One Night Stand at Sherman Events Center, 2/12/11

Kris Abel

Over the weekend, the Sherman Events Center was host to "One Night Stand" -- a Valentine's Day party put on by Polygamy Productions, featuring Darude, 4 Strings, AK1200 and more spread across four stages. Making your way into the venue was a bit daunting, as there were lines that spanned blocks to get and security was rigorous. While it's comforting to know you're being thoroughly protected against the candied masses' gum collections, the back-up was awful, as security searched the brightly colored crowd more thoroughly than TSA agents, leaving people waiting in line for at least thirty minutes if not more. This is typical of most events at the Sherman due to the layout of the building. A good rule of thumb: get there early or hurry up and wait.

After overcoming the line, the next obstacle was getting upstairs to the main stage where 4 Strings was about to go on. Everyone was already rushing to get up the narrow stairs, the only one leading up or down to the 4 levels. Frequent backups were caused by people stopping to talk on the stairs. Upon reaching the stage, we were greeted by a spacious wooden dance floor, high vaulted ceilings and DJ De Vos from 4 Strings.

Formed in the Netherlands in 1990 by Carlo Resoort and Jan De Vos, 4 Strings has been a production force in the trance genre for some time. Their biggest hits include "Take Me Away", "Diving", and "Summer Sun" -- classic club anthems all. Characterized by pretty female vocals and light instrumentals, they are a treat for fans of classic trance as they helped found the genre.

Representing 4 Strings, DJ De Vos took the decks at 11 p.m. to a well-packed main room. He started out the evening with "Woah Oh Oh" by Zombie Nation, a classic anthem. Fogged and lasered, people were dancing furiously as this transitioned into a remix of the Eurthymics' "Sweet Dreams". The set was a combination of hard, hard trance followed by the light female vocal productions such as "Take Me Away" that define 4 Strings. This was fantastic for the old school crowd that came out to re-live their younger days but it wasn't anything that hadn't been heard before. Closing the set with a remix of Delerium's "Silence", De Vos set up Darude nicely to take folks on a trip down memory lane.

Kris Abel

Hailing from Finland, Darude (aka Ville Virtanen) arrived on the scene in the 1995 as an up-and-coming trance DJ. In 1999, the track "Sandstorm" was released from his album Before the Storm, and quickly becoming #1 around the world. Other tracks from that album, "Feel the Beat" and "Out of Control", were also hits but neither of them reached the success of "Sandstorm." Even a decade later, the track is a monster and easily identified by the most new EDM listener. This is the curse Darude faces when he spins live -- living down the "one cheesy hit wonder" status.

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Sherman Events Center

1770 Sherman St., Denver, CO

Category: General

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