In between rushing around trying to get the car ready for the weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to catch Armin Van Buuren at Ruby Sky in SF (which BTW is arguably one of the finest venues around).  If you’re familiar with AVB, you already understand the significance.  But for those who don’t… lets just say that it’s not often that you get to experience a small show 35 feet from one of the most acclaimed DJ/Producers on the planet.  Yes.  The Planet.  Earth.  Where we live.

Granted, if you’re not into trance or even any sort of electronic music this might be foreign to you, but that make sense cause he’s foreign.  Dutch, to be exact.  Once again, Holland produces one of the finest DJs of our time.  (Hi to Onno + Femke, you guys get credit for this one.)  How about some numbers to make this more tangible both in popularity and more importantly the significance of the venue.  From Wiki,

“Armin van Buuren, is a Dutch trance producer and DJ . In 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 he was voted number one in DJ Magazine’s annual top 100 list of the most popular DJs. This makes him the first DJ ever to receive 4 consecutive #1 titles.Since 2001 van Buuren has hosted a weekly radio show called A State of Trance and claims to have over 30 million weekly listeners in more than 40 countries, which would make it the most listened radio show in the world.

This guy spun tunes for close to four hours straight and was completely engaged with the crowd for the entirely of it before taking any kind of a break or breather.  It was a truely incredible show. 

During the hot hot set crescendo towards the latter part of the night, we were treated to the lights + confetti routine and something kinda funny happened.  Armin got this wide eyed look on his face and ducked down behind the tables only to come back up with his camera.  He snapped this pic of the crowd.  Needless to say, it only invigorated everyone further.  We were just off to the left side, possibly in this pic but obviously a bit difficult to tell.

This pretty much sums up the night.

I’ll leave you with my favorite AVB album, Universal Religion 4.  This was a really hard decision but I’ve literally listened to this one for a day or two straight so that should give it the top slot.  It’s a recent and excellent example of his ability to effortlessly meld incredibly uplifting trace (the full mix at the end is the grits).

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