Afrojack is like a petulant child. There’s little you can do to wake him up when he’s asleep. The tale of star tantrums continues — this time it’s this Dutch DJ who switched off his phone and refused to wake up for his interviews ahead of his gig in the city. When he finally did wake up, hours later, the organising staff was on its toes, trying to get him chicken nuggets from McDonalds. That’s apparently the only thing he wanted to eat. At 6.50 p.m., hooded, he finally left his temporary abode in Chennai, the Crowne Plaza Hotel, consciously lining bouncers ahead of him; in no mood for selfies and smiles. Given he’s 6 feet 7 inches tall, the bouncers couldn’t really conceal him.
Predictably enough, his performance started late. Meanwhile, DJs from across the globe entertained the audience gathered at Confluence Resorts. Incidentally, Sunburn Arena with Afrojack had been initially scheduled for December last year, but had to be postponed due to the deluge. After tentative schedules, it finally took place over the weekend. Psychedelic lights, people with intriguing masks, glowing horns and floral headbands, thumping music and hundreds of hands up in the air — it felt like a carnival. There were a couple of cocktail booths, food kiosks, game and merchandise stalls as well. It’s not exactly what you would get in Goa, but it wasn’t too bad either.
Finally, at half past eight, Nick van de Wall, better known as Afrojack, ambled onto the stage in a pair of dhoti pants a scruffy grey T-shirt. Amidst a shower of golden confetti and blinding lights, he started off with ‘Take over control’ and the immensely popular ‘Ten feet tall’, as the massive screens behind flashed the lyrics. A section of the crowd held up the Indian and Dutch flags even.
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“This is some new stuff I am working on,” he announced, as he gave us a preview of what he’s coming up with next. He fused an almost unrecognisable mix of ‘Hey Mama’ with a catchy piece of music, before going on to play the popular track that’s a collaboration between him, David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Bebe Rexha. Some in the audience clambered onto each other’s shoulders to get a better view of the DJ, who was accompanied by a highly energetic MC Ambush.
The crowd turnout was around 8,000. With most international DJs and artistes performing in Delhi, Bombay and Bangalore, we’re a rather starved city. So, when one of the top ten international DJs decided to show up, music enthusiasts, who all this while moved to his recorded tunes, turned up in large numbers to watch him live.
The 28-year-old belted out a selection of electro and progressive house music. Then he played a bit of Hardwell, ‘CoCo’ by O.T. Genasis, ‘I can’t feel my face’ by The Weeknd, Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s ‘Outside’, ‘Titanium’ (a collaboration with Sia and David Guetta), yet another Calvin Harris hit ‘Blame it on the night’, ‘Do or Die’… It was 90 minutes of high-energy music. People danced non-stop; it didn’t matter if they were doing the robot dance or aping actor Jeetendra’s steps. Who needs a treadmill when there’s Afrojack to help you burn calories? And for those of you who missed it, the woman in front of us recorded 90 per cent of his performance. Apparently, that’s how you enjoy gigs these days!
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( The event was organised by Global Sound, property of Sparkz. )