Tiesto
TIESTO IN CONCERT 2
Black Hole Recordings

I am new to Tiesto, but I have heard his name before. I don’t know his work or that of any artists in his genre; however, I have been very curious about the entire scene, so I was interested in giving this DVD a spin.

Tiesto in Concert 2 is from a show recorded on 04/10/30 at the Gelredome Arnhem in Holland before a crowd of tens of thousands of fans, who are all thoroughly enjoying themselves as they dance for three hours straight, but Tiesto can’t take full credit for their bliss because if you combine their stamina, the show elements and the fact that they were in Holland, it’s a safe bet that at least a couple of people were on drugs, really, really good ones. I know I would have been had I been there and probably should have been while watching the DVD to fully enjoy the experience.

A lot goes on aside from the spinning of music and the tweaking of knobs. Tiesto and his team have created quite a visual display inside the Gelredome. He uses the concert basics: lights, lasers, fireworks and video screens to great effect. I especially enjoyed the lights going out in “Alaska” and lasers cutting through the darkness. A circle of video screens surrounds the DJ booth with images that project and pulsate in sync with the music.

Unfortunately, it appears he used a different team to put together the DVD, because the disc as a whole is a disappointment due to its visuals. The edits happen at too fast and furious a pace, which does work with some songs, but not for three hours. While they might have been trying to recreate that club feeling as your head bops around and eyes catch different images, it falls flat to the home viewer. The cameras are set up all over the Gelredome and are constantly on the move: panning, booming, tracking, losing focus as they zoom in and out. We get to see the show from different locations, but it is frustrating because there’s barely enough time to get your bearings. I wanted to experience these places, but the director and editor had other ideas as if to compensate for the fact that a man in a booth isn’t much to look at.

Things got a bit odd when other performers joined Tiesto. Clowns and acrobats a la Cirque du Soleil joined him during “Magikal Circus,” which was too obvious a prop. Matt Hales from Aqualung came out at about the halfway point to sing “UR.” The show’s momentum came to an abrupt halt, creating the unintentional perfect bathroom break. The strangest guests were a pair of magicians during “Stop 9.5” and “Everlast.” They were doing sleight of hand, coin and ring tricks. The people at the back couldn’t have been too impressed.

It is a lot to take in one sitting and for a novice it’s hard to tell what is going on musically. I can tell when patterns, tempos and sounds change, but at times it's difficult to understand when one song ends and another begins. Some of the longer songs are made up of different movements that don’t appear to be linked. If I couldn’t see the different chapters on the DVD, I wouldn’t know where one song ended and another began.

Fans of Tiesto will probably enjoy Tiesto in Concert 2 a great deal since he is at the top of his game, but this DVD is not the best way to get to know him or his music. Look for a CD of this concert instead. I was surprised there wasn’t one included so I could take the music with me.

I enjoyed most of the music, but I was hoping for more variety. All of it sounded like a European nightclub, which grew stale after three hours. I would recommend seeing Tiesto in concert. The performance is probably a blast to experience as opposed to sitting around and watching it from a couch.

To judge for yourself, you can see clips of DVD from Tiesto’s website made available below. The tracks are unnamed because of a Belgian radio contest.

Clip 01: Click here
Clip 02: Click here
Clip 03: Click here