This was my first visit to the Amsterdam Dance Event. After hearing such good feedback from everywhere and checking out the immense festival line ups, saying I was excited was quite an understatement. Also, I didn't think I was going to see some of my Ibiza 2012 favourite DJs so soon again!
Our first night, Thursday, was completely spent around the Leidseplein area, where a lot of bars and clubs are to be found nearby. After a few warm up drinks we decided we should go and check out the Ellum/De Nacht Divisie night at Chicago Social Club, a rather new place I was told. Imagine a small, dark and smoke-filled venue with a very intimate feel and a powerful Funktion One sound system - what a convenient location for a deep and tech house night.
We got most of Eric Volta's set on arrival, who played a superb deep and spheric and at the same time really driving set. Soon it was time for Danny Daze and he instantly took the energy level one step higher. The much loved depth and the spheric journey which had made Eric's set so special got lost in favour of heavier basslines and lots of vocal snippets and it took me a while to get into it. But Danny Daze didn't disappoint, he certainly kept the crowd going and halfway into his set he dropped a few still to be ID-ed track bombs which caused a huge uproar and from then on, the crowd was his.
The club was perfectly busy at that point and it was obvious, everyone was waiting for the main act now - Maceo Plex. He started around the 3:30am mark. The last time I had seen him was less than two weeks ago, when he smashed the Terrace at the Amnesia Closing Party, then performing under his Maetrik moniker though (and in my opinion being one of the best acts on that day). I always liked Maceo Plex' productions, but when it comes to gigs, I tend to prefer the even more energetic Maetrik to Maceo. Last night he started off with Black Light Smoke - Lovework (DJ T. Remix) and got more and more upbeat later in his set with a lot of brilliant tunes. Maceo seemed in a great mood, one could easily see that man loves his job as he was dancing and grooving behind the decks. And the energy got carried over ouf of the DJ booth into to the crowd and back again, the vibe was top.
Even though Cajmere was yet to get behind the decks, we called it a night towards the end of Plex' set. There's still a lot going on at ADE in the next days and nights and we wanted to save up some energies. But what a great first night!
