quote:

Originally posted by in2muzikk Finally have a tiny bit of a signal, spent over an hour in traffic going up and down Arrowhead (big flashing sign showed "parking - left turn" but then it was coned off, so you had to make a U turn and go back the way you came. Turn off the f*cking sign if you can't turn there!!!

quote:

Originally posted by LiquidX Now GETTING to the festival was a whole other issue. I was literally stuck on the ramp leading tours the NOS entrance for a good 30 -45 mins, enough time to play with google maps and see that there was another exit just half a mile away leading to the park as well.. which I took.. Had I stayed on the ramp? easily an hour or more wait.. as for parking? What's with the signs and then having those streets blocked off? .. Getting out same story.. aside from that.. great way to spend $55 bucks

the best way to avoid the traffic is plan a different route. look at a map, get off an exit prior or after. since I come from Santa Clarita, I take the 210 across to near the 215 and get on the 215 heading south and hit no traffic until I am within blocks of NOS. following the herd will get you nowhere. point is plan alternate routes.

I'm normally not a fan of the LA crowds, but last night felt like one big celebration, I had a fucking blast. I was worried about JOC and Aly & Fila playing too early in the night but it was fine, both of them banged it out and delivered awesome sets. And Armin was awesome, I was a bit disappointed with him the last time I saw I saw him in Den Bosch but he really put on a show playing several classic tracks.

___________________
Beyond Wonderland
Group Therapy Miami
Garuda Night @ Space
UMF
Markus & Friends @ Space

So things are getting better with Insomniac for sure. Getting in was no problem, and the free water refills with any bottle is awesome! Saved a lot of money on the $4 water (however when going into Cheshire Woods the guard made me throw away my water, even though there was water being sold inside. WTF?!). They carded at the entrance, which was nice (less little kids running around, although there was still a good amount. As a 24 y.o. I felt older than most. Might do VIP next time?) The stages were laid out nicely, and I didn't experience any audio/visual problems besides the sound cutting out a bit in the Madhatter stage during EDX, and like others said, Arty's sub-par mixing skills (he was much better at the Moscow asot550 and when I saw him at Exchange). Lastly, I will say that the crowds are getting better. It feels like a lot

However, Insomniac is still not 100% on top of it. The bathroom situation was a complete mess. No line whatsoever, people just storming in and peeing on the back of the ports, etc. They finally put guards over there after about 9pm, but would have been nice to have them there before that time too.

Another comment I would have to make about last night is that the atmosphere is slowly changing. It definitely may have been because of the rain but there seemed to be much less "ravey" people last night. Sure you still had some weirdos and chicks wearing next to nothing, but there were a lot more people wearing fairly regular clothes and just enjoying the music. Very few glowstickers and people sitting on the ground, at least from what I saw. The shufflers and ravers mostly stuck to the edges of the stages, ignoring the music as always, but if you went into the crowd, people were there to support the DJ and dance. That was nice. People seemed genuinely excited to see Armin, and were having a blast when Gareth was playing.

As far as the music, what can I say. I've listened to every ASOT celebration since episode 250 and as soon as they announced ASOT550 LA I bought my ticket. It was awesome to see Armin pop up during the other DJ's sets and get the crowd going. It built the excitement. Fei-Fei, I thought, was fun - some dubstep and hard stuff. Shogun absolutely killed it with SkyFire, A Thing Called Love, and As the Rush Comes. After that we hit up Moguai for a while, who did a great job playing some tracks from his Essential Mix. Next was EDX who pretty much doubled the crowd at his stage after a very boring Jamie Jones/Seth Troxler. Alex Gaudino played some anthems like In My Mind and of course I'm In Love, and then Hardwell absolutely killed it with bangers and house anthems. After that it was time for ASOT550 to finish the night. Arty played a lot of tracks I wanted to hear (Mozart, Calling/Rebound mashup, Walking Alone, etc.) along with some awesome new tracks (3 new ones according to his twitter), however his mixing was definitely sub-par as I'm sure people can hear in the recorded broadcast. For the crowd it really wasn't that big of a deal, just kind of embarrassing for him IMO. Gareth came on after that and played some awesome tracks in his own style, the crowd absolutely loved it. And last but not least... Armin. For the first hour I believe he went hard and played only 2 vocal tracks, and the 2nd hour was just pure trancey bliss to round out the night. And of course... Communication as the finale was awesome. A great set from Armin, as always.

So that is my review of the night... great times, the rain and cold definitely sucked but didn't ruin the night. I doubt I'd go to another event in San Bernardino just because of the drive (unless it's another ASOT but I will definitely continue going to Insomniac events - they continue to step their game up, book great artists, and put on awesome productions. Looking forward to EDC 2012, already got my tickets.

quote:

Originally posted by Koolaid74 Are you going to Den Bosch? My Trance Energy crew will be getting together again at Dam Square for ASOT550.

Not this year, still deciding on EDC. Fucken economy, as they say...

___________________
My favorite song is the one that hasn't yet been written.     |     fb     |      myspace

quote:

Originally posted by SillySilvia the best way to avoid the traffic is plan a different route. look at a map, get off an exit prior or after. since I come from Santa Clarita, I take the 210 across to near the 215 and get on the 215 heading south and hit no traffic until I am within blocks of NOS. following the herd will get you nowhere. point is plan alternate routes.

Guess what really confused me is that I was coming over from the Hilton, so all of the tips on which freeway exit to take didn't apply. I asked for directions (since I usually go by cab and haven't driven there before), and the guy at the hotel desk said "go to E Street, take a right and you'll run right into it."

There was actually very little traffic on E Street or Arrowhead at first, so thought I was doing great at avoiding the herd, until coming up on that "Beyond Wonderland Parking <-------" sign. If they're going to drop down cones so you can't turn left and keep that sign there like that, at least have someone tell people what the hell is going on! It took over half an hour after making a U turn just past that intersection to get back to E Street, where I started. I think they were only letting 3 cars at a time turn right from Arrowhead onto E, or something, the light was flashing red and traffic was being directed by the traffic control officers.

So after going all the way down E Street and turning right (other side of the event grounds), Arrowhead was blocked off there as well. But, at least there was a sign showing "Parking -- Waterman to Central" or something like that. Going over that way was was another clusterf*ck, but they could have saved people an hour in traffic, wasted $$$ on gas, not to mention environmental pollution by changing that first sign from "Beyond Wonderland Parking <------" to "Parking -- Waterman to Central." These things are programmable, right? Either that, or turn the sign off, save the electricity and stop confusing motorists, I know there's an on/off switch somewhere...

___________________
My favorite song is the one that hasn't yet been written.     |     fb     |      myspace

Last edited by in2muzikk on Mar-19-2012 at 03:18

I hate security, screw them.

I arrived at 4pm and they made me down my *sealed* 5 hour energy right there on the spot, as if it were a critical threat to bring to the event. They also tossed away my eye drops for a slight case of pink eye that I showed the guy, at which point his supervisor told me to go buy a new sealed box so I could bring it in. Really? Does a <1 oz. bottle of visine pose that much of a threat from someone who is showing the obvious medical need for?

This was worse than the TSA, and all I was dressed in were normal clothes and a rabbit-eared top hat. The only thing they needed to do was run me through a scanner to check out my junk since dude already felt me up. If I wanted to smuggle anything into the event, I wouldn't be showing it to your face obviously.

Anyway, I thought Gareth had the best set of the night, throwing down some great tracks that made me think of his awesome Love Festival set in Vegas 2 years ago.

I was really looking forward to Armin since he had a great set at the Space closing party last September in Ibiza, but it seemed to really drag on during the start of the 2nd hour. That, or the 7 hours of dancing killed my enthusiasm and I just wanted bangers all night a la Markus @ Avalon. We left at around 1:15am, which sounds like it was a good idea.

The dub step area (and presumably the other enclosed stage) had such terrible acoustics, even my ear plugs couldn't help it.

Drinks were ok I guess, just too much ice in the small cups. The white living room was pretty neat, and the fire structure gave some great heat in the blistering cold. I wish they had some real heaters posted throughout the areas to keep people warm.

Bathrooms were a cluster f, and we couldn't believe how many girls still went wearing almost nothing at all.

The crowds on a personal level were disappointing. No matter where we went throughout the ASOT area (front & center, middle & center, sides throughout), people just had to shove their way in and around us every 5 minutes. It got annoying to a point where I just stood in one spot, waved my arms in the air, and just watched the party rock kids run into my elbows It's not like there wasn't room to walk around us, the wife & I aren't ones to rub elbows with sweaty people.

Overall, a solid 7/10. It was good to see less tots running around.

Okay guys I'm finally home and thankfully the computer stayed on, so I have the sets recorded! Below are my recordings.

The event was massive, definitely should be on the "to attend" list of any trance fan. Armin has taken the ASOT parties to the next level, remember that other event that was the mecca for all trance fans? Trance ENERGY? Well, Armin has allowed these parties to evolve into a magical experience. The production and fans that these parties attract are amazing.

Armin destroyed the place as you all probably heard. Armin took his role as the closing DJ very serious. The man had the crowd going crazy from start to finish. For the most part all the sets that I heard were great. Arty's mixing or lack of made his set just okay in my book. Although his tracklist has been recycled for the past year, this was my first time seeing him and it actually was good to have him warm up the decks for the 2nd half of the show. I mean if we would've had SvR, JOC, Fila and Armin back to back we would had many people die of heart attacks lol.

And sorry to burst your bubble, but my God, Gareth Emery sure knows how to work the crowd. Although, his set at times might appear to be lacking direction, the man knows what to play and when to do it, the crowd was the loudest and most energized when he was playing. He also warmed up the crowd just right for Armin, so for me definitely a great choice to have Gareth open for Armin.

I will post some videos later..


Here they are the sets..

Download A State of Trance 550: Beyond Wonderland Los Angeles March 17

Fei Fei
Download: Fei Fei Dj Set (Warning: Dupset)

Shogun
Download: Shogun DJ Set

Sied van Riel
Download: Sied van Riel DJ Set

John O'Callaghan
Download: John O'Callaghan DJ Set

Aly & Fila
Download: Aly & Fila DJ Set

Arty
Download: Arty DJ Set

Gareth Emery
Download: Gareth Emery DJ Set

Armin van Buuren
Download: Armin van Buuren DJ Set

___________________
Need Trance? We got UR Source:
www.URTranceZone.com

Last edited by Trancelover24 on Mar-19-2012 at 05:18

quote:

Originally posted by roxb0x I hate security, screw them. I arrived at 4pm and they made me down my *sealed* 5 hour energy right there on the spot, as if it were a critical threat to bring to the event. They also tossed away my eye drops for a slight case of pink eye that I showed the guy, at which point his supervisor told me to go buy a new sealed box so I could bring it in. Really? Does a <1 oz. bottle of visine pose that much of a threat from someone who is showing the obvious medical need for?

I thought the security for this event was absolutely brilliant. Everyone in security who I had to deal with was extremely professional, yet authoritative without having to act like an asshole. You are calling them out for simply doing their job. The Beyond Wonderland website explicitly posted which items are allowed and which aren't. It was called out that only sealed items - cigarettes etc. would be allowed into the center. Someone also posted this in the Official Beyond Wonderland thread right here. The 5 hour energy? No place in the world would ever let you bring your own drinks inside. Not everything has to be a threat for it to be banned.

From the looks of things, it sounds like forking out extra for VIP was a wise decision. I was originally iffy about it since they no longer do open bar, but now I don't think I'd ever want to go to a massive without going VIP and without Insomniac being the organizers. There was no one in front of us at the line and we walked right in. They had converted one of the rooms in the venue as an indoor sitting area with sofa's etc. and the toilets were like what you would see at any restaurant/office and pretty clean, though the wait times ranged from 1 minute -15 minutes.

Hard for me to say anything bad about this party. Every DJ was brilliant and, in spite of the rain, the event was executed very, very well. I haven't been going to a lot of events over the past 2 years, but last night rekindled my passion for trance as if it were my first party. Trance is still very much a force to be reckoned with.

how was the techno stage?

While I did say security was fantastic, I did manage to bypass them this one time and get this video:

More pics HERE

___________________
My favorite song is the one that hasn't yet been written.     |     fb     |      myspace

Last edited by in2muzikk on Mar-19-2012 at 09:07