ok i've seen armin spin 6 times in the last year including 3 sets in la and tonight was by far the most driving, purely energetic trance set i've heard him throw down... the best set since last year's memorial day madness. he started off slow with a couple vocal tracks (amnesia & jenny rene - louder then karen overton), but after the first 3 tracks the energy level in the club elevated for every track for the next hour+... armin paid homage to sander van doorn early on by lining up punk'd svd remix to dark roast svd remix to 4strings - take me away purple haze remix and wow that sequence alone made my night. another exceptional aspect of the night was the fact that armin was getting squirrelly on the mixer the entire time... the most i've ever seen him work the mixer in fact. like dave said, if i didn't know any better i would have thought svd was at the decks. i'd have to say that a HUGE part of why sf trance/house/electro/prog sets are top notch is because of sf's local djs and their ability to inspire magic from the headliner by working the crowd hard moments before the main act comes on. alain octavio seriously dropped the PERFECT opening set. he was going nuts on the mixer as armin arrived which, i think, put armin in the mood for the same hard, explosive programming. alain is no anomaly either, i would have expected the same perfection out of syd gris, jefferey allen, ismael rodriguez, turbine, cyber joe, taj, the list goes on... ruby skye's bartenders had it out for me also, i had 3 tall cups of almost purely jager which got me zooted until probably half an hour after last call... then i crashed into super sobriety and the heat in the club took it's toll. after 3 nights straight edm insanity: dj frances, donald glaude, frenchy le freak, dj bali, danny howells, jefferey allen, alain octavio and armin van buuren, i'm gonna hang my hat and disappear for a solid 3 weeks until jefferey allen & james zabiela destroy mighty sf. holy crap, what a relentless 4th of july!






i've never seen ruby skye so packed in my life... the main room, the balcony, the back room, the front of the club... everywhere you went their were bodies filling up space. it was more packed than the sold out ruby skye 6 year anniversary show with tiesto... and the crowd was leaps and bounds better, the floor was jumping with the beat and armin was busting out some slick dance moves that reminded me of howells. i went outside for a smoke around 1 and there was still a line around the block just standing there not moving cause the club had reached capacity by midnight.

all the pics

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the TAs i ran into included davet, ninetyninej, diskodave, toolman667, knightlife415, andrieux, a bunch of sfta lurkers, a bunch of folks off the spundae boards, peter & guiv and the only lata i spotted was bob_motamedi, but that's probably half the TA crowd that was there because i didn't even see half the people i was supposed to meet up with there. martin roth and robert nickson were also in attendance, which was very cool like last time armin was here when gabriel & dresden and matthew dekay came to hang out and party

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I am truly disappointed I missed what sounds like an once in a lifetime set. Sounds like Ruby Skye was annoyingly packed though, but maybe better people than when I saw Ferry last week (when some drunk biatch dumped a glass of champagen on me)...on top of that I sacrificed Armin to be in Brazil and they friggin lost to France! doh!

I missed out on last night

I was just too feckin tired. I'm staring at my ticket as I type this...

Whatever though... not like I'll never be able to see Armin again. Glad you guys had fun!

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Goodbye Holland

Thank god he didn't play like that in LA.. his set in LA reminded me of his older sets been hearing too many sets lately sound SvDish.

alain's last track before turning it over to armin was john digweed - warung beach (mashtronic's white sands remix) and when he twisted the bass in and out 4 beats the crowd went nutso! i actually left around 3 because i was getting nauseas from the heat, the nearfield bass and the churning jager in my stomach, plus my feet were killing me, so i don't even know if armin decided to play until close or if he handed off the decks to syd gris. i'll wait on others to finish out the review of the night

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Armin was awesome... for the short time I saw him..

I cant wait to check him out in Ibiza.

I think Armin sucked in LA cuz he was wearing white.

What a night!! I have a friend who was in LA and came back up here to see AVB. He said last night AVB was soo on point throughout the night. It was super packed and the club had to stop letting people inside. There was still a huge line outside as well... I wasnt able to catch Alain's set but i know he delivered an amazing opening set. Great seeing you Dave T, lex400sc, and the bunch thats always out in full force.

Hope all of you have a great 4th of july today. Im going to a BBQ and then off to work for a few hours.

Wow.

I should have gone. I didn't have very high expectations, but the pics kind of speak for themselves.

It was great finally meeting the SF TAs!

I have to say that this was probably the best set I've ever heard Armin Play...Too bad he does not play like this in L.A.

Track selection was amazing....and Starboy...You would have loved his set...Trust me!

Ruby Sky is a GREAT Venue!

Guiv's house is truly magnificent!

Oh and all the rumors about Alain Octavio are true. He is a great DJ.

All in all I had an amazing time!

Thanks Dave and Lex and 99J for saying hello!

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T.A. Mafia

Member #1