After making us endure months of waiting, the world’s #1 DJ Armin van Buuren has finally brought his spectacular ‘Armin Only’ show to Australia – and what an event it was. Anyone that was there to experience the euphoria will testify – it was a world-class event with impeccably selected music all night long, and simply up there with the best parties you could ever hope to attend; Sydney and Melbourne photos are now both online.

>Check out the first photos from ‘Armin Only’ Sydney.
>Check out the first photos from ‘Armin Only’ Melbourne.

On Friday night in Sydney the event began as advertised, with a two and a half hour warmup set from the man himself that saw Armin dropping melodic progressive, electro and tech house at a pace much slower than what we’re generally used to from him, but the impact was still devastating – by the time the white curtain was ready to be drawn at 11:30, the crowd in the Hordern Pavillion was in a state of near hysterics. And with the big reveal came some of the most overblown Euro theatrics tied in with his new album Imagine, the type generally only seen at hard dance events (those who attended March’s Q-Dance were experiencing all sorts of deja vu). As theatrical as it may have been, it was impossible not to get pulled up into the excitement of it all.

But when Armin finally got stuck into his mainroom set, it was simply the best 7 hours of trance you’ll ever be likely to hear. Somehow managing to keep the the crowd’s energy up for the entire time (not to mention his own), technically it was a flawless set – full of his trademark variety in sounds, not a single transition was heard all night and the pacing, programming and track selection was just second to none. Overblown it may have been, but the talent was there to back it up.

Some of the guest vocalists heard across both shows included Audrey Gallagher of ‘07 anthem Big Sky, Chris Jones from Armin’s latest single Going Wrong (which inspired a massive singalong) as well as Elles De Graaf from Sound of Goodbye. Armin’s brother was also on hand to play a little bit of live guitar across the evening, while Rank 1 also performed live on several of their own and other tracks. All in all, if the epic music pumping out of the speakers wasn’t enough to begin with, all the extra surprises certainly added to the entertainment value.

And if you’re patiently waiting for next week’s extended DJ sets in Perth and Brisbane? All we can say is, brace yourselves…

Stay tuned to ITM for more ‘Armin Only’ coverage over the next week, and check out our ‘Artist In-depth’ page for more news, interviews, clips and other content that you can poke a stick at!