Markus Schulz – ‘Watch The World’ sold-out open-to-close during ADE
German-born, but Miami-based DJ Markus Schulz is one of the hardest working DJs in the dance music industry. Both as club DJ, managing his label ColdHarbour Recordings and host of the influential radio show Global DJ Broadcast, the trance platform in the EDM industry. With his signature hybrid trance sound he’s responsible for hits such as ‘Love Rain Down’ and ‘Not The Same’ with melodies that surely give you goosebumps and outrageous basslines. Markus is notorious for his incredibly long open-to-close sets which always have something special. So clearly we couldn’t miss his performance at the Rabozaal of the Melkweg venue during ADE.
We hoped for an open-to-close set with a perfect build-up and a story that would take us on a trip. Markus succeeded in doing that but in another way than we initially expected.
Of course, we arrived rather early at the Melkweg in order to be able to experience everything and it wasn’t very surprising to notice the extremely long queue of people excited for the event. The line actually went around the block of the street while the door just had opened.
When we entered, the die-hard fans had already taken their spot at the front-row which they weren’t gonna give away anytime soon. The venue was already about 70% full which proves how much the fans had been looking forward to this show. Everybody wanted to hear Markus’s deeper sounds also except for just the ‘Rabbit hole’ part, in which he’s known to be playing some harder and rougher tracks.
After some deeper sounds Markus made the transition to his ColdHarbour tracks and quickly the very known and recognizable tunes were played. It stood out that even the slightly harder sound of the Arkham Knights was played in the first couple of hours of the show. Besides that, Markus intelligently mixed loads of melodious techno tunes with trance tunes which resulted in really beautiful breakdowns. ‘Destiny’ created an ecstatic atmosphere and therefore was one of the highlights of the night and took us on a melodious trip.
Markus was absolutely in his element and it was really refreshing to hear that it was all about the story and his setlist was so much different from a predictable 1 hour festival-set. We should mention that the light-show very much supported the build-up of his set. The visuals were in tune as well for example with Markus’ unreleased remix of Hilight Tribe – Free Tibet.
Basically, the only flaw of the night was that the acoustics of the Rabozaal aren’t perfect. Which meant that in some cases the impact of the drop didn’t perfectly arrive in the venue.
Before we knew it, it was 10 minutes before the end and the floor had become extremely sticky so it was really hard to lift our feet up but we still stayed till the end.
Conclusion
Markus Schulz really has proven once again that he’s a Trance legend, who’s able to really capture its audience and take them on a trip through music. Especially, an open-to-close set of Markus just doesn’t get boring and is a true pleasure to listen and enjoy. If you ever have the opportunity to visit one of his special sets, go there! You won’t be disappointed!
© Festivalling.com
Reporter: Marijn Stijl