Ben Gold is GOLD! We had a big crew out Thursday night as he played nearly three hours in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Caprice. Blueprint put on a great show where the club was fairly packed for a week day and the crowd was much better than we expected. We got in just before midnight and the openers Alkatraz and Tazix were already putting on quite the show. They had everyone on the dancefloor going wild as they warmed us up for Ben Gold with some high energy trance. One has got to give these guys credit, they were definitely the best openers we’ve seen in a long time. The highlight of their set for us was when they dropped the Save The Robot remix of ‘A Million Stars’ by BT and Kirsty Hawkshaw.
By the time Ben Gold came on the energy in the club was already intense and from the moment he hit the decks he never let the it drop for even a second. In fact, he instantly kicked it up a notch and continued to build on it. Compared to other trance sets we’ve seen his entire set was as rowdy as the peak of most others. He masterfully controlled the room and actively engaged with the crowd all night long. The young British DJ reminds us a lot of Gareth Emery because they both have such an amazing stage presence and love interacting with the crowd. He was dancing as hard as anyone in the crowd and his energy was infectious.
He opened his set with a couple of his well-known Garuda releases driven by hard basslines and his trademark melodies. The sound system at Caprice really did his music justice and the light show was excellent. ‘Avalanche’, ‘Flash’ and his remix of ‘Big Sky’ by John O’Callaghan ft Audrey Gallagher went over particularly well in the early stages of the night. By midset he began dropping some more tech-trance and electro with bass that had the dancefloor shaking. Tracks like Ferry Corsten’s ‘Feel It’ and ‘Maximal Crazy’ by Tiesto turned the club into a stomping ground.
The last hour was dedicated to the biggest trance hits from the last few months. Gareth Emery’s latest track ‘Concrete Angel’ was stunning and other new releases like ‘Chasin’ (Sander van Doorn) and Ben Gold’s remix of ‘Tokyo’ (Gareth Emery) were equally as great. I was very happy that he played Orjan Nilsen’s ‘Lucky Strike’. Its one of my all-time favorite club tracks because of the powerfully driven and relentlessly rising bassline. Dash Berlin’s remix of ‘Reverie’ (First State feat Sarah Howells) was one track I hadn’t heard before but I rushed home to find it because of the beautiful lyrics.
He also debuted a new production that hasn’t been released yet, but judging by the first listen its something to get excited about. Ultimately though, the highlight was ‘Sun and Moon’ by Above & Beyond (as usual). This has to be the best club song of all-time because nothing ever comes close to receiving the same crowd reaction. There wasn’t a person in the club who wasn’t singing along at the top of their lungs.
The talented Garuda star closed out with some extremely heavy tracks, one of which was ‘Slap My Pitch Up’ by Sander van Doorn. There weren’t many people left, but everyone that stuck it out was giving it their all until the very last minute when the lights went on. We cheered with what was left of our voices and stayed after to grab a picture and chat with him
Overall, Ben Gold put on an incredible show and thoroughly impressed us with his energy and track selection. He put together an unreal set filled with euphoric and powerful tracks that had us all dancing until early in the morning. It was undoubtably the best Thursday night of our year. We give the show a 9/10 because all that it was lacking was a bit more of his own productions mixed in amongst the other major hits. Thank you Ben Gold for a night we will not forget!
Via @JordyTait at Cascadia Records | Ben Gold Show Review
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