January 25th - Rave-O-Lution , Oss

Last friday it was time for the first bigger rave with lots of happy hardcore dj's .. RAVE-O-LUTION !

A party with Mental Theo, Highlander, Dune, Paul Elstak and The Rizzler .. 

Our settime was from 2 to 3 AM, after Paul, and I was crazy ill ! I had been in bed all day so that I could perform an hour in the evening ..

We arrived at 1.30 AM in Oss, a place about 20 min from Den Bosch, a bigger city in Brabant.

It was a big sports hall with about 900 people. Pretty big stage with a big LED screen.

Our set went rather well, although it was very hard for me to focus due to my illness ... But I managed! And Bruce did an awesome set !

To show you what the party looked like, check out the pictures made by Danny from PF ..

Thanks Hardmotion Events & Confusion Events for having us !

- overview of the party -

- Dj Paul Elstak -

- Our very own Bruce -

- ... and myself -

- Highlander -

- Mental Theo -

- Dune -

- the big LED screen -

- Critical Mass dj team -

- put your hands up in the air -

- Theo & Paul -

- Great stage at RAVE-O-LUTION -

Schedule week 4

The first bigger party of this year is taking place in week 4 already ... With the biggest names in happy hardcore land ... 

• January 25th - Rave-O-Lution , Oss

Dj's like Mental Theo, Dj Paul, Dune and The Rizzler will play so the bar is high ! Make sure you will be there, this will be one wicked party !

Our photographer Jasper will be there too to take pictures !

November 17th - Happy Wonderland, Beesd

At a party like 'Happy Wonderland', it's always hard to play, because of so many good dj. I mean, Dj Paul, Mental Theo, Waxweazle, Dune and Highlander are all oldschool heroes.

Also all happy hardcore tracks made will be played several times, so when you have to start at 4, chances are very big people think 'that track again' ?

So we stepped up the game, and played some very nice early tracks. Started off with 'Geleihoofd', and people went nuts !

I didn't expect people to be partying that hard at 4 in the morning, but they did ! Damn !

Much respect to all partypeople still raving like it was their last party, we had a blast ! I hope you did too !

Thanks to Confusion Events, for again another great booking!

November 17th - Pump Up The 90's, Hardenberg

Although I normally play only with my dj Bruce ( Mogwai ), the Pump Up The 90's organisation asked me if I could do some hosting with our good friend Dj Bass D .. because I love the PUT90's shows, I said yes !

These parties are well taken car of, every dj / artist has it's own dressingroom.

The show itself was pretty commercial. No hardcore beats, but mostly happy hardcore ( radio edits ) with a small touch bassdrum .. Not what we are used to, but nevertheless much fun !

Bass D did a good job, mixed very good, and gave the people lot's of hits to dance to. Other acts were Mental Theo and 4 Tune Fairytales .. I didn't see both, because we were set later than the both of them.

Here are some partypictures taken at the event :

Lilian from 4-Tune Fairytales

Partypeople at Pump Up The 90's Hardenberg

Mental Theo and his special new live act



The line up



8000 people attended this party !



Schedule week 46

In week 46 we have two gigs. Well, actually I have 2 gigs, and Bruce has one. I have been asked for a special hosting with colleague dj 'Bass D' at a very big 90's party, called 'Pump Up The 90's' .. The two gigs this week are : 

• November 17th - Pump Up The 90's, Hardenberg
• November 17th - Happy Wonderland, Beesd

It's a long drive between the gigs, but both are going to be cool .. One very big and commercial, and the other one with all colleagues ( like Paul Elstak, Mental Theo, Dune etc. ). Hopefully we can play a bit harder then ;)

October 5th - House Of Revolution, Eindhoven

Last friday we had two gigs in 2 different countries .. The first one was opening House Of Revolution in Beursgebouw in Eindhoven ..

Opening is always a thing, because when you start, the chances are big there aren't much people around yet. Beursgebouw is a pretty big building, which can hold about 7/8000 partypeople ( we were here on Queensday and the placed was packed ).

When we arrived ( 9.45 PM ) the building was still pretty much empty ( only organisation and bar people ) but after the doors opened, and we started our set, people came in ... after abut 20 minutes, I think 6/700 people were already partying. They really showed us love ! Eindhoven is always great to play ! In the end there were about 1500 people which was awesome ! This was a great way to start to evening !

We didn't had much time to stay, because at 12 AM it was already time to start our next dj set!

Other dj's that night were Flamman & Abraxas, Mental Theo, Dune and The Darkraver.

Schedule week 40

Friday we will have two gigs again ... and again two different ones ! One in Holland and the other one in Germany.

• October 5th - House Of Revolution, Eindhoven
• October 5th - Time2BeHappy, Aachen ( GER )

In Eindhoven we will start the party and afterwards we will drive ( fast ) to Aachen, because there we will do a dj set and I will host the party!

August 5th - Dance Boulevard, Bergen Op Zoom

Last saturday it was the first time for us, to close a festival and man was it awesome !

They predicted lots of rain that weekend during the week, but in the end, it stayed dry ( with an exceptionnel 5 min shower somewhere at 4 PM ) So the partypeople at this festival had happy faces, and that's what we needed! 

The party was in a place called Bergen op Zoom, an almost 2 hour drive for us. But it was worth every minute.

There were 3 areas, one hardstyle and one electro house, and a 90's stage. The 90's stage, where we were performing, was the only one open air stage. So rain or no rain was really important to us.

At the hardstyle area they had dj's like The Prophet, Brennan Heart, Adaro, Radical Redemption, and Endymoin, and at the electro tent they had dj's like Ralvero, Lucien Foort, Gregor Salto and Vato Gonzalez. Pretty big names.

At the 90's stage they had Belgium dj's Da Boy Tommy and Da Rick and heroes Pat B and Dr. Rude ( who made an excellent remix for us ) among others. But we had the honor the close down the festival.

The people wanted craziness, and they got craziness. We went from happy to early, and back again ! We even played Broken from our dear friend Evil Activities ... ! It was really a crazy hardcore fest from the 90's ! What an energy we received ... ! Last track before the fireworks : Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo : Wonderfull Days!

We made lots of pictures and we made some movie footage, so hopefully the aftermovie will follow soon. We will keep u posted!

Defqon1 Aftermovie

Check out our own aftermovie from our gig at the Defqon1 festival at our new Critical Mass youtube channel ..  as you can see, it was a great day !

June 23rd : Defqon1 festival

June 23rd was the day we had been waiting for since the day we heard the news that we would be playing there .... D-day ... or Defqon1 day ! Such a big festival, with all those big dj names, wow ! It was a big honor.

Ofcourse, when you are playing at a outdoor festival, the first thing you worry about is, the weather. But at 10 AM in the morning the sun was already shining and the sky was blue. The way everybody hoped for. Great start of the day.

My dj had to play at a dance festival in the south of Holland at 12 PM, and from there on we drove to Biddinghuizen, a small village in the province Flevoland, about 80km from Amsterdam. Biddinghuizen is very small village with a population of about 6000 inhabitants, but is well known because of it's themepark Walibi Holland ( formerly Six Flags ) and the area where one of the biggest festivals in The Netherlands takes place ( Lowlands ). But on this weekend, it was Defqon1 time! 65.000 people went crazy that weekend, on all kinds of hard and loud dance music!

Because of bad traffic, we arrived at 4.20 PM at the entrance, and for there we were escorted to the GREY area ( the early stage ). Unfortunenately we arrived at 4.36 ( our settime started at 4.30 PM ) but our friend Mental Theo was so kind to play an extra tune. Then it was party kicking time ! The stage looked like a big Yin-Yang sign ( check picture 1 ). We arranged a cameraman for the day ( my man Sander Kroes ) and he was filming from the arrival till ... to make a special road/aftermovie for us, for our new Youtube Channel.

There were about 1500 partypeople dancing to our tunes, and that is quite a lot, considering at other area's dj's like Kutski, Noisecontrollers, Psycho Punkz and the almighty Neophyte Records Allstarzs were playing too. It was great to see people really loving that early sound. We received a lot of love ! We played pretty hard with lots of bootlegs ( thanks to my man Dj Triax ) and people liked it. And ofcourse, people sang along with Burning Love ! :)

After our set we walked around to see the other area's and feel the vibe. Our cameraman followed us around. It was great to talk to dj's I haven't seen in a long time again. Buzzfuzz, Pavo, Predator, Waxweazle dj team, and the boys from Neophyte Records ( Kelly, Melvin and Jeroen )

At 10 PM it was time to go. We were dead tired. It had been a long day. A great day though. Defqon1 for us came to an end. It was an honor to be playing at this mega festival. Thank you Q-Dance for the opportunity! And Thank you very much for the customized Heineken bottles!

- GREY -

- RED -

- The Festival -

- Mainstage Endshow -

- Black -

June 3rd - Intents Festival 2012 ; Control Our Nature Day 2

The day I had so looked forward to, June 3rd - Intents Festival - had come .. But I guess I wanted it too much, because instead of the sun we had the day before, it rained all day ! Our plans making a very cool road/aftermovie vanished in the water ( literally )

But it didn't mean our performance was going to be less. So at about 2.30 PM we drove to Oisterwijk, a place about 30km from Eindhoven. At 4 PM we arrived, and we got our backstage bands and our tokens. Our settime was 4.45 PM. Before us were the Klubbheads and I think there were about 50 people. from the moment we started, people keep coming in. After 15 minutes there were about 200 people and after an hour the tent was pretty fully. I guess there were about 800/900 people. They were dancing, but also singing our Burning Love, Bring The Noise by E-Rick & Tactic and Hold Me Now by Highlander. The atmosphere was great!

After us the king of happy hardcore Mental Theo played his set and after that Dune and Party Animals were up playing.

It was a great festival and everything was well taken care of. I hope we will be here next year to rock the stage again !

April 30th - Queensday

April 30th is a special day in Holland .. our queens birthday ... that means parties in almost every city in Holland, especially the bigger cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven.

On every square in a city you hear electro, techno or even hardcore beats ... it's quite nice .. thousands of people everywhere, and when the weather is good, you only see happy faces ...

We had 2 gigs that day, and man oh man was I looking forward to this ..

The first one was in Eindhoven in a big venue called 'Beursgebouw' .. it's a huge eventlocation with a total capacity of 6000 people I think, and I think they were there at that moment ... people everywhere!

First gig called 'House Of Revolution goes Q-Day' as seen on the flyer. Many dj's including the top happy hardcore ones, Paul Elstak, Mental Theo, Dune and Flamman & Abraxas ( Party Animals )

We were playing after Mental Theo, and he played some hard stuff! - No happy hardcore ;) - A lot of old tracks in a new 2012 coat, including the new 2012 remix of 'Wonderful Days' .. 

Settime 6.00 - 7.00 PM. We started of our set with 'Raveworld' which is a classic! The tone was set! There were a lot of gabbers in front of the stage, and our set was appreciated. People sang a long and danced so we were quite happy. We started of a bit hard ( early ) and then worked our way to tracks like 'Turn Around' from Damage Inc. and 'Destiny' from Brothers In Crime.

It was nice to see that happy hardcore is still doing it's thing!

I also saw my niece in the audience with I haven't seen in a long time and she looked proud :)

After us were our friends Flamman & Abraxas with MC Remsy, and that's always fun! Haven't seen them in a while.

After the gig we had little time because at 8.00 PM we had to be in a place called Veghel. A small village about 25 km from Eindhoven. I had to host the last 3 hours as a MC, but in between Bruce and I had to play our dj set. Our setttime : 9.00 till 10.00 PM.

We arrived at 7.45 PM and we just a little to eat some snacks. I started of hosting with Dj Graphic, a hardstyle dj ... Veghel was ready for some harder sounds, after a whole day of electro beats.

Although hardstyle is not really my kind of music, Graphic played some dope ass tracks and I liked what I've heard!

After this it was time to ROCK! The audience was great! A whole square full of people who loved hard music! Great fucking vibe! I saw a lot of people dancing, singing, screaming and more.

It was a real great atmosphere! A great way to close down this Queensday for us as Critical Mass.

My Queensday was not closed yet though. I had to rock once more with no other than The Darkraver. And closing down a stage with The Darkraver is another level.

We went from happy, to oldschool, to hardcore till LOUDER! There were some tracks I hadn't heard in years ! The people loved it!

The last track was Rob Gee's 'Ecstasy You Got What I Need'. What a party this was. Steve ( The Darkraver ) throwed at one point a whole bucket of ice cubes to me ( as a joke ) but instead of me most ice cubes came down on the Pioneer equipment .. We had fun ..

We hope to do this again next year ..... !!

Schedule Week 16

This week we will perform at our first outdoor festival this year ! And we are looking forward to it!

• April 21st : Wonderland The 90's - Appeltern

Together with oldschool heroes Dune, Party Animals, Mental Theo , Darkraver and old friend Dj Affix we will rock that crowd ! To people who don't have tickets, I am sorry ! It's sold OUT!