Fear.FM Harder

[Report] Coone & The Gang: Public Enemies

The first Coone and the gang and sold out in one of Belgium’s biggest venues and it was a huge success. 4 years later he’s at it again, playing at Lotto Arena, Antwerp, for an exclusive event with some of the biggest and best names in hardstyle. By the time we got inside, we missed Dark-E and Kutski was just coming on stage. As he started playing we checked out the venue, it looked amazing the stage had a giant screen behind it that at this stage was just showing the logo for Coone & The Gang – Public Enemies. The rest of the stage was filled with a huge amount of spotlights that changed all different colours and many different shapes including stars and squares. Just in front of the stage there was some frame work with more spot lights and these panels all of them which once they turned on realised were more screens that displayed videos and shapes according to the main screen on stage. All up there were about 6 different layers of screens which created a really great effect throughout the crowd.

I was also very impressed with Kutski’s set playing songs like “The Bottle – Marcel Woods”, “Expansion – Showtek Remix”, “Levels – Avicii”. He was also playing a lot of Dubstep throughout his set. The other great thing about his set was he was doing a lot of scratching on the decks which I have not heard anyone do in years! After Kutski had finished playing, all the screens turned on for the introduction of the next DJ’s “Dirty Workz bounce team” (Fenix, Dr. Rude & Demoniak).

During the introductions to this set they showed various clips from the movie “Scarface”. As well as a video of a city at night time which made you feel like you were gliding through it and deep vocals slowly introducing them. Later on followed the same theme featuring other clips from the movies “Reservoir Dogs”, “Godfather” and “Pulp Fiction”. The whole event was themed as early gangsters and most of the DJ’s were wearing old school suits and gangster looking attire.

As the name suggests “Dirty Workz Bounce Team” they played a very bouncy some what uplifting set. I have listened to all of them before and do enjoy them for a bit of change from your everyday hardstyle but I do not know many track names but nonetheless it was enjoyable and had a good bounce around the arena.

Next up was “Dirty Workz Future Squad” (The Vision, In-Phase & The Unloaders), they played a some what dirtier set compared to “Bounce Team” opening with “Gangsters Don’t Dance – Gunz for Hire”, and also playing “Wake Up – Brennan Heart & The Prophet (Snooze Edit). By this stage of the night all the screens stayed on showing images of the DJ’s up on stage and different patterns moving in time to the music. It really was a spectacular sight, especially for a slightly smaller event like this it was great to see they didn’t ‘skimp out’ on the production or effects in any way. Following “Future Squad” was Da Tweekas, the funny and some what crazy duo from Norway.

I had never seen them before and I have been a big fan for quite a while now and they did not disappoint. Marcus came up on stage with his guitar and started playing “D.W.X – Coone & Da Tweekas” which was awesome! After which they slowly faded out and went through a clip from “Scarface” and Kenth pulled out a Tommy Gun and pretended to shot Marcus off the stage and Kenth took over the decks. During there set the lasers started to come online, at long last. They played one of the best sets of the night, dropping so many of my favourite tracks like “Million Miles – Da Tweekas Remix” & “Healing Incantation”. Marcus and Kenth were having the best time up there I almost thought they were going to actually jump off the decks into the crowd. There is nothing more exciting then to watch a DJ jump around and go as crazy as the crowd does, it really just pumps you up that much more.

After the mind blowing set it was 12:00 and it was time for mister Dirty Workz himself, Coone! The screens began introducing him and the crowd was getting more and more restless waiting for him to appear. He popped up from behind the decks and the crowd went absolutely wild! Starting his set with “Universal Language” when the beat dropped, there were hidden pyrotechnics that came online in time with the beat and created a heat wave over the whole crowd. His set was nothing short of mind blowing, I did not sit down or even rest the entire set. Track after track was just exhilarating pumping all my favourites like “Travelling”, “Come Take My Hand”, “Monstah” & “Licht Uit – Coone Remix”, plus a few other remixes of non Hardstyle songs. He also took the time to thank everyone who voted for him in the DJ Mag Top 100, in which he scored a great placing of #41.

Coone Finished of his set and Deepack came on stage to join Coone. Together these two really love to play some more heavy dirty hardstyle, opening with “Mayday Dream” and also dropping “The Dream Goes On” and the old school “Zombie Nation” which everybody knows from all over the world and it went off. After this set Coone got a slight of a break, while the King of Italian Rawstyle came on, Zatox!

As always Zatox played an excilerating set opening with “Unborn”, then dropping the Qlimax anthem of this year yet again “No Way Back” which is always very exciting to hear. He also played “Revolution” & “Madhouse” during the Qlimax anthem. I looked over to the seats that were around the Arena and there was a guy gabbering so hard up there, I’m surprised he did not fall off the seat. Its always a good sight to see when someone is going so nuts to the music!

After Zatox, Coone came back on stage with Fenix for Ambassador Inc. Now this was crazy, not just the music but Coone actually stagedived! Mc. Villain kept saying “we need some strong boys up front” and behind on the screens it kept saying “It’s Time To Stagedive” and it was almost a moshpit up near the stage because everyone wanted to be apart of it. The song “Come Take My Hand” came on and just as the beat dropped Coone jumped into the crowd. He got carried around for at least a minute or two actually being bounced in the air by all the people carrying him, before being returned to the stage for the next song. Coone looked like he was having the absolute time of his life while he was in the pit and once he’d returned to the decks, it was great to see. They also played the “Melody Of Nature (Qontinent Anthem)” and “A Moment Of Creation”.

After Ambassador Inc. was Psyko Punkz, the “Golden Boys” of Dirty Workz and following key from the rest of the night played an epic set dropping so many tracks we all knew like “The Words” and they even had the video clip from Youtube playing in the background behind the DJ’s. They also played “Psyko Soldier”, “No Fear”, “Left With The Wrong”& “Bassboom”, which the crowd went wild too, singing along to all of the lyrics.

Coone Classics was up next we were quite excited to hear this set because you just don’t hear any of his old stuff played live any more. During the set I was watching Coone very carefully and he looked completely ecstatic, I don’t think I had seen him have this look before while playing. Everyone was still going really wild, and I think Coone really enjoyed playing his old stuff and to still see the great response from the crowd. He finished of his set with “Words From The Gang” but the Dutch version. I didn’t know the words anymore but the rest of the crowd did. The only part that was in English was “if your not in it for the love of the music would you please FUCK OFF” the beat dropped the entire crowd ‘lots their marbles’ you could see the entire crowd just bouncing up and down.

Coone got another quick break after his set and Wildstylez jumped on stage. He started with his new song “Lose My Mind” and dropping one of my all time favourite mash ups “Just As Easy – Attack Again”, which was originally first played at Qlimax last year. During the melody of attack again he faded out the sound and you could hear the whole crowd singing the melody and the faded it back in, just in time for the beat drop. I normally don’t like many mash ups but I love this one. It was done so well and the whole crowd seemed to really appreciate it to. He also dropped “Put This On Youtube – Wildstylez Remix”.

Next on stage we had Dark Raver & Ruthless playing a set, that started as dirty hardstyle leading up to hardcore to prepare you for the final set. They played many great songs, but one that really stood out from the rest was “Wake Up (original edit)”. The original edit is the one with the over the rainbow section. During the song all the lasers actually changed to every colour they possibly could and created a rainbow throughout the crowd. I hadn’t seen this effect done before, especially not to this song, it was very fitting. Towards the end of their set they also played a much faster and dirtier version of “Mayday Dream” called “In The Mix”.

Now after their set the real hardcore started! Endymion & Evil Activities came out opening with “Broken”, one of Endymion’s more recent and very popular songs. Just after they mixed into “A New Today” and the MC that normally does the vocals for this song came out on stage and sung them all live, it was an amazing experience! During their set they also played “The Challenge – Evil Activities Remix” among many others.

All in all it was an absolutely breath taking event. Seeing Coone play so many times and how happy he was, it was very inspiring. Also for a slightly smaller event compared to the others we have been to it really shows size doesn’t matter as long as you have the right atmosphere, it definitely did. Thank you to Coone (Koen) for putting on such a great event.

Photos courtesy of Bass Events.

Tim Hunt - Party Trip of a Lifetime