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[Report] Thunderdome – Breaking Barriers

“Welcome to another edition of Thunderdome!!!”
It’s one of the most well known quotations in the hardcore scene, since it was first used in 1993 in the track: “Welcome to the Thunderdome” produced by DJ Dano. And it hasn’t lost any of its power yet. Thunderdome is still dominating the scene, though compeditors are tough and never to be underestimated. December 18th 2010 was the night we broke some barriers. Hardcore-minded people from all over Europe gathered in the Utrecht Jaarbeurs, to celebrate the massive power of hardcore once again. ID&T promised us a surprise and didn’t release the timetable until the evening itself. Line-ups were waiting at the entrances. Though they were a bit unusual. They only showed the Dj’s playing in 4 different sections until one o’clock at night. “What the fuck happens at one o’clock?” The answer will follow. First let me tell you about our first few hours of the evening.

We arrived around 23:00 at the Jaarbeurs and because we’re from Fear.FM we had to report at the guest/press entrance, which was located at the opposite side of the Jaarbeurs, compared to the ‘main visitors’ entrance. It just started snowing when we walked around the Jaarbeurs. We weren’t the only people walking there. One of the Flügel-girls working that evening joined us with her friends.

The guestlist employees were friendly, and so was the security. Before we knew it we were in and walked through a large hall, which was decorated as a big chill out area with pick nick tables and food stands. There were also coin machines, one for cash billets and one for ‘Pin’ transactions. However due to a system/network error the Pin machines didn’t work all evening. Which made it difficult to get some coins if you didn’t have enough cash with you. The organisation should have done more to prevent a system overload. It took some time, but we managed to get some coins later on that evening so we could finally enjoy a cold beverage. For those who wanted a souvenir, T-shirts and CD’s were sold as well as fans, candy and sunglasses.

We entered the main hall, which was dived into four sections at 23:30. And we found ourselves in the Main Hardcore area. Dj’s Terminal and Vavaculo were stirring up the crowd with a dose of up-tempo mainstream hardcore, mixed at high velocity. Recognizable tracks like ‘Ctrl-D-Future’, ‘Here Comes The Madness’ and United by Hardness from the Traxtorm label combined with tracks from Angerfist and Tha Playah. They maintained a continuous flow of beats to get the crowd moving. At the end of their set, one of the guys climbed up the stage, holding up a flag to complete the chaos they caused during that hour. We also got a glimpse of Radium who was spinning in the Hardcore area. We recognized a track based on Queens ‘We Will Rock You’. We’re no Queen-fans, but the speedcore version was great. We stayed shortly in that area because at midnight The Outside Agency would start in the “Breaks” area. Didn’t want to miss that. Heavy breakbeats and banging bassdrums echoed through this section, and I can say this with ease, it was powerful and raw. Even though it was still early some people were already totally wasted. We found one guy lying on the floor between the thick curtains separating the different areas. As we pulled him up, asking if he was ok, he started talking, never to stop talking again. What the hell!?

We continued enjoying The Outside Agency and Obscurity in the Industrial area. We noticed that everywhere we went, the air was full of energy. All the Dj’s were giving it their best and the crowd loved it. After hearing the ‘Simbiosis Remix’ we went on to Kasparov. We haven’t had the pleasure hearing this guy before, so we were quite curious. Even though 15 minutes are too short to get a good impression, we liked what we had heard. The first 3 hours of Thunderdome were mostly for the new generation dj’s. They could prove their skills and warm up the audience for what still had to come.

It was almost one o’clock and even though we had a vague idea what could happen, we still weren’t sure. Bang… Lights out, Sound off and silence. All black heavy curtains separating all four sections started to move as well as the last curtain around the centre stage. Breaking Barriers and creating one whole area for the last six hours. ID&T finally revealed their grand surprise. The anthem blasted through the speakers and with a lot of light effects the rotating centre stage was shown to the crpwd. The stage contained more than just a Dj booth. Multiple stroboscopes were placed on all sides as well as green lasers. The rails on the ceiling, needed to hang the thick curtains, contained several spotlights, which illuminated the complete rail system. In the far left corner of the hall the huge words “Thunder” and “Dome” were placed in an angle of 90 degrees. In the right corner the massive logo of ‘Pure and Powerful Hardcore’ was hung up to the ceiling. Besides that, there were 2 dancing cages on the left side and on the right side of the hall the ceiling was decorated with triangular metal raster’s, hanging there like icicles. The sound quality was clear and loud like it should be. The main reason was that the speakers were placed in the centre of the hall this time, aimed at all corners. And the second reason was a lack of resonance of the building itself, which occurs frequently at large events like this.

Back to the line-up… The next two Dj’s to perform were Evil Activities and Outblast. They played a whole lot of known tracks like: ‘No Place To Hide’, ‘The Hustle (Tha Playah & Evil Activities remix)’, ‘Criminal’, ‘Why so Serious’, ‘Walking the Line’ and ‘Guess What’ to name a few and rocked the place. At two o’clock Negative A got on stage and treated us to a dark energetic set. For most people he was the hero of the night. Setting it off with his remix of “Shoot that MF” and continuing with heavy breakcore. Tracks like ‘B Possitive’, ‘Breaking Barriers’ and a remix of ‘Bird of Prey’ created a good vibe. And his re-fix of 3 Steps Ahead ‘In the Name of Love’ was received with great enthusiasm by the crowd.

DJ promo followed up at three o’clock. He was supposed to do a special performance with “The Opposites” but they were nowhere to be seen. Instead Promo killed us with a high-speed 45 minute mix. Hell Yeah! He still has got his skills. Tracks like ‘Demons’, ‘Unstoppable’, ‘Always Futile’ and ‘Attack’ kicked the shit out of everyone.
After Promo, we welcomed DJ Predator. During this set we went to the chill out to have a look there and sit back to relax for a while. When we got back we heard several nice tracks like ‘The Switch’, ‘Jiiieehaaaa (Angerfist Remix)’ and ‘System Crash’. At 4:45 it was time for the first live act of the night. Masters of Ceremony with a live band. The played several rock covers from Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine, mixing them up with their hardcore versions. It sounded quite cool and most people enjoyed ‘Break Stuff’ and ‘Killing in the name of’ combined with ‘Klaar om te rossen’, ‘Live and Loud’, ‘Adrenaline’, ‘Dirt’, ‘Army of Hardcore’ and ‘HC 2da Bone’.

At 5:30 we decided to leave the party. Though we still regret not seeing Enzyme X and Ophidian. Hopefully we get the chance in the near future to see those guys as well. Thunderdome was a great event and proved still to be a major player in the scene.

Awesome!