Sensation Innerspace The Review

It’s a late night in 2011, a chat window pops up from a mate followed by: “We have got to experience this!” It was the teaser for Sensation White “Innerspace” held in Amsterdam that year. I watched it ten times it was that good. I couldn’t believe such an event existed.

At that stage ID&T had been running Sensation for over a decade. Starting relatively small (under 20,000 in Amsterdam) then expanding into different themes, shows and eventually countries. Watching post event movies of each event and listening to this music showed a well organised company that was doing something with electronic dance music [EDM] at a level few had seen before. Clearly this was the benchmark for indoor EDM events. The whole of Europe loved these parties so much they’ve practically had had one in each of their countries. Only the best djays were headlining and their mixes and styles were unparalleled. They even had one States side last year. This was no longer just an indoor party on a massive scale. It was a fantastically well-orchestrated, scheduled and planned production offering only the best in everything that represents current EDM culture, executed incredibly.

I sighed and scratched this into a list of things I would hopefully do next time I was overseas, little did I know my experience would arrive in South Africa eventually.

There was excitement when Sensation White was announced to tour in SA amongst those who knew what the brand actually was. A count-down began with fans preparing their all-white outfits, costumes and logistics weeks in advance. The Hype around this event was immense. Fast forward to Saturday night and with ten seconds to go, it finally hit me that I was at a Sensation. Standing in front of epic rotating stages in the shape of Lotus flowers, surrounded by line-array stacks; standing under a ceiling of massive round spheres and lasers; surrounded in white but waiting to be coloured in every shade; I was ready for my “Innerspace” Sensation experience. I was ready for my journey.

Welcomed by Sensation’s signature MC, who would become rather annoying through the night, the timer hit zero and Mr. White opened as he always does. I was expecting a big kick, I was expecting one of those life-changing bangers you only hear at events like these, ripping itself out of each and every line-array while thousands screamed their lungs out. Sadly, something was missing.

Mr. White’s set was simply too chilled, running closer to lounge music then the Progressive Trance that he’s famous for. The line-up write up did say he would be subtle, and he really was, he was really subtle. With so much energy in the room he just needed to start us punters off and let us release and yet it felt like he was holding everyone back. He had nothing to build or warm us up for, Sensations reputation and marketing had done all the work for him.

The MC didn’t help. He did what he did, but he didn’t set the mood as I heard him do before in Sensation sets. Introducing and concluding each djay’s set lost so much energy every time. He often came out with instructions to clap and shout which annoyed people rather than fire them up to party harder.

Just as Mr. White was finally lifting us up and fountains were spraying his name in awesome colours, it was time to transition to Nic Fanciulli. Nic did pick it up while rotating high up on his djay pedestal. The ever changing colours of the Lotus stages and the activation of the Spheres really got people going. Stepping away from under the ceiling of spheres, you realised that no matter where you stood you were still part of the event in some way. Supposedly the event was maxed out at 17,000 people, there was so much space which at first I really enjoyed but realised after some time that it further broke down the energy of the event for those who weren’t closer to the stage. I think the place could have done with more people. There were 4 massive grandstands, rad for chilling out while the dome’s ceiling kept moving and changing colour in time with the beats.

Once again, a conclusion of silence, and then an intro for Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano. It should have just been a clean hand over. Once they started everything up again they got a little dirty and finally got the night to where it should have been from the beginning.

The spheres now started moving and making epic formations that made you feel part of that moment. The colour combinations, timing and ever changing elevations of these spheres energised the dance floor directly underneath it. This duo had a solid set of tunes but even they eventually got far too repetitive for such a diverse crowd of variety starved punters. They did perform a back to back set and oddly at this time of the night the additional effects, the red flare act, and spinning air dancers with their smoke seemed to distract rather than enhance the flow of the night. I questioned the music quality. Were the tunes just not right for us? Were punters focusing on the effects because they were bored? The line array quality was phenomenal so it wasn’t the equipment. The bass was solid but lacked kick and we were indoors.

Daniel & Juan Sanchez were up next, these were the residents of the show and had some good moments. Even mixing in some known South African tunes which got the crowd super engaged again. As cool as the effects were they were seldom complimentary, they were distracting, because the music just wasn’t up to the international standard everyone in that Dome was expecting. The venue ran out of booze, a clear indication that people just weren’t engaged enough and not that South Africans have to be hammered to enjoy a show. Toilets were an issue simply because people were drinking too much not because the venue wasn’t organised. The breaks between the sets seemed pointless because no one was dancing hard enough to need them. We focused on things we should never have seen because the music wasn’t grabbing us.

After the 5th silence, Thomas Gold was on. With the spheres and lasers now doing their thing, he sounded great, some punters complained about his transitions and that he changed pace at the wrong times. I saw no fault in his set and thoroughly enjoyed this one, for the first time in the night I wished the music wouldn’t stop.

I got some phenomenal photographs which show a better evening of what people actually experienced. The MC’s conclusion and mention of Apartheid really pissed me off, but indicated that Sensation came to Africa arrogant. If they are the ambassadors that represent the pinnacle of EDM, on that night in Johannesburg they weren’t. There was an ignorance towards how well we know EDM in this country and how demanding we can be. We wanted the best EDM the world has to offer and we thought Sensation could deliver.

Had Mr. White turned it up in the beginning the reputation that is Sensation would have exploded, and we would have been on our advertised paths of spiritual enlightenment. Instead when the energy was down somehow cute effects, dancers and water fountains were meant to bring us back from all that constant stop & go jerking we felt through the night. Bored and EDM don’t mix well.

Sensation White was sadly average. Its downfalls apparent only because the one thing people actually paid money for wasn’t there that night, unbelievably great EDM. It was an expensive light show, with special effects, and theatre like performances which failed to start our supposed spiritual journey.

Words and Photos by DJ Mehow