This Saturday night we went to Retaliator, which took place in The Hague. Finally, more and more events are taking place in smaller but interesting locations. Retaliator is a concept by Solid Events. The organizer does use ‘Paard van Troje’ as their event location for almost all of their concepts. We did expect it loud and rough, but this was beyond borders. This was the second edition of Retaliator, let’s have a look!
As mentioned above the event is organized by Solid Events. They run smaller and larger concepts. Three of their events are taking place in Paard van Troje. Purge was their first concept, which is all about hardstyle and raw style. After a few years, they did launch two new concepts. One is called Nostalgia, which is about the euphoric and early hardstyle. Retaliator is all about Hardcore. With a promising line-up this time, which we will talk about later. Let’s talk about the location first.
Paard van Troje is located in the center of The Hague. This city is known for its mansions. From the outside, it doesn’t look that big but when you enter this old mansion you will be surprised. The location is used for many different kinds of concerts. It has an industrial look inside and perfectly fits the harder styles of dance music. On Ground level, you have all the facilities. Think about lockers, toilets, a small café for food and a smoking area. You have to take the huge stairs to enter the music hall. The music hall always reminds me of an arena. At ground level, you have two bars, and a large space where almost everyone can party their ass off. At both sides, you can climb a smaller stairway to enter a platform that surrounds the ground level. This will give you a stunning view. You can chill and watch the crowd go insane and look on top of the DJ booth, and you can party as well! Besides the music quality at Paard van Troje is phenomenal for a smaller indoor event. If you like the bass very loud, this is the place to be. We recommend you to wear earplugs for the best sound quality and don’t forget to protect your ears!
We did arrive at twelve o’clock, so we could warm-up with the first set by Access One. After a diverse 1,5 hour set it was time for the creator of the Dominator Anthem, Methods of Mutilation, give it up for Furyan! The sky was full with lasers while Furyan did open his set with Prednison Attack by N-Vitral. Furyan played a rough set with some extreme switches to millennium hardcore tracks. Think about tracks like ‘Je moet je muil houden’. He also dropped the Dominator anthem and his brand new track together with Nosferatu called Killswitch, holy shit what a banger! One of the best tunes produced in 2016. As mentioned above Furyan his set was very diverse, so is his style. He likes it 160 BPM till way above 200 BPM. Furyan gives every hardcore lover something that he or she admires. The crowd was going insane and ready for the next act.
Miss K8 claimed the stage. She played a rough and diverse set as well. Miss K8 really seem to push the tempo more often nowadays, which we really like to hear! A bit less ‘mainstream’, and give people something they don’t expect! Of course, she still dropped her great tunes of 2016. Think about Bogota, which made the crowd go wild. She did also drop her Masters of Hardcore anthem – Raiders of Rampage, Icebreaker and a few more tracks from the Magnet album.
We took a little break and enjoyed some beers, which did cost 2,50 each. But you get quality beer over here! Not that festival beer that tastes like water, haha. We did hear some rough sounds coming from the music hall so we did decide to go back quickly!
Theroza was going completely insane with his uptempo sound. Honestly I did never visit his set, listened to his tracks, I nearly heard of him. Theroza is a great DJ, played at grand events like Decibel, and knows how to push it to the limit. The crowd was going nuts to the tracks reaching almost 300 BPM. The bass almost destroyed our earplugs, but were hungry for more. After Theroza it was time for the rising leaders of the uptempo hardcore. Sjammienators were ready to break all boundaries, if there were any left.
Sjammienators did recently start their new uptempo record label, Uptempo is The Tempo Records. At this label, their are no boundaries. No BPM is too high, but they insist at good quality music, something that is lacking a bit in the uptempo scene nowadays. Sjammienators are finally booked more and more, so you can enjoy some great uptempo! They did play their massive tracks like, Kick the nation, Pull up to mi bumpha, Life’s a bitch and their new track This is what the world needs, produced together with The Demon Dwarf.
After a massive set by the Sjammienators, it was time for the ultimate face off. Partyraiser was ready to spin the final set of the night. A dazzling ride trough the hardcore music spectrum. Of course, his fresh banger Middle Fingers Up together with Cryogenic, and a few Scarphase tracks were played. Partyraiser gave the best he can, and the audience highly enjoyed it till the end. It was just 5:30 when the party almost reached its end.
Retaliator surprised us a lot. It’s good to have these smaller concepts around. The organization did deliver a high-quality event for a ticket price below €20,-. If you are not used to hardcore music but are willing to give it a try, these are the events which can invite new people in the scene and make the scene bigger than ever before.
Solid Events is organizing Purge on the 26th of November and Nostalgia at 17 December, at the same location. We highly recommend you to pay a visit! See you at Paard van Troje?!