You may be thinking Tiesto at Sepang, but honestly I think ATB’s set the previous night also at Sepang was much better with better crowd control, layout, flow of music and lineup. Tiesto’s gig turned out to be not just a rave but cultural performance thanks to the dragon dance and some other tourism gimmicks. As if people hallucinating weren’t enough, they had to add a luminous dragon and a glowing floating ball. And for those who left earlier while he was playing Adagio would have noticed that it sounded 10 times better in the parking lot than in front of the console thanks to long throw speakers.

Then there was the Chivas party thing at Genting followed by the Melaka gig by hotlink and a few in between and if my memory serves me right, it wasn’t that great with mediocre DJ’s spinning. Not forgetting the Guiness Black Party, which I think was a total failure because every Tom, Dick and Harry attended that event. They achieved their target of a few thousand guests no doubt, but at what cost? The venue (Ruums) still feels and looks like a feng tau joint with mismatched cushion pillows on gaudy sofas. They probably felt that it was too dark to see anyway so no one would notice.

And please lah, Guiness?? *choke*

So ok maybe the previous Guiness party wasn’t exactly a rave but it’s nice to criticize isn’t it? *grin*

Which left us with the year end gigs ZoukOut and ZoukFest. We all know ZoukOut is in December but can only speculate when the actual ZoukFest will be. End of the year? That’s way too long but there is good news. Come September you’ll be listening to the tunes of Blank & Jones as well as the mighty Gabriel and Dresden, the latter being serious contenders in my mind for top DJ spot. If you’ve heard their tracks before like Tracking treasure down, Let it go, to name a few, you’ll know why I speak so highly of them.

Blank and Jones too have a reputation for smooth melodic beats unadulterated by shrieking highs and raspy mids. Melodic mids to lows whilst a balanced upper end is my honest preference but they’re known to drop it when necessary to get the crowd up in arms and cheering. The other guys performing at this Speedzone event are Misstress Barbara and JoeyG of Channel V. Elle Ashley posted some good info on the event so make sure you mark your calendar. I’ll be going and if you want to go to do let me know so we could possibly meet up there and party together.

More info at: SpeedZoneTour

Technorati Tags: 2006, Rave, Blank & Jones, Gabriel & Dresden, Joey G, Sepang, Speedzone