REVIEW: Hardwell @ The Guvernment 02-02-13 by Eric Marrone

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On Saturday, the Revealed Records Canadian Bus Tour made its stop in Toronto at the Guvernment. For those unfamiliar, the tour consists of Dutch producer Hardwell (known for such tracks as Spaceman and Zero 76), and his two supporting acts Dannic and Dyro. The tour takes the trio across twelve Canadian cities in less than two weeks. What do these three have in common? Both Dannic and Dyro are on Hardwell’s Revealed label and are also from the Netherlands. Dannic is actually from the same hometown as Hardwell and Tiesto. There must be something in the water in that town, since it has pumped out some serious talent.

I arrived at The Guvernment early, 10pm to be exact. Knowing it was going to be a sold out show I arrived just when doors were opened. I was coming from Brrrrr! Winter Music Festival at Echo Beach in Ontario Place, which was amazing, but I left early to make sure I gave myself plenty of time to get into Guv. I arrived to find a huge line already that wrapped around the side of the building. I proceeded to the guest list line which was more like a crowd of people than a line. After waiting what was about almost an hour, I finally made my way in to be greeted by another lineup for coat check. Luckily that moved quickly and I was finally ready to dance. It was a bit of a hassle just getting in and arriving early didn’t seem to help, but that was to be expected at such a large event.

I proceeded into the main room to hear the familiar sounds of one of the Guvernment’s resident DJs, Mark Oliver. I caught the last 15 minutes of his set and then at 11:30pm it was time for Dannic. He started things off with some progressive house and then played Calvin HarrisWe’ll Be Coming Back and then Beating of My Heart (Matisse & Sadko Remix). There was still quite a bit of room at this point and the crowd was already energetic. As the room started to fill in, Dannic was playing lots of mashups including Avicii & Nicky Romero’s I Could be the One vs. Fatboy Slim’s Praise You. He ended his set off with his remix of Nervo & Nicky Romero’s Like Home.

At 1am Hardwell came on and opened with Spaceman as he usually does. This was my second time seeing him, as I saw him once before in the same room for Labour of Love 2012. He then played a mashup with Leave the World Behind You vocals. Now the room was filled up to capacity and there was lots of energy in the room. He continued to play a few of his own songs like Kontiki and Apollo. A bit later into his set it started getting warm and out came the blasts of carbon dioxide fog. Around this time Hardwell dropped Linken Park’s Numb vocals in a mashup which had the crowd singing along, and this transitioned into Showtek & Justin Prime’s Cannonball. Right after came Chuckie’s Make Some Noise. This was my favourite part of his set.

A bit later into his set, Hardwell played Knife Party’s Internet Friends (Hardwell Edit). Personally, I think this song is really over played and did not care for it in his set. Right after this he played Kid Cudi’s Pursuit of Happiness (Steve Aoki Remix) and Dada Life’s Kick Out the Epic Motherf**ker. These three tracks really got the crowd going, and space was hard to come by in the crowd. Although it was really busy, I have seen much worse. It might have just been where I was in the room most of the night, but I didn’t find it extremely packed and everyone around me was very polite and respectful.

Now it was that time in the night for the Guv laser system to turn on. They are always cool to look at. Swedish House Mafia’s Don’t You Worry Child was then played (the crowd obviously loved this and everyone sang along once again) and this was followed by Hardwell & Showtek’s How We Do. Hardwell brought his set to an end at 3am by slowing down the tempo of the last track until it stopped. He thanked the crowd and then Dyro came on stage.

Dyro’s set began with his track On Top of the World. A lot of the tracks he played I could not I.D. Some tracks that stood out for me included the Dyro remix of Loopers Deal Breaker, Dyro’s remix of Laidback Luke’s On Top of the World and Feed Me’s Trap Door. The crowd had thinned out for his set and there was way more room now. I decided to take a break from the main room just before 4am and go check out the other rooms in the Guvernment. I walked into the Gallery for the second time ever to the sounds of Deko-ze on the decks. He was just ending his set with some tribal/tech house. I was glad I got to check out the Gallery even if it was for a short time since it is a really cool room. I made my way back into the main room and shortly after called it a night. As I was leaving, Manzone & Strong came on to close off the night.

Overall it was a typical Guv night and I had a lot of fun. Dannic and Dyro’s sets impressed me the most. Hardwell had a good set but it was very similar to the previous time I saw him. I was expecting a bit more since I have heard what he is capable of in his Hardwell On Air podcasts. If you haven’t listened to any of the episodes, I suggest you do since they never disappoint. Also check out what Dyro and Dannic have to offer – you won’t be disappointed.

 

Links:

Hardwell

Official Site

Facebook

Twitter

Dannic

Official Site

Facebook

Twitter

Dyro

Official Site

Facebook

Twitter

 

Eric Marrone EDM TOR

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Adele is the owner of Tranceported. She manages and maintains the social media and the photo and video teams, and has been shooting our event photos since 2011. She has been a fan of Trance music since the mid-90s and started this website (formerly called EDM TOR) in 2012.

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