Masters of Hardcore - Design the Future

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Masters of Hardcore has been labelled by some as the mainstream event of hardcore. To some, it's like Parklife to the electro scene, the Utopia to Australia's rave scene, Taste of Chaos to the emo scene...you get my drift 😊. It is the biggest event in the world that plays purely hardcore - selling 20,000 tickets each time so it's understandable people feel this way. Just like all big events, it's made a name for itself for a reason - Masters of Hardcore presents the worlds biggest hardcore artists (mostly Dutch & Italian) and spreads them out over 5 arenas, which all have a different theme, well thought out lighting production, incredible sound quality and stage set ups. The controversy with an event such as this is that people complain it's always the same each time they have it but I really don't see the need to change something that works so well - there are plenty of other events that are more intimate and experimental. I should really write advertisements for these guys, I have nothing bad to say!

So it cost us $100 alone to get to the event so our money for merchandise was gone. Once we got to the venue, which was Brabanthallen in Den Bosch, Holland, we could see that people were arriving by the busload - literally. This event is so big and cities in Holland are so spread out that you can organise to catch buses specifically for the event - it was more expensive than train though. Another thing I noticed is that this event was a massive sasuage fest. From the station it seemed like for every 100 boys, there would be maybe 15 girls.

The security at this event was intense, I'm going to assume they've had problems before or they're just really cautious. You line up to go into single file cages where they check your ticket, after that another single file cage awaits you where they complete a full body pat down, including your hair and the hood of your jumper. After that, it's all bags on the table so they can search everything inside. From there though, you're free!!

Okay so there were 50 artists playing so we really had to go through and decide who we wanted to see just that little bit more. However, we desvised a plan which involved seeing half of one set and rushing to get to another to see the second half. Suprisingly, this worked really well and we managed to see a LOT of DJ's.

Firstly, we had a look through all the arenas. The photos are self explanatory but they were all amazing! This complex was hugeeeeeee but there were plenty of places to sit and some quiet areas too. We had so much fun people watching sitting throughout the whole complex. I think I looked really weird to some of the people at the event because of how young I look and my nationality... 😊

The first act we watched was The Outside Agency in the Modern Warfare arena. Masters of Hardcore was Smic's birthday night and he doesn't really like to dance to industrial so I promised I wouldn't make him spend the whole night in this arena but I sneakily made him go there (we were supposed to be on our way to Nico & Tetta) just to check out this set. We both had so much fun watching these guys. Their set was just so entertaining, I'll describe it as dark industrial drum n bass. I don't think many people quite knew how to dance to it, which was cute. If I were ever to mix music, their style would be it - simply because it's so experimental and looks like a lot of fun to play around with. I'd say this was my second fave set of the night behind Noize Supressor.

The next big act was Noize Supressor LIVE. This was a highlight for both of us and our first set in the main arena. It was packed. Luckily, we got there about 15 minutes early to try and make our way to the front but could only really get to about 10 metres away. The Noize Supressor boys are Italian and crazy haha, they have a very distinct and rough sound. Right on que, one of them got up on the table with a synthesizer in hand and started going crazy. They remind me of Ruffneck because they just have so much passion for what they do 😊 When watching Masters of Hardcore DVD's, I always wondered why people just danced in one spot but when the Noize Supressor set pretty much turned into a mosh pit, I understood why. From 10pm to 7am you could only dance on the spot in the main arena, it created a really good atmosphere but I was convinced Smicy or myself would get a black eye from someones elbow at some point. The camera filmed us for a few minutes during their set so we might be famous too!

We decided to get some food before Neophyte LIVE. They had a big food hall and they were mainly serving...HOT DOGS...yay! This was some GOOD hot dog action, yummmmmmm. I suggested we eat them in the Modern Warfare arena - see how sneaky I am? :P

Neophyte LIVE was a must see because Smicy poo is obsessed with them. Watching them is more like being at a rock concert, which I'm not reallyyyy into but the thousands of boys watching seemed to like it - I think it's a bit like when they're at the pub after a few beers and they do the whole burly singalong thing lol. They played tracks by bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana so Smic was getting all rocked out. A lot of hardcore tracks are really influenced by bands anyway so it's cool that Neophyte LIVE pays homage to that.

Afer this we wandered around aimlessly and tried to find places we could cool down that weren't covered with spilt drinks and mud. We went back into the main arena to Watch Endymion and Ophidian LIVE. As they did at Enzyme, the Endymion boys gave it their all, working the crowd so much that both of them had many close encounters almost falling off the table they were dancing on haha. I guess if I were playing to thousands of people I would dance like a crazy person too. Their excitement was contagious but we had to move back because I thought my ears were going to explode. There were people just standing right next to the speakers...speakers so big that your whole body vibrates if you get too close so I couldn't help but think they were idiots for standing there haha. Ophidian was completely hidden somewhere on the stage. We're not entirely sure why, maybe because they couldn't set up his equipment anywhere else but I think he would've liked that anyway. Their set was pretty much an exact combination of their seperate sets from Enzyme Incubation so it was really awesome, as you can imagine 😊

Over the next couple of hours, we watched most of Evil Acitivities LIVE and Rotterdam Terror Corps LIVE. We love both of these DJ's but I think that it was about 5am and being about our 500000000th and 5000000001st live act we'd seen that night, we just weren't all that into either of them 😞 it's funny that back home all I wanted to do was watch LIVE acts because they were such a rare thing yet over here they're just a little too common. The only downer with live acts is that they tend to play only their main songs and you don't get to hear them experiment with other tracks. They had also run out of Red Bull at EVERY SINGLE BAR at this event and I had a Smirnoff Ice & Smic had a Heineken to try to wake us up...this did not work :P

I have to say a special mention to Unexsist and Droks VS Akira for making me smile with their insanely fast speedcore. Now speedcore is a style of music which is just a little too fast for me but watching people dance to it is hands down the funniest thing I saw all night. There was the cutest gabber in front of us with the biggest smile on his face who looked like he was on fast forward. Far out, it was funny. The security guard came up to me and said something in Dutch and then looked around with a sort of weird expression on his face, Smic reckons he asked "How can you like this music?", I reckon it was "Wow, I love this music, what is this?" :P

After that we saw DJ Paul vs Panic. Great set starting off with old school happy hardcore turning into present day party gabber. Panic dances funny. This set made me remember how awesome Panic is and it was really cool to watch DJ Paul just because of his massive influence on the old school scene. We'll be seeing Forze DJ Team (who our cat is named after hahaha) in May so YAY, that'll be even better I reckon.

Last but not least, we went to watch Angerfist because we thought we should end the night in the main arena. Plus, we promised Holley we'd get some arena shots and I was panicing because we hadn't gotten any good ones yet. There was no stadium seating in the main arena, meaning the only way to get to higher ground was the VIP deck so we snuck up. Haha, I figured - it was almost the end so we could afford the risk of getting kicked out. We didn't though and got some mad footage of the crowd. Also, it was only from this view that we were really able to see the stage set up and what looked like about 40 lasers. I really suck at describing stuff like that but it was good.

As we were heading to the station, there were already hundreds of people waiting on the platform and as about a hundred of us approached they all went "HEYYYYYYYY!" and we went "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" back. This continued from the platform as more people arrived for the next 30 mins or so, which was so funny and made me all hypo. On the train home, about 5 different phones were playing hardcore, which was not pleasant. I ended up getting the best night (days) sleep since we got here, sleeping for 6 hours straight. Masters of Hardcore is really something else, something you have to be a part of if you're into that sort of thing. Our tickets cost 45 Euro so around $90 but I would've spent upwards of $200 with no regrets. Love love love love love love love <3

Smic:

This was my birthday night and I couldnt think of a better way to celebrate then to have gone to this event! The set up was amazing, the sound quality and production was the best I have seen at any concert or festival. Got so many cool photos and videos. We both made it through the night without getting to tired (even though we slept very well the next day) and had a glimpse of what all the events will be like that we are going to in the next couple of months.

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Comments

[Holley]

The ONLY thing i have to say towards this part of your blogs is....
OMFG I AM JEALOUS AS FUCK!!!!!!!!!! words cannot express how lucky you guys are to have experienced this! agghhhhhh <3