Reverze – Belgiums biggest indoor hardstyle event took visitors on a trip through a slightly cyber punk look a like world, exploring the excessive need of human interaction and what modern technology does to us. To be honest here: The topic looked great and we couldn’t wait for this years Reverze Interconnected!
The journey to Reverze “Interconnected” started early with a frenzy and energetic Bus ride with Akkros Voyages, who kindly took us to Belgium, Antwerp. Long story short, if you ever have attempted to jump in a french bus, don’t expect it to rest. They go hard until the bus reaches its destination and that’s quite crazy.
We arrived in Antwerp around 7.20 pm, already warmed up for five hours straight of pure bus madness and ready to step in the mighty Sportpaleis.
(Sportpaleis) At 8 pm sharp, both Regular and VIP Entrances opened, spurring a few ‘Hey-Hoes’ of a happy crowd ready to enter the Belgian Sanctuary, and rushed in to be the first to see how the stage was looking like this year. What stroke us first was the massive VIP deck of Sportpaleis Arena, which was way larger than in the previous editions.
The evening started with Cyber and we had the first glimpse of the ‘Interconnected’ stage. It was a monstrous stage that was looking like the robotic eyelid. Cyber’s set started like a rocket, and he played a couple of his latest tracks like ‘Cyber – WTF’ and some new previews like ‘Cyber – A New World’. It was a set filled with pure euphoric vibes and you could literally see the people getting submerged by their emotions, even though it was only 9.15 pm.
Audiotricz were playing right after Cyber, and as expected they kicked things off right the way people loved them for at Qlimax, with playing ‘ Inception – Qlimax Edit’ with a good fat bassline at the first drop. They played an awesome set, merging both summer vibes and classic tunes. You could feel that these bad boys were already fully ready for the forthcoming festival season!
(Lotto) After these couple hours spent in the Sportpaleis, we decided to move on to the Lotto Arena, where Lowriderz aka the ‘Wolfpack’ were wreaking havoc with their unique trap kinda tek-hardstyle style. They played tracks like ‘Chemistry’, ‘Jungle Warrior’, ‘Get Low’ and ‘Who you are’ which just pitched up our cardio to a very high level and even if we didn’t attend their entire set; trust us, 30 minutes of these guys left us quite steamy after that they finished their set.
This is where we decided to take a little ‘Beer & Belgian Burgers’ break. The good thing with Bass Events events is that wherever you go, the food is always delicious. You should definitely try what they have to at their stands next time you go to Reverze or The Qontinent!
Our thirst quenched and belly supplied, we carried on towards Sportpaleis to attend Mark with a K ft MC Chucky Live. We were really surprised to see how fluid it was to switch from the two arenas. No traffic jam at all … Nothing like the previous editions of Reverze, where you could easily find yourself stuck in the middle of the corridors after the end of some sets.
Mark with a K has always been a special act when you visit Reverze and will always be. Reverze has been his ‘Domain’ for years and he knows how to rock the dancefloor better than anyone else. He opened up his set with ‘Move Bitch, Get out the Way’ which made clear that Mark was ‘in tha place’. What a set…. Tek, Hardstyle… If you love variety, well it’s definitely a must do act !
After his frenzy live set, the notorious Da Tweekaz took over the DJ booth and stuck to what they do best: make people have a fun time with quality remixes of ‘ Eiffel 65 .. I’m Blue’ and some of their most famous tracks like ‘Wodka’, ‘Let it Go’ and so on. It was Tweekay Madness time!
As we had seen Coone a couple of times at other events already, we decided to get back to the Lotto Arena and give credit to Mandy. What a surprise it was to see that the young Belgian lady had totally electrified the crowd and was giving her absolute best behind the turntables. Awesome transitions, a smart and unconventional way to swiftly read the crowd, Mandy is definitely an act to look for in the future and even though some people are still a bit reluctant to attend one of her sets. Well, we can only encourage you to open your mind and stop believing in those cliches.
Following Mandy’s set was NSCLT and even though we love what they are doing, we unfortunately stayed just half of their set, in order to attend Psyko Punkz at the Sportpaleis.
NSCLT are these kind of artists that you should keep an eye on as they have pretty much the same profile as legendary artists nowadays, a few years ago. They have a unique style and remind us a lot of D-Block & S-Te-Fan back in the Hardstyle Golden Days.
Back to Sportpaleis, we rushed to get on time for Psyko Punkz. Mr. Trippy Hippie Boom Papy had once again pumped up the crowd with his rebel vibe, mic in hands, stirring up the crowd. During his set, he let us listen to a few previews of his upcoming album like ‘Enjoy the Ride’. We simply cannot wait to listen to his album !
Though, things started to get serious when Hard Driver took over the stage. Giant goggles were placed in front of the stage, beaming lasers at the crowd while dancing cubes were flowing all over the place, up and down. Hard Driver Live took another dimension when Hard Driver appeared wearing a black skull-like mask for the 30 last minutes of his set. Trust us, he ‘Interconnected’ the shit out of Sportpaleis. What a blazing set! What a kick-ass stage!
Though, as you can imagine, after such intensity, it’s always time to cool things off with a fresh beer. But, Zatox dropped the first track and we just went back in the pit, and postponed that ‘beer stop’ for later on. And yeah, No need to say much more. Zatox was lit and Dave Revan was like in total eruption. It went straight to 200% until the last second they played. We have never seen such intensity in Hardstyle. It was simply out of this world!
Reverze Flashback is one of the epitome of the night and every year, different Tek Lords take on the show. This year, Dark-E, Pat.B and Dr.Rude took good care of us and beamed us right back to the early days of tek and hardstyle. This is definitely a must do !
We finished off Reverze at the Lotto Arena with War Force Live, Delete, Korsakoff and Destructive Tendencies. War Force was like a sheer raw hurricane and for 30 minutes the most aggressive and vile kicks distorded the walls of the Lotto Arena.
Though after this storm, there came another storm, and one of a kind. Delete. His set started like a massive alien pouding, with breaks, kicks and screeches coming out from another dimension. The Australian Raw Slayer showed us again his ability to both shock and awe. Each one of his set are absolutely unique!
Korsakoff & Destructive Tendencies were the two remaining act of the Lotto Arena, and we didn’t feel like attending Minus Militia Live again as we had seen them many times at previous events. So we stayed and enjoyed the last hours and filled our ears with good old hardcore.
Korsakoff is a true Hardcore Legend, and her ability to stir up the crowd is jaw-dropping. She doesn’t even need to read the crowd … she feels it… and knows exactly how to keep us hectic until the last minute. She is a true Enchantress of the Dark arts of Hardcore.
Destructive Tendencies were to played the last set of the night. And those who didn’t save enough energy for these English Hardcore heads, well… they endured their sick and demonic tempo until the last second. These three demons of the old Anglia were there to claim the last unruly souls of the night. And what they seek, they get, as the people were absolutely exhausted after their performance.
Pure aggressiveness, pure brutality… I mean.. There are a few words to describe how explosive these guys closed off Reverze.
Reverze 2017 ‘Interconnected’ was the best edition of Reverze we had attended so far and we cannot wait for the next year edition ! Thank you Bass Events for having us!
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