After a sunny day in Amsterdam, we arrived at the mighty Gashouder for the Awakenings / ENTER. night around midnight. Another venue I had never seen before, and what a stark contrast to the previous night at Chicago Social Club! From a small and intimate club gig to an almost-stadium rave. I must admit I had done little to no research beforehand and so I was impressed of the sheer size of the venue. Gashouder is a huge circular dome with a very industrial feel. During the night I learned the huge building was originally used to store the gas for the city, just as the name says. The downside of such huge parties normally are long queues everywhere, but tonight I got proof the Dutch are extremely professional when it comes to these things (see below as well), even with the hordes of people present, everything went really smoothly.
After I had found a free locker to stow away my jumper (which I had worn for the first time in months after the Ibiza summer!) and got some drink tokens, it was time for young Irish lad Matador, who was already live on stage. With Kingswing, Svinx, Spooks and more of his well-known tunes, his set was the proper kick off for the party, even though Gashoulder already had opened its doors at 10pm.
Dubfire was up next. Starting slowly, then getting into a steady pace and raising the energy bit by bit, Ali played in his very typical style. As most of the times when I see him, I thought his set was good, but with no particular highlights. I just think his sessions usually miss that little bit of variety to spice things up a tad. Not sure everyone around me agreed to this though, because people had a blast!
When I first had entered Gashouder I thought the place was very dark, but by about 2:30am, when the majority of the lights and effects came into gear, I understood. The lighting is actually crucial in such a huge location and they've done it properly! There were many strong spotlights which turned the dome in red or in blue, then there were the lasers and - oh hello Ibiza memories - ice cannons! They came in very handy because it was extremely hot inside - imagine Amnesia Terrace in August! Obviously also the ENTER. dots were present; same as in the Discoteca at Space, there were two huge illuminated dots situated left and right of the DJ booth.
At 3:45am Loco Dice took over - and boom! He was in great form today and brought the vibe to a climax with his energetic set. Those rolling basslines still keep going in my head now!
Photo credit: Rebekka Mell / Betribes
Of course the anticipation for Richie Hawtin grew and grew, and when he eventually showed up at around 5:45am, the crowd welcomed him with huge cheers. When you go to a party somewhere the atmosphere often flattens down a bit some time after 6am, but there were no such signs today. Just as Richie made himself comfortable in the booth, two ENTER. dancers got on stage. Well, they actually positioned themselves behind the dots, which now got illuminated from the back so you just saw the silhouettes of said dancers. Again a detail I like a lot about ENTER; they keep on using their Ibiza stage show for their international tour as well. And it doesn't stop there, some of the Ibiza dancers are also doing the tour so there were quite a few familiar faces around. But, at least for a while, there was another thing that stole the show - the fireworks. Check out the video below!
Even though I have heard many sets of Richie in Ibiza this summer, the one at Gashouder was just another brilliant session and he steered the ENTER. ship safely home until the lights went on some time past 8am...
You know it was a good night when you've spent almost the whole night in the thick of the dancefloor even though you had a backstage band!
