Pre-sale tickets had sold out and the queues were already well down Bayswater Road by the opening time of 11pm. This was going to be a big ol’ night at Plastic. The man was finally here. He was Ferry Corsten’s other half, the second member of trance superact Gouryella. He was DJ Tiesto, and he was going to rawk.

Chromatic would start the night, with a lovely progressive mix. This guy has got to be one of the most understated DJs in Sydney at the moment. His progressive style is brilliant. Intelligent music, well crafted, well mixed, and he’s a great down to earth guy as well. If you read the inthemix forums, this might seem to be in contrast with the rest of the Plastic DJs. Perhaps it is…anyway, Marcus was about to land at Bay 33:

I arrived at a crowded Plastic to be greeted with some banging tunes from Nervous, and I was like yawn. But to my pleasant surprise this monotonous hard house bass began to disappear as his set progressed, and I mean ‘progress’ in every sense of the word, as some really quality tracks emanated from Plastic’s loud speakers. I really enjoyed the rest of Nervous’ set as the crowd grooved to some trancey tunes that weren’t crowd pleasers (as much as an overused term as that is), but very enjoyable, uplifting and funkified tracks.

Nervous worked up the crowd but they needed little assistance. By the time Tiesto hit the decks they were already in a frenzy.

And all of a sudden, there he was. In so many ways he reminded me of Corsten in that first half hour. A great journeyesque opening, building and building in tempo and fury, the music taking the crowd away as Tiesto surveyed the packed, sweaty dancefloor, smiling along with the punters.

I was up the front rocking along but all-too aware of the painful Plastic sound system. The speakers are piercingly loud and not all that gentle on the ears. Just as Tiesto got going I had to move away from the DJ booth to quell my splitting headache. Honestly, what kind of club puts a couple of average quality speakers at full volume at ear-level in front of the DJ ?!

Still, the set was building into what I hoped was going to be the match of Corsten’s epic effort. As I bopped off to the side, Marcus was still going off in front of Tiesto. How was that first section for you?


Tiesto started off magnificently with ‘Dido’ by Aria and it felt like his set would be a set of operatic proportions. Other fantastic tracks were thrown in but it never took off, and never seemed to go anywhere. There was a lot of hard house played as well, which wasn’t what I expected (as in, 100% trance) with a lot of tracks thrown in that were quite old such as “Tomorrow” and “Synaesthesia”. There were many more tunes that were old but not necessarily classics, not like “Carte Blanche” or “Out Of The Blue” or “Gouryella” which is what Corsten threw at us. It was a set I had difficult leaving the dancefloor to, but once I did nothing compelled me to come back.

Have to agree. I had moved off to the side but I kept on inching further away. The set looked like sweeping the crowd off to never never land but the trance engine kept stalling. The sound system had not put me in the best of moods, and I thought then, and still do now, that I would have enjoyed his music on a different night. But like Marcus, I had come expecting Tiesto to live up his billing – “Dutch Trancemeister”. There were glimmers of hope – I rushed in when I heard “Synaesthesia” building up, but Tiesto ruined the latter half of the song with a heavy bassline crossfaded such that the beautiful trance track was buried and eventually lost to a hard house track that was a wall of noise.

Corsten had skillfully mixed harder stuff into his set, but Tiesto failed to emulate his partner’s efforts. Track selection was off, as was technical skill. A couple of tracks were massacred by some mistimed treble tweaking.

So it was that I spent most of the night away from the stuffy dancefloor. Marcus was elsewhere, too:

I relaxed in the chill out room listening to the rest instead of going off to it like the rest of the crowd. He did predictably throw in his mix of ‘Silence’, which I love, but yes, it is played to death. He kept going, and finished his set with a monster track that I wish I knew the name of.


Tiesto had played quite a lengthy set, never stopping smiling with the crowd, and the Plastic people loved him.

If Tiesto had played harder to appease the regular crowd, John Ferris knew exactly what they wanted and launched into that familiar Plastic sound with “Star 69” by Fatboy Slim, aka ‘the track everyone wants to know the name of’.

beXta took over to close the night, playing her typical Plastic effort as well.

But the talk was all about Tiesto. He had won many fans on the dancefloor but also had a few detractors. I guess my dissatisfaction with the night (as opposed to Tiesto specifically) was influenced by inevitable comparisons with Ferry Corsten’s appearance at home. Marcus, how did you see it ?

Now as much as you try hard not to, you can’t help but compare the man to Ferry Corsten who was out here only yesterday taking us on a journey into mind-blowing trance. And when Tiesto comes here so soon after, comparisons are inevitable, and when said inevitable is made and both are scaled next to each other, Corsten flies high in the sky and Tiesto plummets down to earth. I’m sorry, but after hearing (for me) the best trance set of my life from Ferry Corsten and expecting/wanting/dying for the same from Tiesto, this punter was sorely disappointed when the man didn’t deliver. I’m not saying it was a bad set, far from it, and I enjoyed it a lot, but it wasn’t Ferry, and it didn’t come close for me. I expected a set full of trance, it wasn’t even all trance at best.

Overall, he played a very good set, but when I’m expecting Gold and get Bronze instead, I of course end up disappointed. It was a set that was all too familiar and that I feel our local DJs can play just as well, and the only reason they don’t play sets that are the same as Tiesto’s, was because the tracks they play are at least current.

That’s a bit nasty but I can’t say I wasn’t a little jaded either. Still, I’d definitely see Tiesto again. I’ve heard other live sets, I love his music, his new album (recorded live) is tops. He could be the match of Ferry Corsten. I think if Tiesto had played home it would have been a vastly different set.

Comments were raised in the forums about Plastic itself. One person ventured; “The sound system wasn’t tops cause we didn’t pay $70+ for the ticket! but it was good enough. Too many people have too many expectations as to what makes a good night out.”

Consider this:

Ferry Corsten

Cost: $25


Consider that expectations were based (not unreasonably) on the advertising, which heralded Tiesto as a trance god, making reference to his Gouryella discography.

Finally, consider that Tiesto @ Plastic was the first event in a bloody long time where many of my female friends were groped by slovenly male punters. And that’s just not on.

Check out our photos of the event
Read the review of Ferry Corsten @ home
Read about Corsten and Tiesto’s upcoming tour

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View video footage of the event thanks to our partners at MusicLive