MUMBAI… you are officially now part of the A State of Trance (ASOT) expedition… (and the crowd goes WILD!) Every corner of the venue cheered as the world’s Number 1 DJ Armin Van Buuren took center stage at the Turf Club on Saturday night. How do you introduce this legend? I don’t know, but I’m going to try!
Armin Van Buuren
1. He won DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJ fan poll a record breaking 5 times, where 4 were consecutive years 2007-2010 reclaiming the title from David Guetta once again in 2012).
2. His radio show A State of Trance reaches out to an estimated 25 million listeners in 26 countries weekly.
3. He is a DJ, RJ, Producer and law school graduate, with his own music label Armada.
4. Over the years his collaborations and music production has seen him awarded the Buma Cultuur Pop Award (the most prestigious Dutch music award), the Golden Harp and he’s even been appointed an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for services to Dutch dance music and the Dutch music economy.
5. With the increasing popularity of his radio show he has celebrated each landmark episode with performances across the globe. The current A State of Trance 600: The Expidition tour is the biggest event so far celebrating the 600th episode of the show.
And in Mumbai he had a truly memorable ASOT performance but before we get into that, a moment of recognition for the DJs who kept the crowd going all day long!
Heading the lineup was Vinayak^ followed by Sanjay Dutta. Both well known across India for their unique styles and ability to keep an audience grooving for hours. Canadian based, DJ and producer Arnej is no newcomer to ASOT. Named Producer of the Year by Armin in 2008, his music has been featured on several ASOT radio shows. Here’s one of my all time favourites!
Dutch legends RANK 1 need no introduction at all. With several hits dating back to Airwave in 1999 aka Breathing which was recognized as the number 1 Trance Classic of all time, their phenomenal set included two debut tracks Under the Gun and Floorfiller, was the perfect way to set the pace for what was yet to come.
Sunset with Shogun was the highlight for the first ever A State of Trance live concert in India. After performing at Royalty, Bandra Shogun too complete control over the crowd in an instant. His set transformed the atmosphere through sunset and got just about everyone jumping. One of the key treasures of Armada music (trance music label founded back in 2003 by ARmin van Buuren, MAykel Piron and DAvid Lewis) is well known for Skyfire, which if you haven’t heard, stop now and listen!
Arguably one of the best sets of the night (leaving aside the King himself of course) was the Egyptian trance music duo Aly & Fila, first recognized not only by audiences across the world but by top performing DJs Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren and DJ Tiesto for Eye of Horus.
Fila truly mesmerized the audience with a set of smooth uplifting house. We Control the Sunlight and Coming Home, recorded with the super sexy Jwaydan along with Ninja were just some of the phenomenal hits performed along the ASOT 600 expedition tour.
8:05pm
As the introduction started for the one and only Armin Van Buuren, the entire crowd erupted in anticipation of what would be the best performance this city has ever seen.
The line up of music with visuals and laser lighting synchronisation was incredible. If you weren’t there, you better start hunting for the ASOT 600 MUMBAI session release to see what you missed! But what clearly stood out with the entire audience singing along, was the newly released version of Not Giving Up on Love.
A set of the best uplifting and energetic yet soulful music, Armin truly is a phenomenal artist to watch perform first hand. For the next 90mins, not one person stood still.
Even the celebrity packed VIP section was bouncing! Spotted: Arjun Rampal, Suzanne Roshan, Sushmita Sen, Nauheed Cyrusi, Yash Birla, Shama Sikander and Suchitra Krishnamoorthi.
Almost a perfect close with what was to be Mumbai listening to a new release by Armin, but somehow a technical glitch brought his entire set to a complete halt.
But he was back up again in under 5 minutes, with a forgiving crowd who supported him through till the end even though word was his system was only half-functioning.
Wrapping up, Armin thanked the crowd whole-heartedly for coming out and being part of the ASOT 600 expedition tour.
No one left the Turf Club less than overwhelmed with the music they were just treated to. But to be honest thought, a bigger venue would have been suited to the scale of this act (and um, extra bathroom cleanups would have helped!) Even the light & sound didn’t seem on par with Swedish House Mafia and Avicii. A few more lasers were added this time around but I still felt like they could have synchronised them better…
I also noticed that the LED screens above the bar and in the stands were both blurry but thankfully the center view shots were clear enough so you could get a glance of who was performing even if you were way back. All in all, another great event with a phenomenal set of artists, all in one evening!
If you were there leave a comment below and tell us what YOU thought of #ASOT600MUM!
Photos courtesy Sanskruti Mehta for MissMalini.com