What a memorable show, absolutely in my top 3 of 2012.
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For those that were there last Thursday knew how special that night was as the young, old, and everyone in between were in the crowd to see the legendary Paul Oakenfold perform.
A note to the openers: Mister Parker brought a lot of energy into his set with banger after banger while Cole surprised me with a solid electro set that got everyone moving.
Prior to Oakenfold's set at Bluesfest I had the opportunity to listen to two previous sets; one at Surrender Las Vegas via their podcast; the other at the Ministry of Sound Gallery via be-at.tv. At Surrender he played a more commercial set that was enjoyable but wasn't trance based at all; at the Ministry of Sound Paul delivered a powerful set that was heavy on the trance to the full appreciation of the crowd. What we got on Thursday was a mix of both as he almost evenly split his show between a progressive house/electro set and trance.
I thought that it was the trance side of the set that really turned a decent set into an epic one as everyone around me were just dancing and having a great time while the BPMs were raised. Paul Oakenfold shines in the trance genre and I really hope that he stays true to it as so many DJs try to chase fame by changing their sound. Oakenfold started off the trance side of things with one of my all time favourite trance tracks 'Big Sky' by John O'Callaghan which had the crowd singing along. From then on Paul unleashed some relentless and energetic trance while commanding a big stage presence as he frequently made a lot of eye contact and fan acknowledgement with the first few rows. Once 'RessuRection' was dropped it gave us all time to slow down and appreciate the special moment that was created at the Electro Stage which far far away from whatever LMFAO was doing elsewhere.
What really inspired me was the great attitude from the crowd including all of these older ravers present that added to the PLUR atmosphere. Thanks to Paul Oakenfold and everyone that showed up that made that night something special to remember.
