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 Just having released his massive new compilation, Marco V is touring all over the globe at the moment to promote it. He has handpicked some of his favourite venues, including 013 which is a popcentre in the Dutch city of Tilburg. Of course i:Vibes was there as well, and boy was it a nice evening! Click in for a full report including pictures.
The Combi:Nations II tour Marco is doing at the moment is quite the extensive one. A kickoff party was held in Spundae, Los Angeles, followed by events in Amsterdam, Glasgow, Prague and Sheffield. To close off the tour, V will rock the decks in Singapore, Toronto and Heerhugowaard (Holland).
Of all the locations attended during the tour, three are in Holland. In October, the 'Melkweg' in Amsterdam served as the Dutch opener. The night in 013 reviewed here was the second one, and 'De Waerdse Tempel' in Heerhugowaard is the third. All three of these locations have something in common: they're not just your regular clubs. Instead, they're venues in which concerts and events alike are being given every week. Seeing that Marco spins long solo-sets every time, this suited the concept of the tour perfectly.
Mister V is known for organising quality 'In Charge' nights all over Holland as well. I've attended a few of them in the past, and I must say that they've always been rather special when it comes to decoration, lighting and overall atmosphere. This party was no different!
Party: Combi:Nations II Tour
Venue: 013, Tilburg, the Netherlands
Date: November 18th, 2006
Time: 23:00 - 04:00
Line-up: Jordy Lishious (1 hour), Marco V (4 hours)
As said, 013 is not your usual clubbing experience. Directly upon entering, you'll notice its spacious entree with a small yet comfy lounge area at the left and a garderobe right in front of your nose. We entered about 15 minutes after the doors opened, and it seemed like a lot of people had the same idea 'cause there was quite the big amount of people waiting to get into the main room. 013 has multiple rooms, but the largest one called 'The Choice' was the only one in use this night. When you first see it, you'll instantly be remembered that this venue is used for a whole array of different musical experiences. A stair-like construction goes all the way up to the first floor, enabling everyone to get a good look at what's going on. Two bars are located at each side of the room at the front, and a bigger, more stretched bar can be found at the top of the room.
I read that one of Marco V's main reasons for choosing a location like this is that the stage which has the DJ booth on it is large compared with your usual booth. This enables the jock to interact with the crowd in a better way because of his more centred position. I must say all this worked out quite neatly, mainly because from every thinkable viewpoint you could see what exactly V was doing. The booth itself was surrounded by a total of 8 large LCD screens (4 on each side, symmetrically) which had visuals projected on them. At the top-left and top-right of the room, two larger visual screens were attached to the wall to enable an even nicer visual experience to be created. Furthermore, multiple huge Combi:Nations II and In Charge wallpapers were hung at several points of the room to exemplify one of the nights main purposes: celebrating the release of the new compilation.
Anyways, before the start of Marco's main set, Jordy Lishious was pumping out his funky housey beats during the first hour. He's an up and coming DJ from the south of Holland, and it seems like he's starting to become a resident at the In Charge parties because I saw him doing a warm-up set at the 200V Album Launch Party last year as well. He has his first release coming up on Be Yourself Music's Big And Dirty label in December. While I didn't know many of the tracks he played, I did hear 'Slick!', which is the wicked B-side of the aforementioned release. It wasn't too crowded yet and the lights were still doing their thing quite minimally, but overall Jordy did exactly what he had to: warm up for what was to come.
Superb decoration behind the DJ booth
Around twelve o'clock, the V-man himself stepped up to perform a 4-hour soloset. From this point onwards, total madness took over in multiple aspects. Suddenly, the full power of the massive lighting arrays was showcased, including them supercool V's placed behind the booth. Very inventive I must say! Another amazing thing was that most of the tracks played by Marco had their own set of visuals: for instance, all of the vocal tracks had their lyrics shown live on-screen so everyone could scream along as loud as they wanted to. This added to the overall feel of the party immensely, mainly because it doesn't only let you feel but also 'see' the music somehow (how cheesy it may sound). Most contemporary parties do have visuals of some sort, but these were just special.
An enormous amount of energy was available from the first to the last tune played. Starting off with a really bouncy track including a superb piano riff, the right tone was set instantly. Meanwhile, the room had filled itself with more and more people. There still was enough space to dance around though, adding even more to the already comfortable experience.
A different view on the stage
It seemed like Marco knew exactly what the people wanted to hear: soon enough, he dug out the Dirty South remix of Evermore's 'It's Too Late', which is a bit of a commercial sounding, yet superbly effective crowd pleaser because of its sing-along vocals and thick, wobbly basslines. Of course, lots of tracks from Combi:Nations II were put on the decks as well: Splitter's 'All Alone' (one of Marco's personal faves) worked out like a charm, as well as the funky Sander van Doorn-ish 'Big Time' by Dada Life, 'Mouseville Theme' by Cirez D, Robbie Riviera 'The Shout', the funky 'Twisted Tweak' by Phatzoo and of course Marco's own massive new single 'Any Better, Or?'. Remixes of the Kill Bill soundtrack (with some really funny visuals showing a skullguy playing a guitar) and a banging remix of Junior Jack's 'Stupidisco' were played too.
Looking at things from a higher point
The view on everything from the top of the room was quite magnificent: it's always amazing to see so many people having fun together, especially when combined with crazy light effects and great music. Talking about the people, I think the average age was about 25. I kind of expected it to be a bit lower, but it wasn't a problem at all since most people seemed to be there because they were fans of the V-sound. I have been at other parties with a more friendly crowd though, 'cause sometimes people just bumped into me quite rigorously without even looking back.
About an hour into Marco's set, total mania erupted laser-wise. I know Marco is a laser fanboy, but this time around he really outdid himself. A total of four gigantic green lasers were ignited, generating quite the massive beams of light in a relatively small room. Relatively small as in, these four lasers could have been used in a room five times the size of this one! When the lasers first started doing their thing I was still standing at the top of the room so I got to take some nice pics along the way:
Impressive stuff
From the other side
Of course, lots of other Marco V productions came by as well. Some of his more recent dancefloor crackers like 'More Than A Life Away', 'Red Blue Purple' and 'False Light' went down a storm, and the classics 'GODD', C:del *.mp3 and 'Indicator' still have the ability to blow up a dancefloor instantly. More recent releases that he played include Bolier & Coenraad's devastating track 'The Mighty Ducks' and the track that everyone's playing the shit out of at the moment, 'Life Less Ordinary' by Alex MORPH & Rank 1.
In a few instances, he also went the cheesy way: the ever floorfilling remix of 'Sweet Dreams' dropped by again, as well as a Marcel Woods' remix of an old CLS classic.
Lasers and V-lights combined
More coolness
As the set came to an end, more and more people started leaving. This didn't affect the party vibe at all though: me and my friends could have gone on for a lot longer, it's a shame the doors at 013 had to close at 04:00. The last tune played was the jawdropping 'Deep Down Dirty' by NuSense, which has been discovered by V himself last summer. It's a really odd yet totally blasting techy tune, filled with giganticly raw basses and a fierce drive. An amazing way to end an already fantastic party.
Lasers at the front
"The End"
Conclusion
This party was just great. I already liked the track selection on Combi:Nations II, so hearing all of them live was even better. Furthermore, the decoration and visuals were outstanding: the V's behind the booth were a really nice creation, the LED screens with the track-dependent visuals rocked my socks off and the lasers were just flabbergasting.
013 as a location wad great as well, because it just breathes out a different feel than your usual night of clubbing.
If you ever get the chance to attend a party hosted by Marco V, don't forget to do so!
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