you just made this a good day
had *such* an amazing weekend in Vegas seeing Markus Schulz and Above and Beyond and visiting Canadian!David... AMAZING!
Markus Schulz is... not my style... too hard-trance for me. But is he ever a nice guy! He actually stuck around an extra day and came to the A&B event the next night and danced in the crowd and gave a heartfelt little speech at the end about how great A&B were :) heh... nice dude.
Both shows were at The Palms in Vegas - Schulz was at Rain, first floor, which was kinda like a supermini massive. Good production values and these crazy lighting racks that moved...acrobats, dancers, fire, giant projection screens, etc... just like a big show, only in a smaller club. I'm guessing it holds like... 2K people? no idea, but it was fun. good layout. their sound system leaves something to be desired, though - kinda mushy. I hadn't bought tickets to this event because I wasn't really sure if i wanted to go and it was twice the cost of the A&B show the next night, plus...wasn't sure David would tolerate being dragged to TWO raves in one weekend, much less one... but then I got an e-mail in my box saying that I had won one of 25 pairs of free tickets to see the show and figured... hey, can't hurt to check it out if it's free! The biggest bonus was, once we finally found the right front-door chick with the right list, they let us right in, no waiting in the big line, no hassle, no nothin' - we were in in about 5 minutes. it was like VIP service, dude. ILU, Vegas :P
Above & Beyond was at Moon which is at the very top of The Palms (53rd floor). They have an outside balcony/patio area that faces the strip and you get this amazing panoramic view of it and Vegas/Henderson beyond. So freakin shiny... it looks pretty from far away :) But the truly awesome thing about Moon is that... inside, above the dancefloor...is this awesome curved roof... that opens up. That's right - they open the freakin' roof. I think this is, by far, the coolest indoor location i have ever attended a show at. The decor was awesome, the sound was great, the indoor/outdoor options were nice, the layout was easy - the bathrooms were easy to find and there weren't any huge lines (omg, this is key) - and it was small and intimate (500 people, man, only 500 PEOPLE!) and freaking AMAZING.
Above and Beyond completely rocked my socks off. It was like Armin, but with enough room to dance, less insane fans and everybody having the time of their freaking lives. Paavo kept holding up a laptop with short little notes to the crowd on it... "this night is for you".... I swear, they played *every* one of the songs that I put on the A&B favorites cd i had made for the drive out there. I sang along and danced like a loon. The energy was great, the people were friendly and even the bartender was nice. We didn't get yelled up by security or strip-searched at the door either, which was a change from past events. It was beautiful and transformative and funny and I think even David had a good time, despite it being the polar opposite of his scene :)
I'd go back in a heartbeat. I'd drive 6 hours to see them anywhere.
David also took me along on a work call while we were there and i got to see the Zumanity theater at NYNY, backstage and all, while no one was there... it was really fun! We hung out, went to the M&M store, watched Star Trek, finally saw the Belagio gardens, watched the Mirage volcano go off and climbed a neverending hill in suburbia to see the sunrise on my last night there. Good times.
I'd do it again in a *heartbeat*. Any day.
Markus Schulz is... not my style... too hard-trance for me. But is he ever a nice guy! He actually stuck around an extra day and came to the A&B event the next night and danced in the crowd and gave a heartfelt little speech at the end about how great A&B were :) heh... nice dude.
Both shows were at The Palms in Vegas - Schulz was at Rain, first floor, which was kinda like a supermini massive. Good production values and these crazy lighting racks that moved...acrobats, dancers, fire, giant projection screens, etc... just like a big show, only in a smaller club. I'm guessing it holds like... 2K people? no idea, but it was fun. good layout. their sound system leaves something to be desired, though - kinda mushy. I hadn't bought tickets to this event because I wasn't really sure if i wanted to go and it was twice the cost of the A&B show the next night, plus...wasn't sure David would tolerate being dragged to TWO raves in one weekend, much less one... but then I got an e-mail in my box saying that I had won one of 25 pairs of free tickets to see the show and figured... hey, can't hurt to check it out if it's free! The biggest bonus was, once we finally found the right front-door chick with the right list, they let us right in, no waiting in the big line, no hassle, no nothin' - we were in in about 5 minutes. it was like VIP service, dude. ILU, Vegas :P
Above & Beyond was at Moon which is at the very top of The Palms (53rd floor). They have an outside balcony/patio area that faces the strip and you get this amazing panoramic view of it and Vegas/Henderson beyond. So freakin shiny... it looks pretty from far away :) But the truly awesome thing about Moon is that... inside, above the dancefloor...is this awesome curved roof... that opens up. That's right - they open the freakin' roof. I think this is, by far, the coolest indoor location i have ever attended a show at. The decor was awesome, the sound was great, the indoor/outdoor options were nice, the layout was easy - the bathrooms were easy to find and there weren't any huge lines (omg, this is key) - and it was small and intimate (500 people, man, only 500 PEOPLE!) and freaking AMAZING.
Above and Beyond completely rocked my socks off. It was like Armin, but with enough room to dance, less insane fans and everybody having the time of their freaking lives. Paavo kept holding up a laptop with short little notes to the crowd on it... "this night is for you".... I swear, they played *every* one of the songs that I put on the A&B favorites cd i had made for the drive out there. I sang along and danced like a loon. The energy was great, the people were friendly and even the bartender was nice. We didn't get yelled up by security or strip-searched at the door either, which was a change from past events. It was beautiful and transformative and funny and I think even David had a good time, despite it being the polar opposite of his scene :)
I'd go back in a heartbeat. I'd drive 6 hours to see them anywhere.
David also took me along on a work call while we were there and i got to see the Zumanity theater at NYNY, backstage and all, while no one was there... it was really fun! We hung out, went to the M&M store, watched Star Trek, finally saw the Belagio gardens, watched the Mirage volcano go off and climbed a neverending hill in suburbia to see the sunrise on my last night there. Good times.
I'd do it again in a *heartbeat*. Any day.