Saturday nights headlining show of Seasons Festival 2012 at the Vancouver Convention Center was everything it was hyped up to be and more as Jochen Miller, Morgan Page, and the legendary Armin Van Buuren rocked Vancouver and made the Canucks’ Presidents’ Trophy victory that much sweeter.
Before the show we found out that Steve Angello had just had a child and would not be performing. Jochen Miller replaced him and took over the opening slot, while Morgan Page filled Steve Angello’s slot and Armin van Buuren was given an extra half hour for his closing set. All in all, we were quite happy with how the situation worked out based on the short notice.
Jochen Miller provided a energetic opening set as the crowd poured into the VCC. He’s always been one of our favorites because of the energy he brings to his shows and we thought he did an excellent job of warming up the audience early in the night. Following him was Morgan Page who was bumped up from the opening set and given an extra half hour in place of Steve Angello. He made the most of his opportunity and did a good job of appeasing the house fans in the crowd by playing a number of anthems by Swedish House Mafia.
The legendary Armin van Buuren took the stage at eleven and guided us on a journey of epic proportions with his two and half hour set. He started out with his current favorite track to open with, ‘The Fusion’ by Omnia & IRA, which immediately raised the energy in the building. From there the energy rose and fell like waves as he expertly built up the intensity and excitement before dropping it down again to start fresh with a new track. Some early highlights were ‘Be Your Sound’ by Cosmic Gate, Dash Berlin’s mix of ‘Not Giving Up On Love’, and Ben Gold’s remix of ‘Tokyo’.
The middle of his set took on a more emotional feel with some of his recent tracks ‘Suddenly Summer’ and ‘Jai Envie De Toi’, as well as the stunning tracks ‘Premonition’ by A.R.D.I and ‘Concrete Angel’ by Gareth Emery. By this point the crowd was lost in the music and Armin continued to drop the perfect tracks as he masterfully controlled the mood
The last hour had a faster, more progressive sound. One of the best tracks of the night was Armin’s collaboration with Ferry Corsten, ‘Brute’. Its relentless buildup escalated the energy to a peak for the entire show and left everyone in a frenzy. Towards the end of his epic set he dropped ‘In And Out Of Love’, which is one of his major hits from back in 2008. The whole crowd sang along as the powerful lyrics appeared on the screen behind him.
Blueprint really delivered a fantastic show with CO2 cannons, streamers and confetti firing off all night. It was an incredible experience that really captured the essence of what EDM is about, bringing people together to celebrate music.
Omnia & IRA – The Fusion (Armin van Buuren’s Intro Edit)
Armin van Buuren vs Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Not Giving Up On Love (Dash Berlin 4AM Mix)
Ferry Corsten vs Armin van Buuren – Brute
Via @JordyTait at Cascadia Records | Seasons Fest 2012 Review