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ABGT200: review, pictures and sets

By EmmaVDB

This Saturday, the 200th edition of Group Therapy, the Above & Beyond's weekly podcast, took place in Amsterdam. And, naturally, we have not been disappointed...

The line-up already augured something massive: Grum Grum, Yotto YOTTO, Andrew Bayer with Ilan Bluestone, Jason Ross and obviously, Tony Jono and Paavo. But what about the show?

How did the night go?

Friday, 5 am, I woke up. I packed all my stuff and took a train to Tournai, in Belgium, which was the pick-up point with my carpooler. 3H later, it was almost noon, I arrived in Amsterdam, I joined my friends. The sun was shining. We spent some time at the Vondel Park, where we saw some Anjuna fans, wearing their Anjunabeats T-shirt.

10 pm. We head for the Ziggo Dome. The trip was pretty magical and we realized at this point that it was something that can only happen in Amsterdam: we made new friends from Ireland, Scotland, the United States and from Australia (!). In other words, that night, I found again the magical state of mind that we only have at Tomorrowland.

When we arrived at Bijlmer ArenA metro station, we directly saw the Ziggo Dome. And there was no doubt that

Above & Beyond were playing there.

We went through the security facility and we arrived to the pit when Yotto

YOTTO was finishing his set (unfortunately!) .The atmosphere was unreal. And shortly after Grum

Grum began to mix, I remembered that the Anjuna fans are real fans (meaning nobody was there to get drunk or high). And most of those fans travelled kilometers to come over the Ziggo Dome and enjoy the music. As a proof, I was surrounded by Norwegians, Californians, Argentineans and by people from the Netherlands and from Ireland.

Sets

Grum

Grum mostly played techno and house tracks, which was perfect to realize how good the sound system was. The basses were deafening and they, consequently, filled every cell of my body. For me, the best part of the set was the end with songs like "Under your Skin", "Something About You" and "Drifting Away".

Above & Beyond

Above & Beyond played for 2 hours. When they arrived on the stage, the crowd got bigger and bigger and everybody was super excited. There were 2 extra screens on which we could see amazing and high-quality visuals and, of course, the sentences that Paavo was writing during the show. The

Above & Beyond's set was also full of IDs and we felt that this set was beyond the others thanks to the impressive and beautiful visuals on the screens and the high-quality new songs. As a huge Oceanlab /

Above & Beyond's fan, I was moved to tears when I heard: "On A Good Day" and "On My Way To Heaven".

Andrew Bayer B2B Ilan Bluestone
Then,

Above & Beyond let

Andrew Bayer and

Ilan Bluestone took over control. They also played a few IDs and great songs like "Amun", "In The Past" and "Follow The Light" which reminds us that Anjunabeats has also Mat Zo, Cosmic Gate and Maor Levi. Here too, the set ended with emotional and famous songs of Anjunabeats: "Super Human" and "Bigger Than Love". And that used up my vocal cords.

Jason Ross
Next came the turn of

Jason Ross, the "breakthrough DJ" of Anjunabeats, who gave a dynamic and a more electro set. He played his most famous tracks like "Atlas", "Elements" and naturally, as expected, the

Above & Beyond's bootleg "Amsterdam Cairo".

The Ziggo Dome itself

We can say that the organisation of the hall was perfect: the Ziggo Dome is easily accessible. There were beer vendors in the crowd, people who sold ice creams when it was too hot in the pit and even, hot dog vendors at the end of the show, when everybody was really really hungry. Prices were quite high, but not excessive compared to some festivals (6 euros for 50cl Heineken). Also, I never felt oppressed and a kind of air conditioning was turned on from time to time.

The Ziggo Dome is a very practical hall split into several parts: a first part just after the entrance where security controls take place, another where we can find the public restrooms (which were, by the way, very clean), lockers and stands of beers, hot dogs and goodies. Then, finally, you have the concert hall.

The Ziggo Dome also offers free Wi-fi, which is very cool. And believe me, I never had trouble navigating the Internet despite the large crowd.

And last but not least, the Ziggo Dome has a perfect sound system, that left me speechless, and giant screens on both sides of the stage that gave me an additional view of the DJs.

In short, the show met my expectations as a huge fangirl.

If you missed this event, do not panic: Jono, Tony and Paavo have just announced an European tour.