Going Bananas for Armin!

Ever since I bought advanced tickets to see Armin van Buuren on his Asot 2006 Tour, I’ve been counting down the days and hours remaining until the last hour was upon us.

Clara, Moe, and I took the subway and arrived at the Banana Club at 2200. The giant "Armin @ Banana" banner hanging on the side of the building illuminated by spotlights was rather hard to miss. Inside, there was a rush of people hovering around the coat check while a video montage of DJ’s past, present, and future performances were being displayed on large LCD displays everywhere. The hard-hitting dance beats grew ever stronger as we worked our way up the large spiral staircase, through the metal detectors, past the ticket check, beyond foyer for lounging and smoking, and finally, to the core of the club itself.

Taking in the sights and sounds, I realised that this club was much larger than Celebrities in Vancouver. What was awesome about this club, besides its impressive roaster of hosting some of the world’s best DJ’s performing here, was the amazingly large ‘light wall’ which stood at around two storeys high and three stories wide. It covered the whole wall behind the DJ’s mixing booth, and then some, and each ‘bulb’ acted like an individual pixel on screen. It was like a giant digital marquee and it blew me away...

After looking down at the crowd of energetic people from the balcony for a while, we decided to join them on the dance floor and gyrate our hips, caress our contours, and throw our hands in the air with everyone else to progressive house music being mixed up by an unknown DJ. By the time the short hand struck a new number, the hydraulic dance floor we were all bouncing up and down on REALLY started to crowd up, so much so that people started rubbing up against me from all sides, including this one short unattractive Chinese guy who always somehow found his way to me no matter how often I tried to move away.

A huge scaffolding from the ceiling would come down every now and then, pumping oxygen (and mist?) for us on the dance floor so that the loud music and laser light displays won’t put us in a catatonic state of trance permanently. Up next on the deck was yet another unknown DJ, but he had mad skills with his violin towards the end of his wonderful set, with lights growing ever more brighter as he played faster and with more vigour in concert with Hi-NRG music. The energy continued to rise exponentially until the whole club was lit when he reached his climax, before going out with a bang. HE WAS UNIQUELY FANTASTIC!

As the hours continued to pass, we were growing a little impatient as we hadn’t seen the main attraction yet. At thirty minutes into the new day, Moe and Clara couldn’t wait any longer so they decided to depart. As I followed them down the spiral staircase towards the coat check, Armin and a small entourage of security guys were coming up! Despite finally having seen him in person, Moe had to leave as he had to get up for work at 0630. After seeing them off, I returned to the main stage and watched Armin take stage for from various points around the club, always trying to get a good vantage point of him mixing on the decks. He had a lot of showmanship and really got everyone going with his legendary hits “Burned With Desire” and “Zocalo”!

In my effort in trying to take a few good videos and pictures of Armin performing, I had to bat a few club securities off my back who didn’t want me taking pictures by pulling that “I don’t speak Chinese, I’m a stupid foreigner!” card I use so often. The funny thing is, it’s true, minus the stupid part. Should have worn that “Me so sorry, I don’t speak Asian” t-shirt Aaron and Janelle gave me as a bon voyage gift. So enjoy these pictures and videos, and notice that this is the first time I’ve posted a video on my blog!

The Vangard Violinist.


Armin does Pink Floyd!


Armin van Buuren's "Zocalo".