Paul Van Dyk: No E (Pure PvD)
I want to be a super star DJ.
I mean it. You get paid shit loads of money. Crowds of chemically altered fans adore you for twiddling knobs and pushing buttons. You don't have to know how to play an instrument or write songs. In fact, you get to play other people's music with the added bonus that you can look cool with headphones. Plus, you get flown all over the world first class to play at all the best parties. And there is no band strife or riffs with mates because there is no band - only you. How's that for a job?
And nobody does that job better than Paul Van Dyk these days. The uber-popular German DJ was here to whip them into a frenzy for Friday night's All Night Fuji dance party at the Orange Court.
I've never seen All Night Fuji so packed with people. While the little-party-that-is gets more popular every year, this year it was busting at the seams. While that is no doubt in large part due to mister Van Dik's name on the marquee, it is also in part due to Japanese scenesters Denki Groove's opening slot. Two years ago, Denki Groove played the main Green Stage prior to The Red Hot Chili Peppers. This year they were at All Night Fuji - and they brought a few thousand of their friends.
Van Dyk came out with his name ablaze in neon and proceeded to whip an already exuberant crowd into a frenzy. While Paul Van Dyk is adamantly anti drug (No E - Pure PvD), something must have kicked in with the punters because they just didn't stop.
With eye-candy video displays on monitors all around the stage and laser lights in the trees, it certainly was trippy enough to make you feel blissed out - even if you weren't.
Van Dyk's tracks were rather pedestrian for my taste. With a crowd as hyped as the one at the Orange Court, you would have to fuck up something fierce to lose them, and he didn't. They lapped it up and kicked up a dust storm with their Wellies and Crocs and Tevas. The Tiesto tinged beats were probably just what the crowd wanted after tramping around Fuji Rock all day waiting for the big party.
Unfortunately, Van Diyk did what I have seen him do before, and that was to drop somebody else's tune and raise his hands in the air. The irony of it is that he played Underworld's anthemic "Born Slippy" and they happen to be headlining Saturday at the Green Stage.
You think they'll drop a Paul Van Dyk track? I didn't think so.
Photos: Hiroki Nishimuraaaaa
Reported by Jeff Richards (2008.07.26 / 18:29)