nicely (twice actually),
and the much anticipated airing of For an Angel had the place on
cloud nine as the set climaxed. All in all another show of quality
from a legendary figure who still has the humility to stick around
for ages after his set signing autographs and interacting fans.
Richie Brown
Richie Brown
Contact : Richie Brown
Return to reviews
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Saturday 1st March 2003
Paul van Dyk
4 hour set
Chad D
Warren 10
Boy
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