Two and a half hours later I was in Amsterdam. From the Schipol Airport I took the train into town and from there a black cab (literally a black car which doesn't even look like a cab, but is totally legal in Amsterdam) to Lous' place. Lous is Pam's mom and she lives in Amsterdam. A few weeks ago when I told Pam I was going to go to this concert, she arranged it so that I could stay with her mom. It was so cool finally meeting Lous, as Pam talks a lot about her. She was a fantastic lady, and I felt an instant kinship with her. I took her for dinner at a nearby Chinese-Surinam restaurant. Although it was only a short walk, the restaurant wasn't near enough because I nearly froze walking there! Good grief! Amsterdam, it's weather, and the landscape are a lot like Vancouver. Almost exactly the same actually. Lots of green grass and grey skies. It was windy and rainy when I got in, and cooooold! I've been spoiled by the fine Spanish fall we're having, that is for certain. Then we had to walk home again after dinner, and by that time I was shivering and whining like a baby! I needed to take a nap as I knew I'd have to have my energy for the evening, so Lous gave me a bunch of blankets and a hot water bottle ('cause I'm such a wimp), and I tried to lay down for a siesta. Of course I was still way too excited and didn't really sleep at all, but I did get a bit of a rest in before getting up at midnight to get ready. Destination: The Heinecken Music Hall where Armin Van Buuren and Markus Schulz were putting on a concert. I was also excited to see my friend Ries, who had somehow managed to buy a ticket to the show even after the event was sold out! When he knocked on Lous' door to pick me up for the evening, I nearly knocked him over with a huge hug!
I think I'm going to have to create a YouTube account or something, because I have tried to post my videos on blogspot before and it doesn't work. (I took lots of video footage - ummm, but didn't realize my thumb was covering the microphone in some cases...hee hee) I will send a link if I do manage to do that, but in the meantime the pictures I'm going to attach here will have to do. I took a ton of photos!
He plays really energizing, hard trance. There was this one song that I still have in my head, it just kept on climbing and climbing, and I thought I was going to lose my marbles, and then he'd drop it finally and give us some relief, but then he'd start the same climbing pattern over and over again... freaking nuts! I was shaking my head the entire time, stunned at how good he was. And him and Armin tag-teamed all night long. When we got there, Armin was playing, and he played till 3:00 a.m. Then Markus came on and played for two hours, then Armin came on again and they both played TOGETHER until 7:00. I have to say that I've seen Armin many times before and he is my favourite DJ. But if he continues to hook up with Markus Schulz, then the two of them are seriously going to cash in, because they will make the greatest team of DJ's in the world. This show was by far the BEST concert I've been to, and it wasn't just that the music and acoustics were SUPERB, it was of course the experience of going to Amsterdam especially to see it, and the experience of the Hall itself, and of course the Dutch people!
I had purchased a Gold ticket, which entitled a holder to the space right in front of the stage, a lot more space to dance in, etc. Ries had a regular ticket but somehow we convinced the doormen to upgrade his ticket, and voila! We were both in! Of course I started snapping pictures almost as soon as we'd checked our coats, and I was acting like a 5th grader, squealing about how awesome the place was. I was super excited to be there.
So there we were dancing in this big hall, and about two rum and cokes and a vodka soda later I think I mentioned something to Ries like “gee, I thought they said we’d have a lot of room to dance with these gold tickets…?”, to which he replied “oh, this isn't the Gold section.” I looked at him, stunned, and said “What? You mean we’re not dancing in the GOLD SECTION??? Well what the frick are we doing?? Let’s go find it!” Thankfully Ries led the way, because I was in no condition to find it and certainly can't speak Dutch. He asked and, just as I'd been promised, the Gold Section was right at the front of the room. So we stumbled through the crowd all the way up to the front and finally found it! After that, the running joke between us all night long was pointing to our gold wrist bands to affirm how cool we were to be in the goooold section.
Now, as you might imagine, there are several distinct differences between the Dutch and the Spanish. One: Almost everyone in Holland speaks some English. Two: They are generally taller and have fair complexions. Three: Hardly any of them smoke (no! I did not have to hang my clothes outside for two days after the concert!). Almost as soon as we hit the gold section, we were welcomed by tons of friendly, lively Dutch people - the crowd was so awesome! We made friends instantly with one crowd and basically hung around with them all night long!
That's right, uh huh. The GOLD section!
One couple was especially tall and fair - I walked straight up to this gigantic, Tarzan looking guy (literally!) and said "You must be what? 6'7"?", and his answer, as he leaned over to look all the way down at me, was "Yep, something like that!" His equally tall girlfriend, who I will call Jane, was beautiful! They made quite the pair! So cute!
Of course they weren't the only hot people there! You know how much I love eye candy! Feast your eyes on some of the delicious Dutch babes!
I have no idea how this one happened. This guy just came up behind me and propped me up on his shoulders and that was that! I thought it was pretty funny actually and I admired his spontaneity, so I didn't object. I think Jane took the picture.
One of the guys went out to the concession stand and bought boxes of popsicles, which he brought back and shared with the entire gold section and then some! It was so hilarious to look around and see practically everyone chewing on popsicles, dancing away. The music just kept on blasting, the lazer show was phenomenal... it was a totally awesome experience!
There were flames and fireworks and lots of sparkly confetti!
Okay, Ries is tall but, uh....!
And I just have to say right now that Ries was a total rock star on Saturday night! I knew that he liked to dance, but I didn't know if he'd actually like trance music. Turns out that he loves it, and had already gone out and bought the new Armin CD ahead of the concert! Any man that will do that gets my instant stamp of approval! Very, very cool. He was a total blast to spend the evening with, and we laughed and goofed off all night long together, chatted warmly with everyone, and danced pretty much the entire time. Even when his knee started to give out on him he didn't stop. Not to worry - I had come prepared, and loaded him up with extra-strength ibuprofen! Ries is from the elemental kingdom for sure! He kept on rolling his eyes and saying "Oh Jesus... Oh Jesus..." (meaning: "I can not believe how friggin' good this music is, I'd be totally fine if I died and went to heaven right now..."). I just laughed at him and kept on screaming my head off. Yes I was one of the loudest people there. But in my defence I have to say that the Dutch really aren't super loud. I think they were impressed with my abilities in that department.
Just showing off the gooooold wrist band! I'm actually still wearing it. I'm going to keep it on until it wilts off...At one point, probably around 5:00 a.m., Armin and Markus were on at the same time and I was watching them interact with one another. They were having a good time up there, laughing and scheming about how to keep blowing our minds song after song. Markus would say something to Armin, I'm imagining it was probably "hey, I'm going to play this ____ track next, get ready and follow me up with this _____ track and then we'll really send them to the psych ward, heh heh heh...", and Armin would raise his eyebrows in admiration, nod his head and say to him something like "oooh, that's a good idea!", and then turn to his binder and start digging for a cd and make it back to the turntable in time to transition into something completely sick, and then I'd be screaming again. But the point is that it was really cool to see that. Everyone was completely blown away. I couldn't believe it myself.
Amazing times, amazing memories!
We left when the show ended at 7:00 a.m., kisses and hugs and email exchanges all around. Walking out of the Hall we had to trudge through a sea of plastic water bottles. Most of us were still dancing even without the music. Putting out the effort to make it to Amsterdam to see this show was a fantatic idea. I'm glad I did it!
There's a lot more to come on Amsterdam. So stay tuned!
Love,
Charleen xo
Hey Charleen, what a party it was. Trance is so GOOD!! When are we going again, I'll join you-; Keep me posted! It was fun to party with you, hope you're well?! Ciao, ciaox.
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