Paul Oakenfold and his hard-hitting trance music appeared for the first time ever in Columbus Tuesday at the seemingly sold out 303 S. Front St., the former residence of the Red Zone nightclub.
The music was sensational. Columbus has probably never experienced such exceptional music on a weeknight. The only aspect of the evening that was sub par was the venue where the event was held.
303 S. Front St. was set up very different from the Red Zone and if someone had only been to the Red Zone once or twice, one might be unaware that the same building was used for both activities.
The venue was two connected rooms. One main large, dark, gray, drab, square room with a bar taking up at least one quarter of the area. This room was joined to a second smaller room. Both of the rooms remained extremely smoky, musky and dark the entire evening, even though the effects were milder in the smaller room.
Also detracting from the show was the over-populated dance floor. If the event wasn’t considered sold out, then it was because the fire chief wasn’t there to regulate maximum occupancy. With minimal space to move, one could do little more than jump to the beats.
With all of these factors working against Oakenfold, he still gave the crowd everything they had paid for and then some.
To start the evening off on the right foot DJ Amit, the Israeli sensation spun a set from 9:15 to 10:15. Around 10:15 DJ D:Fuse from Austin, Texas stepped up to the tables for a pulse-pounding set of trance music. D:Fuse, wearing a cowboy hat, was recruited by Oakenfold to be on his tour and quite possibly did not make one mistake in his two-hour set.
Sanjoy Roy, an engineering major from the University of Akron, drove down for the evening to see Paul Oakenfold and said he was already satisfied after having heard D:Fuse. “D:Fuse was unreal and a perfect lead in to Oakenfold,” Roy said. “After hearing D:Fuse I knew Oakenfold would be better and I am happy to say I was right.”
Around 12:15 D:Fuse finished an incredible set and Paul Oakenfold began a brilliant set.
Oakenfold spun a set that was over two hours long with a ten minute encore. His set included many spaced-out records intertwined with timely beats. To attempt to describe the variety of records Oakenfold used ranged from jungle records to trance records to one record that was a rift from guitarist David Gilmore of Pink Floyd. Oakenfold had the entire venue consuming his every beat. He masterfully matched beats with one of the top record selections in the world.
Oakenfold is widely considered as “the world’s most successful “DJ” and on Tuesday, he proved his title to an elated Columbus crowd.
