O n Sunday 27th of March we just visited the Easter Rave 2016. While others were looking for yummy chocolate eggs with their families, we stood in front of huge stages, enjoyed the sickest lightshows, celebrated the harder styles with thousands of fellows and had a sick night, Bitches!
I need to admit it was the first Easter Rave I went and also the first event by BE 24-7, who are also responsible for Pumpkin f.e. The event took place in the Turbinenhalle Oberhausen, which is a lovely location. The whole event is presented and promoted by TechnoBase.FM, a famous online radio for Dance, hardstyle, house, hardcore music and more.
They offered 4 different areas – dance, hardstyle, hardcore and house. We had some huge names on the line up like Dj Gollum, Bangbros (Yes, the DJs!), DJ G4bby, The Hitmen, Rob Mayth, Paul Elstak and Mental Theo within the Dance area. Damn, those feelings, nostalgia, that’s how I started to listen to hard dance music.
Anyhow, on the hardstyle stage we had Devin Wild, Audiotricz, The Prophet, Da Tweekaz, Frontliner, Noisecontrollers, Atmozfears, Deetox, E-Force and MC Villain. On hardcore side, we had, and just to mention a few, Angerfist, Nosferatu, Miss K8, Thorax, Re-Style and Noisekick. So, I think that’s a solid line up, mixed and with no preferred style, regarding euphoric or raw.
We arrived during The Prophet’s set, so I sadly can’t say anything about Devin Wild and Audiotricz, but I heard they delivered a great show. Foremost, the location is pretty cool! I’ve never been to the Turbinenhalle Oberhausen, but it seems to be a perfect location for mid-sized events. The parking place is almost directly next to the entrance, the train station is around 10 minutes away, it offers lots of space and even a nice terrace.
Inside you can find the different sized areas. The Dance area was the main area and therefore the biggest, followed by the hardstyle area and the hardcore and house area. Furthermore, right after the security checks, you found yourself within a huge hallway, leading to the areas, the info and token point and the lockers. Unhappily, and that’s one of the negative aspects in my opinion, the wardrobe was outside! Especially when you waited at the entrance it was cold as fuck – But I can merely agree to most feedbacks from people.
Normally I wouldn’t write about it, but I think it’s worth to mention here. We had a VIP treatment – thanks a lot BE 24-7 for the possibility – so we had a different entrance, free food (warm and cold), free beer and soft drinks all night long. Furthermore, you got a VIP wristband and had the opportunity to stay at the VIP decks. What I really liked is the point, that you could go upstairs as VIP and move between all areas, the terrace and the toilets without going down to the actual floors. It was really lovely and highly enjoyable, since the amount of people was limited, you had your own bars and relax area and you didn’t need to fight your way through the crowded dance floors. So, basically I loved the VIP treatment, and I highly recommend you to think about it next year!
But let’s go into business and check out the sets. As you might have thought, it was a hell of a night due to the free beer hehe. I actually wrote down a few tracks, what I wouldn’t do normally. So, starting with The Prophet I expected a diverse and freely developing set. I wasn’t disappointed. I liked the fact that he mixed more like a freestyle DJs and also put in some live edits and breaks. He played f.e. his edit of Lockdown and his track Louder. Ending his set with Wake You Up mashed up with Over the Rainbow and some sort of mosh pit It was somehow nice to hear a set from him again.
Followed by Da Tweekaz we had the act I’ve been almost waiting for the most. I just love them and their sound. I also think those two crazy Norwegian guys are one of the best euphoric producers we have. Their sets are always full of energy and I couldn’t wait to get hit by a reverse bass! They started their set right with the Reverze edit of Bad Habit, in which they put in the intro of Cheese Police and the main part and climax of Bad Habit – good, old reverse bass, so damn lovely! Besides that, they pretty much played all of their well-known and more recent tracks like Vodka, their Frozen remix, their new track with Neilio Freedom, their collab with Frequencerz Full Control, their remix of Mark With AK’s See Me Now and a few more.
They also dropped Zany’s remix of Faded, by Alan Waker, a pretty famous chart track at the moment. By the way, give the original a try, it’s a really nice track though! The end was crazy, pitching their track Heroes to 170 BPM and let the people go crazy. Generally, the set was full of energy, also because Da Tweekaz always go even harder than the crowd itself.
Next up Frontliner. I know, some people hate him, some people love him and especially his sets. I don’t think we have to discuss about his music. He produces quality euphoric hardstyle music and he doesn’t cringe to produce some out of the box music. But set wise, well … the people’s opinions are different. It’s a fact that you can almost expect a Frontliner set to consist of Frontliner tracks only. It’s rare that he drops music by others. So, some people like that, some people hate it. I’m curious, what do you think?
Personally, I don’t have a problem with it. Maybe I should write an article about that, seems like an interesting topic. Anyway, I love his music and it’s quite some time ago since I last heard a set of him. I really enjoyed tracks like the edit of Lose Your Style, Symbols, Beatdown or One More Time. He also played his Runaway remix, his edit of Halos, Summer, Louder, Warphole and one new track, which is really awesome! Sadly, he didn’t drop the Rebirth anthem, really like that one! Guess you all know the final track – his hardcore edit of The Melodyman.
We skipped Noisecontrollers, because we needed some rest – we got our self some food and moooooore drinks! Yes!! Ready to rock together with Angerfist. He started slower than expected, but he went harder and faster with every track. After almost 30 minutes he reached the perfect tempo and played tracks like Just Like Me, Raise and Revolt, The Deadfaced Dimension or Street Fighter. Almost at the end of his set we just moved to the hardstyle area again, where we experienced the very last tracks by Atmozfears like Cocaine MF or his Bounce & Break Remix, which still makes me go insane!
We were ready for harder beats and thankfully Deetox was just about to hop on stage. Let’s just describe it this way: The set was not surprising, except for a few tracks, but also not bad. I actually liked it more than her Qapital set. I enjoyed D-Sturbs Menace remix and his track Until it’s Gone. Furthermore, she dropped FTP by Warface – holy shit! Long time ago since I heard that track at an event. But it still does its job, a serious floor killer. She also played tracks like Big Dick by Bass Chaserz or Regains remix of For The Street, as well as her own new tracks like Rock It, Lower Level, the Street Movement Qlimax Edit or even Fatal.
After Deetox E-Force should have finished up the night, but sadly he didn’t appear. But they found a quite nice replacement – MC Villain, who of course was the MC of the night jumped behind the decks and played a 1h live set! DJing, MCing, going crazy, all at once! Music wise, he played different tracks, ranging from more euphoric tracks to some raw tracks. He started with Funky Shit for example, moved on to Rebel to the Grave, the Defqon.1 anthem 2015, FCK EDM and a hardcore ending.
That’s it, this was the Easter Rave 2016! All in all, I was surprised by this event. I heard a lot of negative aspects about the past events and I never felt like I have to visit the Easter Rave – I’m serious here. But it was definitely worth to take a look at it and I would really rate it as a very good party.
The atmosphere was dense and absolutely amazing, not going to lie here, the stage done its job with some lasers, some fire and C02. The sound was good, if you were standing on the ground, up in the VIP area, you almost heard… well… just a huge mash of sounds. The prices for drinks were pretty normal and not too high. You had enough space to dance, some fresh air in between and it was nearly, perfectly organized. Keep it going! If they improve a few tiny things, I’ll be definitely back next year!