It’s been over two years since he last came to town, but on Saturday September 28th, 2019, Ontario was lucky enough to witness the magical Open-To-Close set by the Cold Harbour Recordings boss Markus Schulz at Club Seventy-Seven in Hamilton. If I have to describe the whole set in one phrase, it would be “an incredible journey”!
I was coming from Toronto and since this was a Markus Schulz Open-To-Close, I didn’t want to miss a bit of it! This was my first event at Club Seventy-Seven and I must say this – I am impressed. The club has nice visuals, good atmosphere, the management is well organized, and the staff memebers are very welcoming and helpful. I really look forward to coming back here for events in the future.
Let’s get to the main part now. As soon as I walked onto the dance floor, my heart already melted looking at Markus, who was behind the decks warming up the floor with smooth progressive tracks. I was welcomed with Ben Bohmer‘s After Earth and at that time there were a few people on the dance floor cheering on the unicorn slayer. The room slowly started to fill up by Markus’ fans and the warm-up continued reaching its peak with tracks like Energy 52‘s Cafe Del Mar (Tale Of Us Renaissance remix), Der Dritte Raum‘s Hale Bopp (Boris Brejcha remix), and OC & Verde‘s Mondoshawan pumping through our veins and preparing us for the main course of the meal.
As soon as it was midnight, the whole journey took a different turn. The dance floor was fully packed with people dancing their heart out and cheering for Markus. The whole atmosphere changed, the visuals were at its full force with lights and lasers piercing through us and the set itself transformed to a new face. Yes, we have entered the main phase of the night which is trance and approximately for the next three hours you are about to get drowned into feels. It was 12:27 am when a legendary vocal caught my ears; he dropped Cosmic Gate vs Markus Schulz & Justin Suissa‘s The Perception Of Light Years (Markus Schulz Mashup). To be honest, I didn’t keep much track of the time the whole night, but when this was dropped, I checked my watch because it felt like a warning from the Cold Harbour boss that he’s going to juggle with our emotions and will not let our feet rest til the journey ends. Before I could recover from that drop, the next track kicks in to further blow my mind, and the energy was high and constant with tracks like Orjan Nilsen x Dennis Sheperd x Nifra x Estiva‘s Cabin Fever (Orjan Nilsen Club Mix), Artento Divini vs. CamelPhat, Cristoph & Jem Cooke vs. ID – Overall Phased vs. Breathe vs. ID (Markus Schulz Mashup),Armin van Buuren‘s Lifting You Higher (Blasterjaxx Remix), Veracocha‘s Carte Blanche (KhoMha Remix), Markus Schulz featuring Nikki Flores –We Are The Light, Markus Schulz & Lachi’s – Far (Fisherman Festival Remix) and the list goes on. A marathon set by this man with no classics or throwback at all… this just cannot happen. In the middle of all the new songs and mashups pumping our hearts and hyping our souls, we were taken back in time with Markus Schulz’s Remember This (Mark Sherry Remix). This was not the weird part – that was yet to come.
One thing I must say about the ‘unicorn slayer’ is that he knows how to play with your mind at different times through his music. I will share with you what exactly made me feel like that: it was past 3 am when the cool, packed club was at the peak of their euphoria, dancing to trance in their zone, when all of a sudden something weird happened. The air condition was turned down, the visuals became dark and trippy, and the whole vibrant atmosphere turned into an uncomfortable nightmare. Before my brain can completely analyze the situation, we had already entered into a hot, intimate rabbit hole guided by Markus Schulz. His rabbit hole sets consist of darker tunes from various genre of electronic music which can include sounds from trance, techno and progressive, which are mixed in a way to make you feel dark and hypnotized. He dropped two classics as far as I can recall during this part of his set: Push‘s Universal Nation and Paul Oakenfold‘s Southern Sun (Markus Schulz In Search of Sunrise Remix). I got emotional for a bit but soon I was back on my feet when tracks like SCB‘s Extinct (ANNA Remix), Adam Beyer, Layton Giordani & Green Velvet – Space Date (Pleasurekraft Remix), ANNA & Miss Kittin‘s Forever Ravers, and many more hit the trigger point of my ears.
If you are thinking of being a trance artist, how can he send us home with such grooves? I don’t blame you and he didn’t do so. He closed the night with two of his hits that are powerful enough to make any human soul emotional. The first one was Markus Schulz feat. Delacey – Destiny and the second was Linkin Park‘s In The End (Markus Schulz Tribute Remix). Thus another magical night with Mr. Schulz ended, leaving footprints on our heart. Just in case you wanna relive the moments of the night, or you couldn’t make it to the show yourself, check out the latest episode of his radio show to get the highlights of the night – Global DJ Broadcast Oct 03 2019 – World Tour: Hamilton
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Shadman Rijvee – EDM TOR
