Sunburn ‘09- Day 3 at Candolim, Goa.

DISCLAIMER

This review does not claim to be an exhaustive review covering all artists and is selective in nature of review and coverage.

Sunburn 2009. An event that most of us reading this review right now have probably heard about, been at, or wished were there.

Fortunately for us at Chordvine.com, we were right there, in the middle of the action, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. This here is our insightful review and highlights of the Sunburn 2009.

The journey to Goa started slightly bumpily, with our VIP access rejected, and a GA Pass to get into, effectively putting us out of the hyped AfterDark sessions that made up half of Sunburn this year. But we didn’t stop, we bought ourselves a VIP pass, rather disdainfully, but we did.  Hmph.

And so the day it all ended dawned upon us. So many amazing artists waiting for us to soak in their sounds and vibes. We started our the day with a monstrous set from Nasha banging his trademark dubstep sound on the Tree Dome, this time sans partner in crime for the Order; Udyan Sagar. But still, perfectly aggressive as ever and quite awesome to be out-dubbed in the morning.

Moving back the familiar house and tech routine, Greg Pidc**k came up with the goods with a tight and razor sharp—yet smooth set with his trademark techno sound. And simultaneously Nikhil Chinapa brought his all familiar Submerge set with one hour of good ID-able tchoons.

Cut to the Tree Dome again and Sanjay Dutta, the Beast from the East, came up with a superb one-hour trance set, which had bang from the word go. Thick basslines and anthem-like sounds were peppered through the set, which—on its own would have be great—but I’d have loved him to do a downtempo progressive house kind of set which he did when he opened for Markus Schulz earlier in 2009.

The Sky was continuing with its house-y love and Mr. Norman Doray came in and zapped a lot of energy with his infectious and ultra-immersive style of performing. Brilliant set, with plenty of pure house, dancey, singable and lots of fun. For me, the No. 1 performer per say in the fest. Nobody performs the way he does. He’s as happy a camper as you are down there. He gets No.5 on the rank list.

Back to the Tree, where a man I have been dying to watch graced the stage. A guy who practically owns the tech trance genre, swooped in and continued from where Dutta left. So much tech, so much bassline, so much thump, so much madness. It was delicious. Of course, I had to miss a good 30 minutes of his set as me and few other journos waiting outside the Sky Dome for Armin’s interview. Which never came, big thumbs down to Media folks for this. We missed so much of Sander’s set, but I caught a good chunk of Pearl’s set which was tech-driven and perfect as a starter for the man coming up.

Okay, let’s forget everything else, and whatever we discussed. The 3 times in a row DJMAG poll NO # 1 artist is here. The most recognizable face of EDM—apart from Tiesto —the world through out. Armin van Buuren.

Now to understand why this one man is so good, and manages to wow crowds right from Quito to Goa to Adelaide is simple. His crowd gauge is perfectly in sync with the crowd. He reads them like a grown up reads alphabets. He knows exactly what to play and when and where to play. And that’s exactly what he did as the MEGA-LINER, ULTRA-LINER whatever you want to call him apart from the headliner—did.

He banged the bassline so hard, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him bang it that hard. The crowd went psychotic and even though 95% of them had no clue about the songs being played, the lyrics of most of his songs were being karaoke-d on the visuals and yet no one sang, YET, this man managed to make this crowd dance and jump and go neurotic for a whole two and a half hours. It’s a pretty mean achievement considering trance may not have the easy appeal that house sometimes does with Indians.

I was a little expectant he’s play half an hour of progressive trance, and those who’ve heard him, know he can really play that stuff and make you go take your hands and keep them flying. He chose not to and fair enough. I was the happiest during this set, and it was filled with everything, some good uplifters, awesome-est vocals of the year and that big PHAT bassline and kick combo that worked wonders with the Goa crowd.

It ended with a trademark encore of Burned with Desire and by this time the 15,000+ Sunburners were thoroughly roasted, barbequed and sizzling with hot sauce by now. We left dazed and confused. Utterly, most beautifully touched.

Tired and baked, we washed and got to AfterDark, for the only guy I was looking forward to in the sessions. James Harcourt. A propah techno set, with the necessary aggro and hard punching tech-tronics, it was easily the best AD set, and made me slightly happy about shelling the 3450 extra that I had to for VIP. Hmph again.

The night ended with Boombaba and his quirk-filled tech housey feel which was great. I just wished we could have had two of his sets, maybe three so we would have avoided Whosane and Clement. Ughh.

So, let’s round it up shall we. J This is the best festival I have been to. And considering I haven’t been to many, its not a big deal—yet—is. To bring so many good artists and create such a grand stage for EDM on India soil is a tough task. And to do it so smoothly is commendable. PDM and Mr. Chinapa take a bow, lads, take an effing bow. J We are still aggrieved at not getting the VIP and waiting and not getting to interview Armin. And believe AfterDark was a lot of hype with little to show and next year we wish it has a lineup to match the equal costing of On the Beach (which quite frankly was brilliant and paisa-vasool). All in all, a great 3 days and time well spent.

Not finished yet. Look down for the top 5:

NO # 5 Norman Doray

NO # 4 Sander van Doorn

NO # 3 Sultan

NO # 2 Armin and Roger (Yes, you expect them to be that good)

NO # 1 Nawed Khan (Anjunadeep to sign you, my prediction)