Survived Events 2012: ASOT 550 @ Brabanthallen, Den Bosch

When I thought that an event like Super You & Me could not be easily surpassed by a trance event, I was greatly mistaken. ASOT 550 in Den Bosch was the greatest and most unforgettable event I've ever been to. I 'm writing this quite hammered and completely drained of any form of energy. It was a night to remember...



I didn't have high hopes when I purchased my tickets a few months ago, but I was getting more and more excited for the biggest trance event till date. First I was just going for Arty and Armin, two of the 40 Trance artist at the event, but I ended up making tough decisions about who to see!

 Listening to podcast like ASOT and Armada and TATW I gained more and more knowledge of the epic proportions of this event. I started listening to albums from artist that were on the line up and I discovered I've been missing out incredibly. I even got so hyped that I purchased ASOT 550: The Album (which I have reviewed earlier).

FROM NOTHING TO LOSE TO HARD TO CHOOSE
At the day before the event, I had an enormous list of tracks that  I needed to hear live. The line up was incredibly diverse and I needed to make some sacrifices.

As you can see, it was quite a task to make the perfect line up. Although there were 5 areas of gigantic proportions, there were also 30000 people. The chances of an area getting full and closed were very much present. I really couldn't afford missing the some of the artist, so I ended up quite stressed about how long and where I should stay. But when I was done deciding after many sleepless nights, I got the perfect personalized timeline:

22:15 - 23:30 Orjan Nilsen 
Seemed like a nice way to start out. His more rougher style than other Trance artist makes him the perfect guy to get fired up for the rest of the night. Especially his latest single with Armin called "Belter" was one that I really wanted to hear live.

23:30 - 00:15 Arty
Orginally, the sole artist that made me purchase a ticket. Last year, his many stunning Trance 2.0 tracks made me switch to Trance from House in the first place. Tracks like "Zara", "The Wonder" and ofcourse "Rebound" are mesmerizing tracks to hear live. Unfortunately, Arty grew in the past couple of months and became a House artist. His tracks have been disappointing really and his recent arrogance isn't helping either. Non the less, "Rebound" alone is reason enough to go check him out. I needed to cut down his set time though, of the fear of getting too late for the next three acts.

0:45 - 2:00 Armin Van Buuren
The change of atmosphere this guy can bring with just smile alone is almost godlike. The whole crowd at the DJ Mag Top 100 night just exploded with euphoria to see this legend rise up on the stage. I simply couldn't let this pass.

2:00 - 3:15 Ferry Corsten
I originally didn't think much of him. I listened to an older track of him called "Fire" a lot, but nothing more really. Last year he released an album that completely slipped my mind. In preparation of this event, I gave "WKND" a try and boy...was I pleasantly surprised! I bounced and smiled throughout the entire album and his previous liveset @ ASOT 550 Miami. This was going to be the best of the evening, so I thought...

3:15 - 4:30 Cosmic Gate 
These guys are fairly new to me, but it sounds like I've known them forever. Their single "Be Your Sound" was the best track of the "DJ Mag Top 100" and their album "Wake Your Mind" is full of good music. When I listened to their other ASOT 550 sets, I was completely blown away. The perfect combination of House and Trance was perfect for me as a "Trouse" person.

4:30 - 5:45 W&W
Like Cosmic Gate, these two Dutch guys were pretty much unknown for me at this point. But after hearing a few singles from their album "Impact" and their 550 anthem "Invasion", I just knew this was going to be good.

5:45 - 7:00 John O'Callaghan
Not a fan, but my other friends really wanted to go see him. Since he was the only really interesting act left, I decided to go along with them.

EXTRA LARGE

Never before have I seen such a big area for people to dance in. The lockers went till 50,000 just to give an impression.

I was really baffled of the size and organisation of the whole complex. Armin and Armada sure didn't save any time and effort to find the perfect location. There were 5 halls, from which the "State of Blue" and "State of Green" were the biggest ones. When walking through the complex, I was deeply impressed. They actually had a restaurant for people to take a break from the dancing (the event was atleast 10 hours long)! And I can tell you, when I saw my first artist Arty, I knew the size fitted the atmosphere.

All of the sets were recorded, both audio as visually which made me her live my sweet ASOT 550 memories once again!

A PIECE OF ARTY
It was quite a sight for me to see such a big dance hall for the first time. At least five thousand people were in it when I walked in, but it wasn't even half full! When I entered, I saw a glimpse of Orjan Nilsen. Unfortunately due to the insane amount of people, things with lockers took quite some time. We also wanted to have enough coins for water since in a place like this, you get hydrated as an insane rate! Tip for the next time though: Bring bottle caps.

Arty was received with a lot of applause, something I didn't expect from this more house orientated artist. He started out with the sweet melody of "Kate" and the followed it my a number of suspected tracks. As I've listened to a lot of his livesets, I knew he would probably open with something like "Kate" and let it follow by "Trio", "Mozart" and his Dirty South remix. I was quite right. He also played his new house tune, which didn't really do it for me though. But finally he played the track that the entire crowd was waiting for: "Rebound"!
It really felt good hearing it in such a big room with  such a big crowd, and more importantly, without hearing "Calling" smashed into it! After that, we knew it probably wasn't going to get any better than this with Arty, and we wouldn't want the risk of getting locked out of the Green Stage where Armin, ferry and cosmic gate were playing.

Tracklist

01. Arty - Kate  
02. Arty & Mat Zo - Mozart (Arty Big Room Edit)  
03. Dirty South & Those Usual Suspects feat. Erik Hecht - Walking Alone (Arty Remix)  
04. Arty & Matisse & Sadko - Trio  
05. Arty feat. Tania Zygar - The Wall (Arty Remode)  
06. ID - ID
07. BT & Arty feat. Nadia Ali - Must Be The Love  
08. Arty & Mat Zo - Rebound

SEMI GOD ARMIN
As I arrived in the biggest room, A State Of Blue, the room was almost completely packed. Gabriel & Dresden were playing but everyone was of course already preparing themselves for the biggest name of the night. After half an hour, the moment came. People were cheering, clapping, yelling...This was their god and they worshiped him like one.

He opened with :"Epic". Quite weird since it was the anthem of House for quite some time. It somehow felt a bit awkward coming to a trance festival to hear the biggest name play a trashy house track. But the way he mixed it into the next track made me smile! The rest of his set was more what I expected from him!

I got a little sick during his set so I decided to leave the stage for a while. But once I walked a little in the cool halls of the "Brabanthallen", I felt rejuvenated once again. If I remember one thing from the event, it was that the people who were there were really nice to each other. After I felt better, I saw the mighty Ferry Corsten on stage with Armin for their collab "Brute"! Overall, Armin was brilliant as always. I noticed that, despite me being a bit sick, the set and atmosphere were a lot better than at (link) the DJ Top 100 night. It didn't really mattered which tracks he played, the crowd were thankful any other way.

Later I heard that this more 2.0 esque set was followed by a classic set, were Armin played (link) Sail. Luckily I didn't know that beforehand, because then I had to miss the best set of the night, Cosmic Gate. But before that, Ferry conquered my heart as a brilliant dj and artist.

Tracklist

01. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - Suddenly Summer (Accapella)
02. Sandro Silva & Quintino - Epic w/ Mark Otten - Hyperfocus (Wezz Devall Remix)
03. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - Suddenly Summer
04. ID - ID
05. ID - ID
06. W&W - Invasion (Club Mix)
07. Beat Service - Fortuna
08. Omnia & IRA - The Fusion
09. Abstract Vision & Elite Electronic - Kinetic
10. Gaia - J'ai Envie De Toi
11. Shogun - Skyfire
12. A.R.D.I. - Premonition
13. Sneijder vs. Neal Scarborough - Your Way
14. Armin van Buuren & Orjan Nilsen - Belter
15. Armin van Buuren feat. Justine Suissa vs. John O'Callaghan & Giuseppe Ottaviani - Ride The Desire (Armin van Buuren Mashup)
16. Ferry Corsten vs. Armin van Buuren - Brute (Armin van Buuren's Illegal Drum Edit)

WKND
So I'd prepared myself a little before going to ASOT. I listened to a lot of artist albums before deciding to which artist I wanted to go. One of those artist albums really stuck on me. It was Ferry's "WKND" that convinced me to go see him. Tracks like "Aint No Stoppin", "Brute" and "Check It Out" completely slipped past me these last couple of weeks. Luckily I was just in time for ASOT, because boy, his set was legendary! I felt extraordinary from start to finish!

He started out with some vocal loops which were smoothly blend into a trademark sound of his: The "hard stomping in your face yet subtle" Ferry was ready to drop his madness on the crowd. Some were leaving for the second Armin set of the night, but the few who stayed had a set to remember. I already knew some of his set material thanks to his earlier recorded sets and one of them was is a really nice Flashover track called "F". It sortof captured the set of that was about to be unleashed on us, the lovely melody and ridiculous basslines. were approaching!

The first Ferry track I heard became "Check It Out". The robotic voice and the big stabs ruined the dancefloor before switching into the biggest surprise of his 50 minutes. Out of nowhere, Ferry played "In My Mind", a track I've been dying to hear live! Really didn't see that coming! After Ax his remix, Ferry started his album part, which included many of my personal favorites, including "Aint No Stoppin" and "Live Forever"!

Many happy hours later, Ferry closed down the set for the mighty Cosmic Gate. I can safely say that Ferry did an amazing job at making this night a success. Already excited to see him at an other place!

Tracklist

01. ID - ID
02. ID - ID
03. Analogue Sound Department - F (Club Edit)
04. Ferry Corsten - Check It Out
05. ID - ID
06. Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl feat. Georgi Kay - Colours (Axwell Mix)
07. Ferry Corsten - Don't Be Afraid
08. Ferry Corsten - Live Forever
09. Ferry Corsten feat. Ben Hague - Ain't No Stoppin'
10. Jens - Loops & Tings (ID Remix)
11. Andy Harding - Adagio Without Strings
12. Ferry Corsten feat. Betsie Larkin - Not Coming Down
13. Ferry Corsten - Take Me

ENTER THE UNIVERSE
Cosmic Gate was simply put the best act of the night. They played nothing but incredible and mind blowing melodies. I never felt so good as with that particular set from Cosmic Gate. I didn't know the name of the first two tracks but the third one I did. "Crushed" by the two legends that played it was the best track of whole ASOT event. The insanely good progression of the track spread wave after wave of positive vibes across the room. It was really a breathtaking moment that I will not soon forget. When I watch the video at that particular moment, I can't help but to feel sad that I'm not there anymore.

They continued to impress me though. Soon after I was restored from the tremendous "Crushed", they dropped another armada huge tracks of theirs on the field, in the name of "Wall Of Sound" and "Be Your Sound". Following that was the equally great "The Theme" and a whole bunch of other tracks, one of them being "Antidote" to my surprise! But the separate tracks didn't matter, but the entire set did. The 60 minutes as a whole did it for me. The vibe and track selection was perfectly synched. It was simply the best set I've heard in my entire live, although I know neither Cosmic Gate or many of their tunes very well.

The magic of the moment I guess.

Tracklist

01. Cosmic Gate & Arnej - Sometimes They Come Back For More (Intro Edit)
02. Wezz Devall - Kill of the Year
03. Jochen Miller - Zodiac
04. Cosmic Gate - Crushed
05. Comic Gate & Myon & Shane 54 feat. Aruna - All Around You (Remix)
06. Marc Simz - Forbidden City
07. Cosmic Gate - The Theme
08. Cosmic Gate feat. Emma Hewitt - Be Your Sound
09. Coldplay vs. Swedish House Mafia vs. Knife Party - Paradise Antidote (First State Bashup)
10. Cosmic Gate - Back To Earth (Jochen Miller Remix)
11. Rank1 & Jochen Miller feat. Sarah Bettens - Wild And Perfect Day (Cosmic Gate Remix)
12. Cosmic Gate - Fire Wire (Cosmic Gate's Back 2 The Future Remix)
13. Vincent De Moor - Fly Away (Cosmic Gate Remix)
14. Cosmic Gate - Exploration Of Space (Cosmic Gate's Back 2 The Future Remix)

BLACKOUT
We left the overwhelmingly good duo for W&W. They made this year's theme and I even watched a show they were on last week. I really prepared myself but unfortunately, I don't really remember much of it. I was mostly talking with some of the other attendees since I was beginning to grow quite tired (it was 5AM already!).

All I know is that it was a nice cooldown from Cosmic Gate. Next time I will pay more attention though, because the after moves sure look insane!

DEPLETED
John O'Callaghan was, as I said before, someone my other friends wanted to see. I myself was completely drained of every form of energy I had left. I loved this night, but I really needed my sleep. After 8 hours of non stop trancing, my body was ruined and my mind was depleted. As Callaghan played his last beats, we were finally going to the lockers. When I walked outside, the sun was already shining in my face. I was truly unable to summarize this event in one or two sentences. With a loss for words, we went to the train station where we needed to wait for another hour. After much delay, I was finally in sweet sweet bed. But as soon as I lied down, I already missed the smell, the lasers, the artist and all of the positive happy people that were around me a few hours ago.

This was without a doubt the best event I have ever been too. I can already not wait for ASOT 600 which I surely will be attending. At the moment we are searching for other trance events to fill the gaps between now and that future night. It will be though to battle this form of nostalgia though. The first time of such a big event is the best I think. All I can hope is that any event will get close to this.