I've heard so much about Thunderdome through word of mouth over the years, I tried to go to last years one but the tickets had already sold out when I went to buy them. This year I was lucky enough to get one as Dave (Pathfinder) forewarned me when the tickets went on sale... and they did sell out too!! Thunderdome is typically not advertised anywhere and they always sell out – its all passed around via word of mouth, 15000 tickets!!! :) Anyway, cut to last Saturday night and Dave, Rick and I are on the way to Utrecht (central Holland) for my first rave outside of the UK. Just prior to this Rick had performed what turned out to be a very dodgy looking transaction for a last minute ticket (proper James Bond style) probably had to pay twice as much or more for it! We arrive at the station and even before getting out into the city the convoy of ravers was already forming... after about a 5 minute walk we were there. The Jaarbeurs (venue) looked pretty massive from the outside but it was impossible to tell how big it was on the inside. After a while a huge roar went up as loads of ravers at the front of the queue cheer at the opening doors. Few minutes later were going through security, they didn't do anything – just let us through? This confused me for a moment but then I realised we weren't actually in the rave yet... it turns out these guys were just making sure people were let into the building at a controlled rate. I guess the bigger the rave the more organised you've got to have everything!? We were in a huge room about the size of the sanctuary, and this was called 'the beginning room' I was told by Dave. Its purpose is to allow everyone to get their coats and bags put into the cloak room and get some money changed into tokens for drinks. The cloak room had as many inlets as there are letters in the alphabet, it took up one whole side of the flipping arena!! Tokens for drinks were priced at 10 euros for 5, they came as these little black plastic squares that were joined together with perforations. This 'beginning room' had fulfilled its function in less than 5 minutes and we were now on our way through the proper security… they were pretty cool, no hassle just your usual put your stuff on the table and be patted down. Right, this was it, we walked round the corner and f**k me if I didn't bang my chin on the ground!! It was only about six times the size of the sanctuary and I AM NOT KIDDING!!!! It probably had enough space for two pre-launch space shuttles and some left over for a jumbo jet! The stage at the front was made out of scaffolding and came complete with banks and banks of lights and strobes towering above us, suspended speakers, flamethrowers and these really trippy robotic arms that held TFT screens displaying a picture of an eye!! These were well cool as they looked like weird aliens that just kept looking around at everyone! Further back into the arena there were several more banks of lights and speakers suspended from the ceiling, there were also a couple of large projector screens on both sides showing all kinds of mad stuff to make you rush! There were several different bars around the edge, one specialised for food and there was also an event merchandise stall plus a few independent ones. The toilets were in every corner and were all well sign posted. This brings me to my first gripe, you had to pay 50 euro cents to use the toilets. *fold arms* you what? I have to pay to pee? Okay fine I thought, paid the charge and went though. Now the toilets themselves were pretty damn plush to be fair, plenty of urinals and each lavatory was in its own enclosed room. To be honest they were the best loos I had ever seen in a rave!! I suppose you pay for what you get... Went back to the arena and found Dave and Rick, it was time for some serious stomping! The tunes were loud and furious, god knows how many decibels it was at but I reckon the speakers would have f**king levitated if they weren't suspended from the ceiling like that! DJ Rob and Dano were on at this point playing some seriously hard new style gabber which had me stamping my feet on the floor and banging my fists in the air, my heart rate must have been about the same speed as the BPM!! They had this MC (called Droks I think) who was able to make his voice sound really evil and demonic, he must gargle with gravel every night to be able to sound like that! The floor in the arena was fairly flat and smooth, which to start with was fine but after a few hours and your usual dosage of humidity plus people dropping drinks etc - rave scum began to form. Now typically rave scum never bothers me at all, in fact I am pretty much immune to it... but rave scum on a smooth surface suddenly makes everything VERY slippery!! This made it pretty dangerous to stomp in the way that I like to, I tried it for a bit but damn near went arse over tit and broke my neck. So I had to settle for bouncing around on the spot, which was a shame! I was in a Gabber rave and I couldn't stomp like a mad b*****d... how annoying? All the Dutch ravers danced in a funny way too, I've never seen it before... they don't tend to bounce like we do more sort of stamp their feet in front and behind (or side to side) whilst keeping at least one foot on the floor. Maybe they devised it from years of having to dance on slippery surfaces? lol j/k At this pointed I needed another slash and I was in for a bit of a shock about the toilet situation. The price hadn't gone up or anything, but there was a humongous backlog of people all trying to get in. It wasn't really an organised queue, more of an every man for himself squeeze and shove! It took me about half an hour to get in there and take a 30 second piss, pretty damn poor if you ask me!! Just got back from the toilet in time to see Promo's live PA at 12:30, really fresh, harsh, nasty, evil sounding gabber that I could not help mosching like a m***erf**ker to! After him was Nosferatu YAAAAH, thought I would go right up the front for this! Up at the front it was really packed, it seemed that the closer to the front you got the more you were inundated with people trying to get past you in all directions. Yeah I know this happens at all raves, nature of the beast and all that – but it got to the point where you couldn't really dance because there was so much human traffic (no pun intended) and you spent all your time moving to let someone past. I would give anything, anything for someone to come up with a solution for this as it can be a real b*****d when you're rushing your t*ts off and someone pushes past you and kills it, know what I mean? So I decided that the front was not for me and I moved back about half way where there was more space to manoeuvre. The crowd where screaming 'HOL-LAND', 'HOL-LAND' and the stage came alive with these mad flamethrowers going up on both sides, multicoloured rez lasers and more strobes and light cannons than you could count. I was using a disposable camera and I tried to take a few pictures without the flash, not sure how they'll come out though! The next DJ was Vince and he was especially good, awesome tunes and the mixing was really tight! A lot of people are saying he was the best DJ of the whole night. He played (I think) a tune that had the whole arena chanting 't*ts, f**k, a**hole, pussy' - 't*ts, f**k, a**hole, pussy' it was so cool!! :) hehe Dave, Rick and I were all completely knackered from stomping at this point so we paid the chill out room a visit. This was in itself pretty impressive, loads of long tables and plenty of chairs to sit on, a bar and a few merchandise stalls. It was all set under a kind of rainbow lighting effect which gave it a very relaxing vibe, we chilled out in there for about 45 minutes before we went back in just in time for Neophyte!! I dunno what happened, but they did something to the sound system when Neophyte came on... it was like it went up a gear! The sound was now ear-bleedingly pounding, if you were standing next to the speaker you could probably have leant towards it at 45 degrees and been supported by the sound pressure!!! Neophyte did not disappoint, fresh tunes like soul seller and muil houwe (wicked tune) along with some classics like base be louder and b*****d a**hole! For me, this was the set of the night as I could not stop dancing, my feet were beginning to hurt but I just could not stop! :) I needed a red bull at this point as I was beginning to flag! Last up was Catscan b2b Outblast for the last few hours. These guys started off pretty slow but built up the speed more and more towards the end where they broke into full on speedcore to finish us all off!! WAAA!!! A few times I thought my legs were going to fall off but I couldn't stop now, not after coming so far! We all decided it would be best to leave a bit early and beat the rush, retrieving the coats took about 5 minutes and that was it. Shame we missed the very end, we could hear it going on was we were leaving. All in all it was a pretty good night. Not the best event I have ever been to but then again my expectations were a bit high after what I had heard and plus a lot of the dutch ravers were saying that last years one was better! You gotta take the rough with the smooth in this game though innit? :) I was so knackered when I got back to Daves house, you do expend a lot more energy at Gabber raves I am telling ya! I slept all the way through till Monday morning!! In the morning Dave and I popped into Amsterdam to do a bit of shopping, I managed to pick up Controlled Demolition part 2 from Midtown (wicked album, recommend it) and a couple jars of this really nice peanut butter that Dave was feeding me when I woke up! hehe Anyway! Shouts to Rick (Dreamy Boy) Dave (Pathfinder), thanks for the bed and board mate – I owe you one! Stuart (who I met on the way out there in the airport) sound geeza, and his mate who'se name I've forgotten!
