Throughout the course of the night NC played a total of 7 hours. If you love these DJs as much as I do, then you would have been in heaven! Any track you had ever liked from NC was pretty much guaranteed to play at some point during the night. Their first set was my favourite of the night because it brought back so many memories from when this all started. They dropped all my favourites including “Venom”, “Aliens”, “Summer In The City Part 1, Part 2”, “Revolution”, “Jaydee”, “Ctrl.Alt.Delete”, “Malboro Man”, “Thugz – NC Remix”, “Crump – Ran-D Remix” and finishing with everyone’s favourite “Attack Again – NC Remix”. That’s the short list of what they played. Track after track was just insane. I felt like my body would explode with anticipation over what track they would play next. It was one of the best sets I have ever heard.

The first DJ to Join them on stage was Wildstylez, and I have to say also properly the best set I have heard Wildstylez play since I have been here. I loved his set so much because it we also got to hear some older music mixed in with his more recent hits and obviously mixed in with the NC special touch. He opened with “Back 2 Basics” followed by “K.Y.H.U – NC Remix”, “A Different Story” and “Running late”. Now just to put it in perspective we had just arrived from a train that came straight from Paris and I hadn’t really slept much in 3 days so I was very exhausted just arriving there and my fist pumps went from so hard you would think my arm would detach from my shoulder, to looking like I was just stretching my arm, but when “Running Late” came on I got the biggest burst of energy and just went absolutely insane! Not even dancing anymore just wildly flailing to the the beat of the music and screaming out the lyrics just like the rest of the crowd. It really is amazing what music can do for a persons mood and energy level, and hardstyle is definitely a great example of that. During the set they also played “Empire Of The Sun”, “Revenge – Technoboy Remix”, “Lose My Mind”, “Communication – Pavo”, “Art Of Creation – Project One”, “Dream Dust – Frontliner” and “Tonight – A2 Remix” and they did something a little different for this song this time. When they mentioned “smashed a disco ball into a thousand pretty pieces” the spotlights pointed at the disco balls on the roof to make the whole arena light up and look magical, and then the beat dropped. I have said previously in other reviews that this song gets played a lot but I have never seen it like this before it was awesome!

Next up we had NC playing their live set which words can’t even describe how stunning it was. I mean wow I know how talented they are but to see them up there live, mixing and doing their own thing and live recording songs was nothing short of mesmerising. They opened with a few songs from their new album (E=NC2) starting with “So High” which is my new favourite of theirs followed by “Pillars of Creation”, “E=NC2”, “Gimme Love (Hard Edit)”, “Unite”, “Universe Was Born” and they started to mix in “Just as Easy”. We all also know they have their mash-up with “Attack Again” so I was kind of expecting that, although they surprised me once again and blew my MIND. The music slowed until it stopped and the MC took over. He said to the crowd, ok we need your help and we want to see if you can keep up with NC. I was very intrigued to see what he was talking about. So they started with 3 small sounds he created off a little pad he had on the bench in front of him and we had to repeat it. Not so hard. Every time he did it it got a little more complex until the sounds started to come together and he was actually doing the melodies for some of their songs and the crowd repeated them. They sampled the “Attack Again” melodies as well as “Gimme Love” and then finally back into “Just as Easy”, then the whole crowd cheered like crazy and they dropped back into the song. Not long after they decided to drop another memory bomb on me and played “Just Like You” which has used lyrics from a popular Dutch song which luckily is in English and I know this song very well. It was the version I had always wanted to hear live but no one ever played it. It featured the same melody but just slightly modified it just entranced me more. The whole crowd obviously knew all the lyrics and we all sung word for word. The beat finally dropped and as always NC were in control! The whole crowd lost it and just went completely insane. What a great way to end off their live set.

D-Block & S-Te-Fan (DBSTF) were the next act to work with NC on stage. Opening with a mash-up of “Rockin Ur Mind – Loopmachine” which I have only ever heard live but it is awesome. The tracks that followed also stayed to the key of the night and each track was a good as the last. Playing “We Are Friends”, “Promises – DBSTF Bootleg mix” and during the song “Magical Mystery” NC and DBSTF were going absolutely crazy! Not that they weren’t before but just thought I’d mention it here, Bas was jumping on top of the stage above the decks jumping and going crazy and throughout the night I constantly saw Bas and Arjan hugging and ‘hi-fiving’ each other and the supporting act on at the time. I must say I do love to see events like XQ because it is always such an honour to the DJs playing and I can imagine the sense of accomplishment you must feel from having an event just for you and everyone there to support you. I can only imagine the rush you must get up there. They also played “Madhouse”, “Samara (Vocal Mix)”, “Kingdom” and finishing their set saying ‘we love the NC’ and then they dropped “Fuck The Noisecontrollers – DBSTF”. It was a very funny song to play at the end of their set. Plus at the end of the song MC DV8 made everyone chant fuck DBSTF!

Now I hate to have to repeat myself but I am running out of adjectives to use because every set was so amazing and Headhunterz (HHZ) was no exception playing such a mind blowing set and smashing my energy reserves into overdrive. Opening with “Dragonborn” and Willem (HHZ) on top of the stage over the deck fist pumping and dancing like crazy, I’m absolutely loving having the old HHZ back! As he has said in his podcasts he hadn’t been himself last year and he is back in 2012 to make great music and do what he loves and that definitely reflects on his performances and his music and from what I have seen of him since Qlimax, HHZ is back! Straight after this smashing track he played “The Space We Created”, “Power Of The Mind – 2011 Edit”, “Hard With Style”, “Doomed”, “Perfect Weapon”, “Headshot” and “Forever As One”. Once again that’s nowhere near the full tracklist, that’s just some of my favourites I decided to share.

The 6^th and final set from NC of the night was featuring Kasparov and Evil Activities. Opening with “Masters Symphony”. The lights and lasers were going completely nuts! There were 4 main lasers and a massive laser at the back of the arena that was strategically placed to point at different parts of the stage that had mirrors on them so that it would reflect the light in all directions. It made it look like there were more then just 4 lasers on the stage which was a cheap and effective way to have more lights and a better show for everyone. They also played “Broken”, “Unite – Tha Playah Remix” and we also heard “Fuck The Noisecontrollers” again.

I can really not even begin to explain how extremely well put together this event was and how perfect the music was, and being at HMH again to experience the crystal clear and face melting sound. The entire night I was in the exact same spot I did not move until the end of the performance. I have never been to an event that I couldn’t at least quickly run out for some fresh air, it completely blew my mind. The perfect send off to such a great trip not to mention my impending birthday. Congratulations to Noisecontrollers for their success and to Q-dance for constantly putting on such outstanding events.

Since this is my final event and possibly my final review I would like to thank again, Q-dance Australia, with special mention to Geoffrey Homma for making it all happen.

Thanks to every single person at Q-dance Netherlands for everything they have done and will continue to do.

Massive thanks to Ross McLeod from Fear.fm for all his support during this trip, and thank you to everyone else who I have met on this amazing journey and made it what it was, thank you all for your support. I hope this isn’t the last you will hear from me.

Written By Tim Hunt

Photos Courtsey of Q-dance.com

As always with Heineken Music Hall (HMH) there were 2 arenas one called Beatbox which opened at 8:00pm and the Mainstage Blackbox, which didn’t start until 9:00pm. The setup in Blackbox was incredible! HMH isn’t the biggest venue but somehow with the stage and setup it made it look longer and bigger then normal. There were so many disco balls on the roof and screens everywhere. There were also 5 massive mirrors an the roof which added to the effect. The stage its self was very large, consisting of multiple screens and spotlights and what we should assume many lasers to shoot us into the New Year. The Q-dance Showcase started at 10:30 which featured many DJ’s in a relatively short period of time. The DJ’s included, D-Licous, Arkaine, E-Force (Live) and finishing up with the other half of Gunz For Hire, Adaro! All of these DJ’s played tremendous sets but Adaro ‘took the cake’ cranking a very hard set which included “Put It On”, “Under Attack”, “Haunter Of The Dark” & “Hit You With The Bang Shit”, “Sorrow – Gunz For Hire” to name a few. He actually played a lot of new stuff I hadn’t heard, but new doesn’t mean bad it can mean better and in this case it definitely was.

Straight after Adaro it was 11:45pm and it was time to start counting down. For the the next 15 minutes it showed clips from every Q-dance event during the year starting with X-qlusive D-Block & S-Te-Fan following with Defqon.1, Q-dance @ Tomorrowland, Dominator, The Qontinent, Q-dance @ Mysteryland, Q-base Raveolution, Defqon.1 Australia, X-qlusive Italy, Qore 3.0, Qlimax and Q-dance @ Mysteryland Chile (the first time Mysteryland has been held out of The Netherlands). Qountdown is such a great event and I love the idea behind it especially for Devoted Q-dancers you can re-live all the amazing events you have visited in the last year. It made me realise how many events we have actually been too and how many of them have been Q-dance. When the Qore 3.0 clip came on, Tegan and I were in it and we were played on the big screen in front of thousands! Although it was only a few seconds it was still a thrill. As it was going through the events, the lasers slowly started to warm up and move slowly building up more and more, until the final countdown to the end of 2011 and the birth of 2012.

As the montage of different videos and events finished we heard a new edit of “Lose My Mind – Wildstylez & Brennan Heart” the vocals started a little slower then in the usual version then as the melody was slowly fading in it everyone counted down and the screens showing a Giant slot machine with symbols from all the past events. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6….0 it was finally midnight, HAPPY NEW YEAR! The main melody started to build until it reached the climax, “Back off, Back off” The beat dropped! Everyone in the arena went completely nuts. Some smaller fireworks went off inside the arena, smashing us into the new year with a BANG! The lasers were also playing a massive part in this spectacular show. We just went around to everybody and wished them the best night and year. Straight after all this and the song finished we quickly ran off to Beatbox to see Jack Of Sound. I was very excited to see him on the line up but was disappointed because he was on the same time as the Showcase. So I missed the majority of his set but none the less the 30 minutes of his set we heard was unreal! Unfortunately everyone was at mainstage for the showcase and for the New Year presentation but not long after people started flooding back into the room. Jack Of Sound Played a good mix of some older things like “Front 2 Back – Zany & Tatanka”. Also some newer stuff like: “Destination Nowhere – Alphaverb & Intractable one” & “Promises – Noisecontrollers”. A lot of the tracks I did not recognise but they were ‘bloody’ amazing, I wish I could get his set so I could listen to the whole thing. Just after Jack of Sound we headed back to mainstage to see the rest of Zatox.

Zatox as always never disappoints dropping his usual tracks like “BPM Track”, “Bring The Funk – Zatox Remix”, “To The Top”, “Afrika – Tatanka”, & “The Revolution – Zatox & Vamper”, to name just a small list of the tracks that were played. During his set the lasers were still building up to the peak of the night.

Isaac was the next familiar face on stage. I hadn’t seen much of Isaac since I had been in Holland. He dropped one of my favourite tracks of 2011, “Promises – DBSTF Bootleg mix” along with a few others like: “We Are Your Friends”, “Gimme Love – Noisecontrollers”, “Dream Goes On – Deepack & DBSTF”, “Bring The Club Down”. You don’t seem to hear as much from Isaac as you do other DJs but when you do hear him he always blows you away with his tracks and his live performances.

The man behind “Midifiles” Brennan Heart was up next. In 2011 I really think Brennan Heart has started to ‘think outside the box’ again and has been producing some extraordinary music. For example his collaborations in “Wake Up”, “Lose My Mind” & his own track “Running Late” have all been exemplary and have now become some of the most well known tracks of 2011! At least one of these songs has been played at almost every single event I have been to, including this one which played all three. Every time they are played the crowd becomes a choir. Everyone knows the lyrics and it almost drowns out the speakers with how united everyone becomes with these songs. He also played “Red Planet – Code Black” & “Your Moment – Wasted Penguins & Code Black”, it was great to see him play at one of my last events before I go home.

Frontliner yet again another DJ I was really excited to see again before I go home, especially with his new album release. He dropped many engaging tracks, some from his new album, others just new remixes or other big hits he has had. For example: “Discorecord”, “Dream Dust”, “You Want It”, “Creative Community”, “External Life”, “On The Rise – Frontliner remix” and his new remix of “Rage” which was awesome, I loved it and so did the rest of the crowd by the sound of it. My only criticism not at him, is that I heard the song “On The Go – Frontliner & Max Enforcer” at least 3 times being played by various DJs throughout the night. After Frontliner they thanked him for coming and MC Villain came out to get ready to introduce the next act.

Inbetween the sets the introductory voice also said they had Psyko Punkz on the phone and then you briefly heard them say something in Dutch while the screens behind displayed traffic on the A4. Then they hung up the phone and introduced Wildstylez. Yet another DJ with some great success in 2011 and one who I have seen at many events. After his unique intro, he opened with his new song “Shadow” which was amazing! During the night we heard a lot of new releases played for the first time live. For example he played “Feel My Fire – Wildstylez Remix”, also dropping one of my new favourites from The Pitcher “I’m Alive”. During the song the screens were showing videos of various things including a woman standing in the rain with it all dripping over her face which created a relaxed feeling (well as much as you can be at a rave on New Years).

Psyko Punks played their average set. . . Unbelievable and wouldn’t let me stop moving! Dropping ‘bombs’ like: “Utta Wanka – T’n'T”, “Left With The Wrong”, “Eternalize – Headhunterz”, “Disrespect”, “Are You Ready – Da Tweekas” and the “Kick It To The Bone – The Pitcher” just to name a short list.

The final set of the night went to Ran-D & B-Front. Being the last set of the night as you can imagine the lasers were at their peak! We stood up the back of the arena so we could properly embrace the collaboration between music and the light performance. Playing a track which I had been long awaiting all night “Crump – Noisecontrollers (Ran-D remix)”. He has done a great job with this song to keep its original feel but with a new touch to it. It also has an really nice kick to it during the intro and main beat drop. They also played a remix of “Up In Here – DMX” along with a few Gunz For Hire tracks and B-front’s new tracks.

I couldn’t help but think what was in store for me in 3 weeks, X-qlusive Noisecontrollers! My 12^th and final event before we go back home to reality. The whole of The Final Qountdown was amazing as always, even on New Years when no one wants to work Q-dance still out did themselves yet again.

Written By Tim Hunt

Last Event X-qlusive Noisecontrollers

After being out in the freezing cold for about an hour we thought we may as well line up and be prepared. Only to find out that people were already heading inside. So by the time we got through it was only about 8:30pm. First things first, run straight to the merchandise stand and get our gear. By this stage the line was already packed for the merchandise and it took a fair while to get through. While waiting in line I looked behind us at the stage, but it was all covered in curtains to add in the suspense. Everyone got what they wanted, stowed it in the locker and headed back down stairs waiting for our journey to begin.

The warm up set of the night was Stana, a DJ of which most of us had not actually heard of before. From Sweden and playing mainly hard trance. We were very interested to see how his set would be and how the crowd would react. I was impressed by him and really enjoyed his set dropping some really great tracks like “Dodger – Stana Edit”, “Awesome”, “Bring The Club Down – Organ Doners Remix” and “Acid Nightmare – Future Tribes Remix” to name a few. The whole crowd got into it more then I thought actually and a lot were dancing around . It was a great set, and especially for a warm up it was even better.

Stana finished up and the first proper introduction to Qlimax started. The ominous voice started welcoming us to this years addition of Qlimax along many other things that started our journey, “The decision to come here was implanted in your brain long before you were born” and “You Are Now Plugged Into The Experiment Dome”. On the screen it started counting down from 60, once it reached 10 everyone in the crowd was counting down, until it finally hit 0. The curtains flew off revealing the stage and the massive setup. There were two giant screens on the side displaying things from rusty chains to speakers to Qlimax Symbols. The middle we had the decks, along with more screens above them and a huge Qlimax Symbol that changed to all sorts of colours and would flash and fade in and out in various ways. From puzzle to outlining then it would fill in and shrink to only get bigger again.

Then it was announced “COONE”, he popped up from behind the decks and opened with “Groove – Da Tweekas” an awesome song and great to hear a track from Da Tweekas played at Qlimax. I know they were very happy about it just from seeing their reaction on their facebook page. I made sure I had a look at him to see what the costumes were like this year. I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the outfits this year. It was basically just normal clothes and they had a big tattoo on their faces. Which you could hardly see, unless you were right at the front. I was thinking this was a bit dangerous having Coone up first on the list. He is one of my favourite DJs and he has never disappointed me. Every set I have seen of his so far I have not been able to stop moving and have ended up absolutely exhausted by the end of it. As always he didn’t let me down. Track after track was pumping “Dream Goes On – Deepack & D-Block & S-Te-Fan (Dubless Mix)”, “The Words – Coone & Psyko Punkz”, his new track “Beat On My Drum” for some examples.

All of a sudden I heard “Licht Uit” Mix in and I looked on stage and two members from the Opposites came on stage (Willem & Twan) to sing it live. Everyone went insane! It was awesome I mean I have seen this song live many times now but never like this and never with 30000+ people going this crazy. It was an experience in itself. They followed with “Dom, Lomp & Famous” (another Opposites song) with Willem and Twan still on stage for this song too and the whole crowd still as wild as before the beat dropped and everyone was dancing around including Coone, Ruffian & The Opposites. I think they really enjoyed being up there. They have a huge fan base as it is, but to be on stage at one of the biggest hardstyle events in the world seeing that many people going mental to one of your songs just in a completely different genre must be a fantastic feeling. Once the song was finished they quickly thanked the Opposites for joining us and mixed straight into “Big Bad Monstah” and followed up with “ Promises – D-Block & S-Te-Fan Bootleg mix” one of my favourites that I have heard a lot at events lately but only just found out the name for it. Thanks to Zoran (one of the Aussies).

His set it was nothing short of inspiring, every track choice he made worked out perfectly and I hope to see him at Qlimax again soon. After all it was the first time he has played a Qlimax and he definitely left a great impression.

After Coone was finished we were buggered and it was only 12:00am. The show went on and Qlimax Veteran, Headhunterz (HHZ) was on. We headed right up the front for this set. During the introduction there were 12 giant lights suspended from the ceiling that started to drop down on an angle and we were thinking what is going to happen here? Then it was building up more and more until finally the lights stopped on a 45 degree angle. All the lights and a whole ring around the Qlimax Symbol on stage started shooting fire out in time with the music. The music that was playing was orchestral music with a small choir in the background creating a kind of dark and epic moment was upon us. The flames were in time with every beat of the drum building up further and further. This went on for over a minute until it reached its peak which it then settled and all the spotlights moved and pointed to the stage. Then the voice said “HEADHUNTERZ”.

He then jumped out and started straight away with a new mix of “Psychedelic” the whole crowd was going nuts, up the front was very tightly packed and was hard to do anything other then just jump up and down and fist pump. He also decided to drop “Melancholia – Wasted Penguins”and “Dream Dust – Frontliner” and then out of the blue when I was actually talking about his Qlimax anthem from 2007, I heard the mix in the background but thought no way, he’s not going to play it. Then it was clear he was playing “Power Of The Mind (Qlimax 2007 Anthem)” but a 2011 edit, it was amazing. It was the same melody but a bit cleaner then the old and a much newer deeper kick and bassline, which was incredible.

Not long after he played “Tonight – A2 Remix” and jumped over the deck onto the front of the stage and started jumping around. Now I have heard this song many times out and about since I have been here, but the other Aussies obviously have not. They opened my eyes to how great the crowd is with this song. Just before the main melody comes in the DJs always move there hands from side to side in time with the sounds, and so does the crowd. I have always noticed this but never payed that much attention until the pointed it out to me and said “look back into the crowd and watch” and I did, the entire crowd was moving there hands at the same time it was an incredible sight to see.

He also dropped “We Are Possessed – HHZ Remix”, “Eternalize – Hard Bass Anthem” and my favourite edit of this song so far “ Doomed – Blah, Blah, Blah Edit”. His set just blew me away! I was so happy and excited but also fatigued by this point, so we decided after his set to head up the back a bit more again and breath.

They also hadn’t really released the timetable for the event so after every DJ it was a bit of a mystery who would be playing next. The intro for the next DJs was epic though! It went for about 5 minutes or more and was such a slow intense build up by the time it came it felt like your were just released from its hold, then the excitement took over. “ZANY & THE PITCHER, FEATURING MC DV8.” Opening with “Lighters – Zany Remix”. The also played “Vision” one of my Favourites from 2009 and having Dv8 sing it live as well, I was in Heaven! We quickly ran over to grab more drinks and just as we walked back into the arena they dropped “Kingdom – Pitcher Re-Amp” mixing into “Quirk – Toneshifterz” and straight into “Sound Intense City – Decibel Anthem” it brought back so many great memories from Decibel, our first event we had gone to and now being played at the event that we had been counting down for over a year.

During the night I heard many remixes and refixes of old songs and so many great bootlegs too like “Silence – Bootleg mix” & “Night After Night – Zany Remix” was definitely one of my favourite remixes of the night. I didn’t think I would ever hear that song live. Since we had Dv8 and Zany on stage I figured that they would most likely do “Nothing Else Matters” and they did! Its such an old song and has always get played most places I go where these two are but I don’t care it never gets old, its always a hit with the crowd too.

The next introduction was one of the best yet. Building up with very slowly, with the lasers now in form slowly moving side to side and up and down and getting faster and more erratic the more it builds. Then you hear “The Prophecy – Deepack (Qlimax Anthem 2003)” fading in, the beat drops. Confetti rained down from the ceiling onto the crowd while the lasers and lights went crazy. Once again you see the pyrotechnics shoot flames in time with the bassline, On stage and throughout the crowd. The song slows and you hear “NOISECONTOLLERS”. Opening with yet again another one of my favourites “Million Miles Away (Noisecontrollers Remix)” mixing straight into a small DJ tool they made for them selves with a couple of samples from there other older songs which added a nice effect rather then just straight from one song into another. They further mixed into“Escape”. This point in the night all the lasers were online, we counted 19 of the bastards going insane up there, let alone how many spotlights they had all choreographed in time with the music. Also the other sets of lights that we saw before that shot flames out of the top, were moving up and down a lot more frequently now coming down so close to the crowd you could feel the heat of the lights on your neck and you could almost touch them. I’m sure some of the ridiculously tall Dutch guys probably could.

During their set they also dropped “Unite (Defqon.1 Edit), “Move Your Body – Noisecontrollers Remix”, “Revolution – Donkey Rollers Remix”, “Faster & Further” & “Gimme Love” just to name some of the huge tracks they played. Then they dropped “Lose My Mind – Wildstylez & Brennan Heart” the whole crowd completely lost their mind when they heard it. Every single person in the room singing along to it. We were up the back up in the seating area above the crowd. We had the best view in the house looking over the whole crowd, then BOOM! The beat dropped and the entire crowd in one instant turned into just a giant sea of bodies moving to the beat almost like a giant wave in motion.

The next introduction started with the beginning of “No Way Back – Qlimax 2011 Anthem”. We all knew that it was Zatox about to come out, I was getting jittery in anticipation. The lasers were going absolutely crazy at this point, as were the pyrotechnics. Lasers spinning around wildly in every direction and the sudden flash and waves of heat we got from the flames made the build up that much more intense. There was a slight pause then “ZATOX” as he jumped up from behind the decks the track continued. We were finally here, the anthem, Qlimax! As the main build up was starting all the lights and behind the stage all lite up again with fireworks and sparks flying everywhere as we approached the climax. The suspended lights then lowered to the crowd once more, showering us all in the sparks. The beat finally dropped and the crowd just lost it.

Zatox played the best set I have heard him play since I have arrived in The Netherlands. So Raw, so hard, I loved it. To name some of the exhilarating songs that were played “To The Top”, “Unborn”, “The Perfect Weapon – Zatox & Headhunterz”and “Bring The Funk (Zatox Remix)” during which the lasers and strobes were so intense during his set. Just as with every other event as the night progresses the lasers just get more and more intense. All sorts of patterns were displayed in the air above our heads from slow moving levels to fast paced triangles and just all round lasers spinning clockwise and anti-clockwise in all colours and shapes.

The King of Italian Rawstyle also played “Loops & Things”, “Irreplaceable” and a mash up of “Gangsta” and “Andromedia” during which Ruffian made everyone take out their phones and lighters and shine them through the crowd. It was definitely an amazing sight to see, that many people in one room waving around some sort of hand held light. It lit the entire arena then the beat for gansgta came in. The lights went from waving in peoples hands to fist pumping in time with the music. Who needs to spend money on lights when the crowd do it for you.

The introduction for this next set wasn’t as long as some of the others. The lights moved in and out from pointing to the Qlimax symbol in the middle of the stage and then into the open crowd the voice then said, “expand you consciousness, and bow to the piercing sounds of . . . RAN-D”. He jumps up and straight away played his 2011 edit of “Livin’ For The Moment”, the song that got me into Ran-D all those years ago. I was so happy to hear this song again. I have seen Ran-D so many times since I have been here and he always stands out from the crowd. For his first Qlimax he couldn’t have done any better he was just down right incredible to watch!

Its so hard to pick a favourite set from the night because they were all so unbelievable but his was all the way up there. The new sound of Ran-D is a force to be reckoned with, playing “Future Shock”, “Rebirth”, “The New Shit”, “Skills” and “Feel My Fire”. During “Feel My Fire” the whole crowd was going crazy already and thanks to MC. Ruffian even more so. During the build up, having every single person in the room to get ready and say…..”FEEL MY FIRE!” Every single pyrotechnic went of simultaneously in time with the bass. I still cant get the images and videos that are in my head of these events it is insane. Constantly uplifting my days as I re-live those moments. Along with all the melodic music he also produces really hard raw stuff and loves to mix others into his sets like, “Red Planet – Code Black”, “Everything Changes – B-Front & High Voltage” and “The Haunter Of The Dark – Adaro” and that’s still not naming anywhere near every track he played.

After Ran-D finished his set he quickly ran out the back. We all figured Gunz For Hire (G4H) were going to be up next. So he would have had to quickly run out the back, get changed and put his mask on and head straight back out. Obviously we were right. “Gunz For Hire” was announced and the stepped out onto the stage. They were the most dressed up out of anyone. Mainly because G4H always where suits and a mask. It was time now for the kings of the underground to show us what they have. Being a very new collaboration between Ran-D and Adaro they have been hugely successful so far and so they should be, good on them. Playing all my G4H favourites plus my Ran-D and Adaro tracks like “Gangstas Don’t Dance”, “Sorrow”, “In For The Kill”, “Struggle For Existence”, “Under Attack” and “Kings Of The Underground” to name a small list of what was played. For only a ½ hour set they blew me away!

We were nearing the end of the night and The Prophet was all that was left, a little depressing I must say, the night was almost at an end. He came on stage and opened with “One Moment – Tom Sigmond”. Then dropping my favourite track first aired at Qlimax last year, a mash up between “Attack Again” and “Just as Easy” called “Just As Easy Again”. And once again since we were at the end of the night the lights were about as intense as they were going to get check out the video of his set HERE.

The Prophet also played “Shizzle My Dizzle (2011 Refix)”, “Wake Up” & “Recession – Audiofreq Remix” which I was so excited to hear because I heard a rumour that someone was remixing it and was just waiting for a release. It was awesome, it’s so good to hear when a great song gets remixed and done right as well. If you followed the news on q-dance.nl then you would have known that The Prophet was actually going to end his set in hardcore. I was really excited to see what he was going to play considering he is normally hardstyle. He mixed into the hardcore really well and playing a lot of the really popular songs in hardcore at the moment that I have been listening too. “We Will Dominate – Angerfist Remix”, “Smash – Endymion & The Viper”, “Refly – Amnesys”, “Snitcher – Neophyte vs. Tha Playah” and “Shut Up And Die – Angerfist Remix” to name just a small portion of the songs he played. I love hardcore regardless but I was good because it wasn’t to intense hardcore. So people that normally don’t listen to hardcore can still really enjoy it.

The only thing I think the night missed was the epic journey that Qlimax normally takes you on, it still was a bit of a journey but not as much as I had seen in previous years. Watching the DVDs every year and seeing the crazy story line is one thing we were all really excited for. Since that sort of thing does not happen at any other event. The end of the night was much like every other. Depressing, 9 hours is no where near enough! It was quite a sight to see 30000+ people all looking so happy but yet so sad at the same time. I have yet to write one review that doesn’t end in almost the same way, Q-dance really do put on some of the greatest parties in the world and we have now travelled to most of them. Qlimax is by far the most insane and best event I have been to on this trip. The music, the people, the production, everything about it was just so amazing I can not even begin to explain, but I have done my best.

Special Thanks to everyone from Australia that made it all the way over to Holland for this event, but special mention goes to George Wright & Alex Jeon for helping everyone organise flights and accommodation. It wouldn’t have happened without you guys.

Also another massive thanks to Geoffrey Homma @ Q-dance Australia and all of Q-dance.nl for all your help with everyone’s tickets and making it all possible.

Written By Tim Hunt

Photos Courtsey of Q-dance.com

Next Up….

Nightmare In Rotterdam

We had the Dirty Workz crew up next, starting with In Phase & The Vision. They played about a 45 minute set during which they dropped “Astral – Noisecontrollers”, “Dirty Sounds – Coone & Psyko Punkz”, “Communication – Pavo” & Coone Remix of “Coming Home”. After which Coone made his appearance and jumped up from behind the decks. Opening with “D.W.X” and then “No Fear – Psyko Punkz”. During his set if you looked at the screens placed around the rooms they were all displaying the Dirty Workz logo which was really cool. He also threw in “Universal Language”, “Afrika – Tatanka”, “Licht Uit – Coone Remix” and “Monstah”. It was great to see Coone again before his big debut at Qlimax in 2 weeks.

We had Scantraxx & A2 records up next, starting with Wildstylez. He played many great tracks, opening with “Back 2 Basics” then leading into “Running Late – Brennan Heart” and “Lonely” finishing off his set with one of my current favourites at the moment “Lose My Mind”. Straight after Mr. Wildstylez we had A2 & E-Force playing with some of there more recent hits like “Tonight – A2 Remix”, “Passion 4 Life”, “Future Shock – Wildstylez & Ran-D” and “Miracle”.

The Prophet Vs. Frontliner was the next set of the night. I was really excited for this one because I hadn’t actually seen Frontliner since I had been here because I missed him at decibel. And besides a set between The Prophet and Frontliner, how could you go wrong. They killed it! It was great mixing and the songs they compiled for their set were fantastic, “Outside World”, “Gold”, “Who I Am”, “Loudness” & “Dream Dust” were among the many that were played.

Gunz For Hire was the last set of Scantraxx & A2 Records. Another act that I’m always excited to see. Being a long time fan of Ran-D and seeing fast he is now moving up playing at so many events every weekend. He must be absolutely ecstatic about playing at Qlimax this year as himself and as part of Gunz For Hire. As always they were energetic and fun, out on stage wearing there usual masks and walking around with a smoke gun, shooting the crowd. There selections of tracks were great playing all the recent and slightly older records from Gunz For Hire, Ran-D and Adaro. “Gangstas Don’t Dance”, “Under Attack”, and “Gangsta Shit” were among the many other hits they played.

Fusions finest was the next to come. Now with the timetable there were so many DJs playing that the set times for each group was about 1 ½ hours so some DJs paired up to play for 30mins and others just all came out at once to play. This set was a fine example of that, we had Slim Shore, The Pitcher, B-front & Zany playing all at once. It was crazy, I mean seeing B-front by himself is usually enough because he gets so into the music but to also have The Pitcher going just as crazy plus Slim Shore and Zany, it was hard not to be excited and dance everywhere. All sorts of tracks got played like “This Is Who We Are”, “Sound Intense City”, “Sucksess – T’n'T” and “Son Of Torture – Ran-D”. Donkey Rollers also played some of there old classics like “Hardstyle Rockers” and “The Fusion Of Sound”. It was defiantly one of the best sets of the night. By this stage in the night the lasers were at full pelt with all 8 of them going crazy.

Theracords was the second last set of the night, just before Masters Elite. Theracords did the same thing as fusion and decided to just have everyone on stage at once. I think for the DJs that would be really fun and more of a party for them. Not just up there to play for other people but you have your friends up there to going just as mental as you are and you can party a bit more yourself. On stage we had Catatonic Overload, Degos & Re-Done, Geck-o and Thera. All jumping around and going absolutely nuts to the beats.

Masters Elite was the last set of the night, featuring Mc. Tha Watcher. Out of the whole crew which included T-junction & State Of Emergency, DaY- Mar & Catscan and Angerfist Vs. Outblast. Angerfist & Outblast by far had the best set. Dropping “Voice Of Mayhem”, “Odious” & a fair few newer ones I hadn’t heard yet, but they definitely kept me going. I hadn’t seen Angerfist play live before and let me say he was definitely worth the wait. I can’t wait to see him again in a few weeks at Nightmare in Rotterdam. Angerfist & Outblast were playing on the further away decks, before DaY- Mar & Catscan popped up from behind the lower stage and started playing, as they started playing the stage they were one lifted up about another meter off the ground. They finished the night off with a bang!

Our first experience at a club in Holland couldn’t have been more exciting. The setup, the music, the line up, the people and the atmosphere were all spot on! By far the best club I have ever been to. They just don’t make them like this in Australia. You Definitely wouldn’t get a line up like this for a club in Australia.

Written By Tim Hunt

Photos courtesy of Fear.fm

Next up: Qlimax

Once Blackbox opened Sinister Souls the first on stage. Playing a Dubstep crossover set into a bit of other hardcore. I thought it was a nice change having a bit of Dubstep to start the night. I may not be able to dance to it but its great none the less. We had a look around the main arena to see what was in store for us later in the night. There were about 10 different giant screens that covered the whole front of the stage and behind the DJs all the way to the roof. Most of them weren’t online yet but we’ll just have to wait. There were also 4 disco balls above the crowd surrounded by 14 spot lights, as well as 2 platforms in the crowd for people to dance on. We couldn’t see any lasers but I’m sure they were somewhere.

Kasparov was the second set to play, this is where we started to hear a bit more of the hardcore we had been waiting for. He played a lot of great songs including his new track “Raw & Uncut” especially made for Qore 3.0. He also played an “Adagio For Strings” remix, “Hate On Your Self”, “Who We Are” & “Subconscious”. For the first time I had ever seen Kasparov he was excellent! Really enjoyed it. He played for 1 ½ hours before Endymion was on.

Endymion was only playing for 30 minutes doing a live set and a special presentation from Q-dance featuring E-Life, Lily Julian & Warren Morris and a special video performance playing behind him in synchronisation. He opened with “Plastic Surgery – Art of Fighters & Endymion”. As you would expect they also did a live performance of “A New Today” & “Overcome” both Featuring Lily Julian, “Broken Feat. E-Life” & “No More Feat. Warren Morris”, I thoroughly enjoyed all three. Although there were no lasers at this stage seeing all the different screens, spotlights, strobes and disco balls working in combination was amazing. He also dropped “Face II Face”, “Abduct Your Weapon” and one of his new tracks “Smash” which crosses over between Dubstep to hardcore which I think Endymion & The Viper have done a fantastic job on. You can actually watch the set Here along with a lot of the other sets from the night.

We had Amnesys after Endymion, Featuring MC. Axys. Once again other DJ, I’d never had the pleasure if seeing. The lasers just came on line as he was coming on, there were 8 hidden behind the screens accompanied by another 11 spotlights that were also hiding. Dropping so many great tracks like “Massacre”, “Symphony Of Sins”, “Nirvana Of Noise”, “Statement Of Disorder (Unexist Remix)” and one of my all times favourites from Amnesys “Refly”, the list goes on and on. Another mesmerising set. So far every set that had played, was so good I couldn’t leave the arena. The laser show was also very intense, up to the usual high Q-dance standard.

Outside Agency was the next on stage to play. Once again another Live set. Dropping a few songs I knew but a lot I didn’t. The songs I knew were, “Oscillation Overthruster” & “Motherfucker”. I normally prefer a bit faster hardcore and “Mainstream Hardcore” as some call it. But I still enjoyed this set.

The one artist I was really excited to see was The Playah! I have been listening to him for a few years now but have never seen him live. The Playah I think had the best set of the night followed closely by Endymion & Amnesys, but in comparison Tha Playah Played for 1 ½ hours and Endymion only played for ½ hour. Track after track was amazing, we were up in VIP for the most of his set so I could at least get some rest and sit down while still enjoy the show. He played “On The Edge”, “Why So Serious?”, “Clockwork”, “Yes – Angerfist” & “My Misery” among many others. For the first time I have ever seen him he didn’t disappoint me and I hope to see him again soon.

Ophidian was the next DJ on the list. Dropping great tracks like “The One”, “Psychiatric Ass”, “Anger (Orphidian Remix)”, “Burn Them” and “Inception By Sound”. He played a slightly different set then I’m used to, although everyone was still going crazy to it down on the ground while we were still at VIP dancing.

Hellfish was the last set of the night. I didn’t actually know any of the tracks played and just at the beginning of his set we lost our camera again! So the majority if his set we were running around trying to find it. Like all other events though as the night progresses the music gets louder and louder. By the stage of Hellfish it was actually so loud i could feel inside my ears vibrating.

Qore 3.0 was a huge success! We spoke to a lot of other people throughout the night and everyone said they were having a great night. I know we definitely did and I hope Q-dance gets the same feedback that we did and the event continues next year. Maybe it will eventually make its way over the ocean to Australia, we definitely need some decent hardcore events over there, and Q-dance always puts on great events.

By Tim Hunt

Photos Courtesey of Q-dance.nl

Next up Xxlerator @ Club Matrixx!

This is the first event we have been to since we have been over here that is not hard dance. Sensation White is held all across the globe and in Europe including Australia. For those who don’t know the dress theme for all sensation whites is you have to wear all white with minimal patterns just as plain white as you can get. When we planned our trip, there were many locations to choose from but I figured if I’m going to go it should be from somewhere that would really be pumping, Copenhagen looked like the place to be.

We arrived in the morning before the event. Gradually throughout the day we saw more and more people dressed in white in preparation for tonight. By 5:00pm the streets were lined with them. The event was held at Parken Stadium and it was HUGE! We had deluxe tickets and even the line for that was massive and it took us well over ½ hour to get in. Once we did though and we saw the stage and setup, WOW! It was mesmerising. Just as we got in Mr. White (sensation white resident) just finished his set. So we walked in at a great time.

Every time there was a DJ change it was like watching a whole new show unfold. There was a main stage in the middle, which slowly spun around so the entire crowd could see the DJ at one point or another. It was shaped like a flower bud just opening up with various lights on it that made it change colour. There were also four other smaller flower buds that were positioned more in each corner of the giant room. Every now and then the flower buds would turn on their internal fountains and shoot water at least 2 metres in the air and would fall back into the bud. During the sets and DJ changes there were 2 big screens that showed the DJs and also displayed various words that the voice over would say.

Just as the intro to the next DJ was ending I looked up to main stage and just as they said Flip, there was a device up the top that shot out the name Flip made out of water and did so a few more times. Now that I knew it was there I kept my eyes on it throughout the night and it also made X like shapes and displayed all the DJs names including the longer ones like Sanchez. Flip was dropping all kinds of tracks from “Zagros Fest – Santos” to “Possibilities”. On top of the roof there were at least 100 giant balls floating from the roof that also lit up in time with all the other coloured lights around the arena because everyone was wearing white and white reflects colour. This created the feeling that the whole arena was changing colours. In the middle of his set at one point 4 objects appeared from the roof and came down about 15m from the top and shot out fireworks in a circular motion making almost a small fountain of sparks raining down above the crowd.

Mark Knight was up next playing a set of some older house & trance and some new stuff including “You’ve Got The Love” & “Let It Go Insomnia (Swedish House Mafia Bootleg)”. Throughout his set and a few others as well, dancers came down from the roof suspended on almost invisible strings. The dancers also had their own hand held lasers that they shot through the crowd, which was awesome. After a while I looked up and I noticed that the balls on the ceiling were now moving a lot more. Flowing up and down making a wave and changing colours accordingly, accentuating the wave like effect. Up in the Deluxe section there were about 3 different levels to sit or stand on. The best part was that most of the bars in deluxe didn’t have as much of a line as the general admission. We looked down at the crowd from the deluxe seating and we saw a fair few people with small blue bat/sword looking things waving them around madly. We started talking a bit more I looked back about 2 minutes later and most of the crowd had them. I was thinking where did these come from? We went down to the crowd to check it out and there were girls working for Smirnoff (one of Sensation’s biggest sponsors) handing out these funny little lights to everyone. It was quite a sight to see almost 20000 people holding and waving around these bats.

The Sanchez brothers were about to come on (Daniel & Juan). Dropping tracks like “Inner Sense” & “Zombie Nation” a classic loved all around the world in god knows how many remixes and bootlegs.

Next on the list was Martin Solveig, he played a lot more tracks that I recognised, “Lick It – Kaskade & Skrillex”, “Hello”, “Raise Your Weapon – Deadmau5” & “Save The World – Swedish House Mafia” to name just a few. During this time the giant balls on the roof were coming almost all the way down to the crowd just to rise back up again in time with the music still doing its waving patterns above all of our heads. There was also 4 big lasers in each corner of the room displaying an assortment of colours from blue, purple, red and green.

The last set of the night was Hardwell. He was still dropping plenty of tracks we all recognised, “Levels – Avicii (Hardwell Bootleg)”, “Love Comes Again – Tiesto”, “Koko – Sander Van Doorn” & “Spaceman”. It was a great set in fact Hardwell and Martin Solveig had the best 2 sets of the night. They were amazing!

It was great to be at an event that played different music than I normally listen to. The event itself was incredible, the lights, production and the music. I hope ID&T have another Sensation back in Australia when I come back, I would definitely recommend it to people that haven’t been before.

By Tim Hunt

Photos Courtesey of sensation.com (ID&T)

Next up Qore 3.0

I was also very impressed with Kutski’s set playing songs like “The Bottle – Marcel Woods”, “Expansion – Showtek Remix”, “Levels – Avicii”. He was also playing a lot of Dubstep throughout his set. The other great thing about his set was he was doing a lot of scratching on the decks which I have not heard anyone do in years! After Kutski had finished playing, all the screens turned on for the introduction of the next DJ’s “Dirty Workz bounce team” (Fenix, Dr. Rude & Demoniak).

During the introductions to this set they showed various clips from the movie “Scarface”. As well as a video of a city at night time which made you feel like you were gliding through it and deep vocals slowly introducing them. Later on followed the same theme featuring other clips from the movies “Reservoir Dogs”, “Godfather” and “Pulp Fiction”. The whole event was themed as early gangsters and most of the DJ’s were wearing old school suits and gangster looking attire.

As the name suggests “Dirty Workz Bounce Team” they played a very bouncy some what uplifting set. I have listened to all of them before and do enjoy them for a bit of change from your everyday hardstyle but I do not know many track names but nonetheless it was enjoyable and had a good bounce around the arena.

Next up was “Dirty Workz Future Squad” (The Vision, In-Phase & The Unloaders), they played a some what dirtier set compared to “Bounce Team” opening with “Gangsters Don’t Dance – Gunz for Hire”, and also playing “Wake Up – Brennan Heart & The Prophet (Snooze Edit). By this stage of the night all the screens stayed on showing images of the DJ’s up on stage and different patterns moving in time to the music. It really was a spectacular sight, especially for a slightly smaller event like this it was great to see they didn’t ‘skimp out’ on the production or effects in any way. Following “Future Squad” was Da Tweekas, the funny and some what crazy duo from Norway.

I had never seen them before and I have been a big fan for quite a while now and they did not disappoint. Marcus came up on stage with his guitar and started playing “D.W.X – Coone & Da Tweekas” which was awesome! After which they slowly faded out and went through a clip from “Scarface” and Kenth pulled out a Tommy Gun and pretended to shot Marcus off the stage and Kenth took over the decks. During there set the lasers started to come online, at long last. They played one of the best sets of the night, dropping so many of my favourite tracks like “Million Miles – Da Tweekas Remix” & “Healing Incantation”. Marcus and Kenth were having the best time up there I almost thought they were going to actually jump off the decks into the crowd. There is nothing more exciting then to watch a DJ jump around and go as crazy as the crowd does, it really just pumps you up that much more.

After the mind blowing set it was 12:00 and it was time for mister Dirty Workz himself, Coone! The screens began introducing him and the crowd was getting more and more restless waiting for him to appear. He popped up from behind the decks and the crowd went absolutely wild! Starting his set with “Universal Language” when the beat dropped, there were hidden pyrotechnics that came online in time with the beat and created a heat wave over the whole crowd. His set was nothing short of mind blowing, I did not sit down or even rest the entire set. Track after track was just exhilarating pumping all my favourites like “Travelling”, “Come Take My Hand”, “Monstah” & “Licht Uit – Coone Remix”, plus a few other remixes of non Hardstyle songs. He also took the time to thank everyone who voted for him in the DJ Mag Top 100, in which he scored a great placing of #41.

Coone Finished of his set and Deepack came on stage to join Coone. Together these two really love to play some more heavy dirty hardstyle, opening with “Mayday Dream” and also dropping “The Dream Goes On” and the old school “Zombie Nation” which everybody knows from all over the world and it went off. After this set Coone got a slight of a break, while the King of Italian Rawstyle came on, Zatox!

As always Zatox played an excilerating set opening with “Unborn”, then dropping the Qlimax anthem of this year yet again “No Way Back” which is always very exciting to hear. He also played “Revolution” & “Madhouse” during the Qlimax anthem. I looked over to the seats that were around the Arena and there was a guy gabbering so hard up there, I’m surprised he did not fall off the seat. Its always a good sight to see when someone is going so nuts to the music!

After Zatox, Coone came back on stage with Fenix for Ambassador Inc. Now this was crazy, not just the music but Coone actually stagedived! Mc. Villain kept saying “we need some strong boys up front” and behind on the screens it kept saying “It’s Time To Stagedive” and it was almost a moshpit up near the stage because everyone wanted to be apart of it. The song “Come Take My Hand” came on and just as the beat dropped Coone jumped into the crowd. He got carried around for at least a minute or two actually being bounced in the air by all the people carrying him, before being returned to the stage for the next song. Coone looked like he was having the absolute time of his life while he was in the pit and once he’d returned to the decks, it was great to see. They also played the “Melody Of Nature (Qontinent Anthem)” and “A Moment Of Creation”.

After Ambassador Inc. was Psyko Punkz, the “Golden Boys” of Dirty Workz and following key from the rest of the night played an epic set dropping so many tracks we all knew like “The Words” and they even had the video clip from Youtube playing in the background behind the DJ’s. They also played “Psyko Soldier”, “No Fear”, “Left With The Wrong”& “Bassboom”, which the crowd went wild too, singing along to all of the lyrics.

Coone Classics was up next we were quite excited to hear this set because you just don’t hear any of his old stuff played live any more. During the set I was watching Coone very carefully and he looked completely ecstatic, I don’t think I had seen him have this look before while playing. Everyone was still going really wild, and I think Coone really enjoyed playing his old stuff and to still see the great response from the crowd. He finished of his set with “Words From The Gang” but the Dutch version. I didn’t know the words anymore but the rest of the crowd did. The only part that was in English was “if your not in it for the love of the music would you please FUCK OFF” the beat dropped the entire crowd ‘lots their marbles’ you could see the entire crowd just bouncing up and down.

Coone got another quick break after his set and Wildstylez jumped on stage. He started with his new song “Lose My Mind” and dropping one of my all time favourite mash ups “Just As Easy – Attack Again”, which was originally first played at Qlimax last year. During the melody of attack again he faded out the sound and you could hear the whole crowd singing the melody and the faded it back in, just in time for the beat drop. I normally don’t like many mash ups but I love this one. It was done so well and the whole crowd seemed to really appreciate it to. He also dropped “Put This On Youtube – Wildstylez Remix”.

Next on stage we had Dark Raver & Ruthless playing a set, that started as dirty hardstyle leading up to hardcore to prepare you for the final set. They played many great songs, but one that really stood out from the rest was “Wake Up (original edit)”. The original edit is the one with the over the rainbow section. During the song all the lasers actually changed to every colour they possibly could and created a rainbow throughout the crowd. I hadn’t seen this effect done before, especially not to this song, it was very fitting. Towards the end of their set they also played a much faster and dirtier version of “Mayday Dream” called “In The Mix”.

Now after their set the real hardcore started! Endymion & Evil Activities came out opening with “Broken”, one of Endymion’s more recent and very popular songs. Just after they mixed into “A New Today” and the MC that normally does the vocals for this song came out on stage and sung them all live, it was an amazing experience! During their set they also played “The Challenge – Evil Activities Remix” among many others.

All in all it was an absolutely breath taking event. Seeing Coone play so many times and how happy he was, it was very inspiring. Also for a slightly smaller event compared to the others we have been to it really shows size doesn’t matter as long as you have the right atmosphere, it definitely did. Thank you to Coone (Koen) for putting on such a great event.

By Tim Hunt

Next Up Sensation White Copenhagen

Also keep your eye on this space & Fear.fm for an exclusive interview with Coone coming soon…

Photos courtsey of bassevents.be

The event started at 9:30pm and for once we were there on time, in fact we were actually early and we were the first people in line to walk into this Spectacular venue. There was 2 arenas, one called Beatbox which was the smaller arena, it opened at 9:30pm along with the event, where as Blackbox (Mainstage) didn’t open until 10:30. First set at Beatbox was “Francesco Zeta”, so we just walked around talking to people an getting our bearings. We actually met a few other Aussies there who were doing a working holiday in England and decided to come down for XQ. While talking to them Francesco decided to drop “Levels – Avicii” (the end show song from Mysteryland), although it was a much faster almost hardcore version so in the middle of our conversation I had to tell the guys I’d be back in a minute I had to have a quick dance. Of coarse being other ravers they understood completely.

Not long after, Blackbox opened and Activator was up first. We found the VIP sections and scoped out the back which also had a good assortment of theatre like seats which would be excellent for the end of the night to watch the incredible laser show to come. We had a bit more of a look around and made our way to the front for Davide Sonar’s set. The Stage was set out like what you would imagine an traditional Itailian village would look like with small pillars holding up the handrail for a cobble stone road going over a canal which is where the DJ decks were, and to top it a giant spinning “Q” on the peak.

Davide came on at 11:30pm playing a 45 minute live set. Dv8 came out on stage to introduce Him and he jumped up from behind the decks and started right away dropping a song that I’m not actually familiar with but it was great (very raw). Shorty after he dropped the live version of “Believe” and a few more of the many lights came on. At one point he came out from behind the decks onto the mainstage with a hand held square device that flashed with the music and everytime he touched it. He obviously controlled the music and mixes with, but I don’t completely understand how it works. I really wish I did because it looked really intriguing.

Surprising there was actually a lot of songs that Davide played I was not familiar with but as I suspected he ended his set with his other live version of “Natural” (one of his biggest most popular songs). The live version of this song he actually comes out on stage with vertical keyboard (keytar) and plays the main melody with it and then the beat drops! This is where we got our first sight of the lasers so far we could see four extremely clear lasers. These were the cleanest and most clear lasers I have seen to this day. I knew that this was just the beginning and there was more to come.

After Davide’s set DV8 came out on stage wearing a wig pretending to be Valentino Rossi and stood on a podium as if he had won a race, and continued to do similar things that involve Italy in some way every DJ change. Next up was Ivan Carsten, we decided to run up to our VIP deck, we didn’t want to miss any of his set. You had to leave the arena go up stairs and around the side and it was amazing how sound proofed HMH is because once you exit and the door closes you almost cant hear anything. We got up to the VIP entrance and once again the door was closed to help block sound from outside and when you opened the door it gave you goosebumps it was like opening the door to Narnia. The music just hit you in the face like brick wall and you know you were right back in the magic.
While we were up there I happened to look over and see Sam (Bioweapon) he told us he was going but lack of communication we didn’t arrange anywhere to meet. Once again he was very happy to see us and he was also with another Aussie that we ran into at Decibel. All of a sudden Ivan dropped “Bazooka Girl” my all time favourite song of his. In fact I went so crazy to this song I over heated and felt sick after and had to sit down for about 10 minutes.

TnT was about to come on and Sam and I agreed that we would have to be right up the front for it. Just as we got up there TnT came on. I really love it when the dynamic duo get together because its always very hard and raw. They were dropping some favourites like “Tritilo”, “Countdown” and the classic “Double Dutch Darkies”, every time they play this song it makes me and the whole crowd so damn happy and everyone is singing along it really just makes the atmosphere that much better. We stayed down in the middle for about half of Tatanka’s set as well until we went back up to VIP. Just as we walked back in he dropped “Afrika” one of his newer songs. I hadn’t previously been a huge fan of this song, but now I love it! Tatanka also dropped “Wake You Up – Brennan Heart & The Prophet” which gets played at every event we have been to so far but I’m not complaining because its still a great song and gets me and the whole crowd excited every time. At this stage of the night there were 6 lasers online but still not at their full potential (still moving quite slow and only change between 3 colours).

The following set was Zatox which we had all been waiting for the whole night. Playing the most Raw set of the night (which we expected since he’s the king of raw). He dropped almost everyone of his songs I wanted to hear. The lasers were cranked up to the next level for his performance all six were going nuts, along with the strobes and all the spot lights dancing to the music and changing colours from pink, purple, green, blue and white. He played “To The Top”, “Another Level” and “Irreplaceable” to name a few. Then as I suspected he dropped the Qlimax anthem for this year “No Way Back”, first time it had ever been played live I felt pretty privilaged to be apart of it.
As much as I wanted to go see Noize Suppressor I couldn’t leave the main stage because next up was Wild Motherfuckers (Zatox & Tatanka) and of coarse they kept to the theme of the night and it was just another raw set playing “Kickin’ Ass”, “Gangsta”, and “Loops & Things” which is always great. 

DJ Stephanie was playing after that. I have heard Stephanie many times, but this was by far the best set I’d ever heard her play, although I wasn’t familiar with most of the songs it was still amazing. During her set at some point she played “Gold – Bioweapon remix” we were still with Sam at this point. He was so happy to here some of his producing and he told me how much fun he had while making this song working with Max Enforcer, and how much of a rush you get when you here your songs, let alone when your up on stage with the energy of thousands in front of you.

The last set of the night was called “Xqlusivo Italia Brigata” which was Activator, Davide Sonar, Ivan Carsten, Technoboy, Tuneboy, Tatanka, Zatox and Stephanie so basically every DJ that played that night on mainstage. The set itself competed with Zatox’s for the best set of the night playing songs like “Lose My Mind – Brennan Heart” (Brennan Hearts newest song), “Andromedia – Zatox”, ” “Summer Of Hardstyle – Proppy & Heady 2011 Refix,” and “Silver Bullet – Toneshifterz Edit” just to name a few.

Not to mention the lights. Definitely the best laser/light show we have seen since we have been here and possibly the best light show I have ever seen! The lasers went from Green, Blue, Blue & Green, Red, Red & Green, Purple, Orange and White. They made amazing combinations from squares to round shapes and just plain out going nuts in every direction, spinning wildly whilst changing colours. At one point they slowed down and did a flowing like action in blue that if you looked up the back you could swear that you were under water. Actually talking about them now makes me change my previous statement, it was the best laser show I have ever seen!

                                 Pictures cannot even come close to how spectactular the light show was

Events that we have been to in the last year or more seem to have less and less lasers but XQ has reignited my faith in Q-dance for having the most amazing light shows. You can never have to many lasers. After the event we headed out grabbed our gear and went outside. We sat for a while having smokes because we didn’t smoke the whole night. A random person came up and asked for a lighter. We started talking to them and it turns out they were from Penrith in Australia (where we live and Defqon.1 Australia is held). What a crazy coincidence. XQ Technoboy is the only other XQ I have been to but both Italy and Technoboy are two of the best events I have ever attended in all my years of raving. X-Qlusive Italy lived upto its reputation and absolutely blew us away.

By Tim Hunt

Next Up

Coone & The Gang: Public Enemys

*All pictures courtesy of Q-dance.nl

Once you are plugged in, there’s no way back..

In 2010, Q-dance wanted to surprise Qlimax’ visitors with a different setup. The stage was built on the long side of the room to create a bigger dance floor and allow everyone to witness the show from close by. It was also decided to divide the show evenly between the DJ’s introductions and their sets. Afterwards, however, part of the crowd turned out to appreciate the show and dancing area less than previous years.

Therefore, Q-dance sees Qlimax 2011 as payback. Back to the old setup, with a dark, hard Qlimax show like you’re used to from Q-dance. With enough room to party, hundreds of speakers providing proper sound pressure on every part of the dance floor, and a mystical show just like Qlimax regulars have come to expect it.

All the top elements of the previous nine editions in the GelreDome will be packed together for this edition of Qlimax. Q-dance would already like to announce that upon entering, every visitor will be seen as a guinea pig in the biggest dance laboratory in the world. Come prepared!

Of course, a new edition of Qlimax means a new anthem. An anthem that is raw, dark, and especially hard, made this year by Zatox. In order to get into the proper Qlimax mood beforehand, Q-dance and Zatox would like to give you the anthem as a present. You can download it for free here. Enjoy!

With the above message, the first artist on the line-up has also been announced. You will be able to find the other ones on the Qlimax website soon. In the meantime, check out the trailer here.

Next Saturday (1 October) at 13:00, ticket sales will start exclusively on Q-dance.nl and it is already possible to book travel arrangements. These arrangements include regular or VIP Qlimax tickets, 1 or more nights in a hotel of your choice and transfer to/from the GelreDome. Your airplane flight is optional and can be booked directly with your package.

Qlimax sells out in no time each year, so make sure you plug in quickly! Keep an eye on q-dance.nl or subscribe to this blog for regular updates

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Now the real story starts. On the way we did realise that it was in the middle of no where. As we arrived at Q-Base at about 5:30pm (started at 5:00) we were walking towards the entrance and the whole place was surrounded by giant corn fields, with actual big corn cobs on them, which I noticed a lot of people running through and using as a tranquil place to urinate. Once past the crops we entered the VIP entrance which had special VIP locker room, saving us from fighting with hundreds of people in the morning. We headed out into the open world of Q-Base. First we went to the merchandise stand to grab our gear before it got snapped up. There was some really cool shirts and jumpers for sale but we needed to contain ourselves considering that we have polished off almost half of our money so far and we have only been here 3 weeks. As we were getting served the lady serving us recognised us from Mysteryland (this seems to be happening a lot from the staff at events) we just decided to get a T-shirt each because they are much cheaper. Then back to the locker to stow our merchandise.

                                                   *
We started to head over to hanger to see Wasted Penguins which Tegan, Mike and I were all very excited to see since we had never seen them before. We started walking towards the hanger walking past the stage TILT by A2 records which was in a smaller hanger. By the time we got there it was 5:45pm so we only caught the last 15 minutes of them. The stage “Hanger” was awesome as the name suggests it as just a giant hanger converted to a “Rave Cave”. It was very large and had a big pulsing circle thing with the Q-Base symbol on the middle. We headed up the back to check out the VIP stage that was 2 levels above the ground so you could see everything. As we were listening to wasted penguins Mike headed off to get drinks. While he was gone an Englishmen who did interviews for q-dance.nl approached us for an interview, so we headed outside with him and he did a quick interview. He asked questions like “Why we came? How long we have been raving for?” and so on. By the time we finished Wasted Penguins was almost done and we had also lost Mike. The next DJs on our list to see was D-Block & S-Te-Fan (DBSTF) so off we went to main stage.

Hanger *

The thing we really loved about this event as opposed to Mysteryland and Decibel, was the fact that is was much smaller,taking only 10 minutes to get to main stage. Once we got to there we were a bit confused at first making sure we were actually at main stage because we were a bit disappointed that main stage “Open Air” was really quite small and honestly a little boring for a Q-Dance main stage. We are used to seeing very big and extravagant and as you can see from the picture it wasn’t.                                                   Open Air (Mainstage)

One very interesting thing about Q-Base and main stage was that you could actually just look through the surrounding fence and see the functioning Airport Weeze right next to us with planes arriving and departing. It would have been quite a sight to see if you were flying once it was dark with all the lasers up in the air and thousands of people scattered. DBSTF just came on one good thing was that there was a lot of room right up the front. The crowd wasn’t shoulder to shoulder so you could actually move and shuffle! DBSTF had and absolutely amazing set dropping a Hardstyle remix of “Exploration Of Space – Cosmic Gate” one of my favourite trance tracks and everyone really enjoyed it. Some of the mixes these guys did were astonishing mixing 2 – 3 tracks at a time, putting in just small clips of songs but returning to the previous melody. For example; mixing “Loopmachine” with “Gangsta – Tat & Zat” and then going straight into “Rockin’ Your Mind”.

                                                   D-Block & S-Te-Fan @ Open Air *

Next up was SHOWTEK! First time Showtek has played at a Q-Dance event since Xqlusive Showtek back in 2008. Every time I had tried to see Showtek in Australia something unavoidable happened forcing me to miss them. So finally after years I was about to see Showtek LIVE. As they came on, the crowd almost doubled, going wild as soon as it was announced that Showtek were coming on stage. It was just starting to get dark at this stage so some more of the lights were coming on. As I’ve noticed from a few videos lately of Showtek is that Duro like to come down and MC a lot of the time while Walt stays up the top and DJs. This works really well because he really knows how to get the crowd going wild. For example; one of the songs they played “The Bottle – Showtek Remix” Duro made the entire crowd sit on the ground and as the beat drop came in made everyone jump up and go insane. I have seen this before at heavy metal gigs but not ever at a rave it was unreal seeing the whole crowd spanning back more the 50m sitting down. Showtek also love to drop a few dubstep songs in the middle like “Cinema – Skrillex Remix” and not everyone over here likes dubstep but who cares we do and it was awesome! They also played there new song “Music On My Mind”, it looked like not everyone knew it, but we did and went crazy to it. After which they threw in a couple of live mixes of songs like “We Own The Night” and also dropping there very old but still very much a favourite Defqon.1 Anthem “Colours of Hardstyle” to finish off.
                                                   Showtek @ Open Air *        

We headed to Ambassador Inc. at Hanger to find Mike again. Ambassador Inc. were only playing for 30 minutes and some how were outside talking to people for so long that when we walked in, they were just thanking them for playing, don’t ask me how we managed that. We thought we may as well stay where we were and catch 30 minutes of Psyko Punks before we headed over to Hardcore Italia for Unxist’s set.

                                                   Psyko Punkz @  Hanger

I hadn’t listened to that much Unxist before but I’d heard a lot about him and also we were supposed to meet our friend Davy (who we met at Decibel ) we didn’t find him in the end. Unxist played the most filthy hardcore set I think I’ve ever heard at a rave, it felt like being punched in the brain continuously for the 1 ½ hour set he played, it was great! Not long after he finished off with “F**k The System” and we headed back to hanger for Ran-D’s set.

                                                   Hardcore Italia *

Ran-D’s last set at Mysteryland was insane so I had quite high expectations of him and once again he didn’t let me down. Dropping tracks like“Gold (Bioweapon remix)” and “Rebirth” which hands down had the best laser show we saw the entire night! Straight after Ran-D we were buggered but there was still so many artists to see, like Art Of Fighters (AOF)!                                                    Amazing Light Show @ Hanger *

We still ended up going to see AOF but decided that we would sit on the hill so we could still see, hear and enjoy it all properly. They were playing all there big hits, which I’m really loving over here considering that there are a lot of artists I haven’t seen in Australia and they are still playing all my favourites. They played “Symphony Of The Dead”, “Art Of Fighters” and “The Beat Wont Change” to name a few and of coarse the Dominator Anthem of this year which was also by AOF “Nirvana Of Noise” and the crowd went wilder to that song then any other I had seen during the day!

                                                    Hardcore Italia *

We also happened to stubble into A2′s set getting mixed up with The R3bels, then eventually making it to The R3bels only to go straight back to the Tilt area to see B-front. There was a lot of backwards and forwards throughout the night, but that was the best part about Q-Base, it was so small (compared to Mysteryland) that if you went to the wrong arena then it was ok just walk back to the other one. Instead of wasting an hour trying to get to the correct arena. During B-Front’s set we sat down on some grass under some trees trying to re-cooperate a little from the past few hours before we heading to Korsakoff at 5:15am until 7:00. We all figured that we need to save ourselves for her because she always plays such a MEAN set and thank god we did sit for that time!                                                                       Q-Dance!

By the time we got to main stage she was just coming on. I was still a bit tired and felt a bit lazy. She opened with “Rebottled” and straight away might heart started pumping at full ball again and I knew I was going to be in for some pain during this set. The next song up was “Words From The Gang (Korsakoff Remix)”, after which she played some newer songs I hadn’t heard before but it was still great and it gave me a little bit of a rest. We were right up the front for this point and luckily we invested in earplugs earlier in the day because it was so loud you could feel inside your ear rattle even with the earplugs in. Our hearing (especially mine) is already pretty damaged from other events that I need to keep what I’ve got left intact. We still got that awesome bass but not as much damage to our ears. Just when I thought I was going to get in a little rest in and the she goes and drops “Voice Of Mayhem” my favourite Hardcore track of all time. I danced harder then, then I had the entire day. I’ve actually got sore elbows this week from fist pumping so hard. I was so damn happy and the best part was there was still about 40minutes left of her set and still dropping hit after hit including “Odious” and finally “Pink Noise!”. Korsakoff is one of the nicest DJ’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting face to face and she is constantly waving to specific people in the crowd giving them the heart symbol with her hands or blowing kisses. The end of Korsakoff’s set was imminent and the last song she decided to play was in German and was so fast it was pretty much “Terror” but everyone else seemed to know it and they went insane Gabbering and kicking their legs around it was a great sight considering it was 7:00am in the morning and light.

After it was all done we headed to the locker to meet back up with Mike because he went to go see B-Front in Hanger for the lasers, which were better there then at main stage. He said they were even better then Ran-D’s lasers which now I kinda wish I’d seen but there was no way I would have missed Korsakoff’s set. As the entire crowd stubbled out of the Airport we all made it to the buses (some more coherent then others), there is always a few that just have no clue what’s up or down. Surprisingly we actually got back to Dusseldorf very easily unlike our way there. One month of events down only five more to go!

By Tim Hunt

Next Up

X-Qlusive Italy!

*Above Pictures Provided By Q-dance.nl