Coor's Light Temple of Sound

April 14, 2004 4:55 PM
by

Venue: Coliseo Roberto Clemente
Friday, February 27, 2004

Coor's Light and its affiliate promoters One World Entertainment, Empire Entertainment and Hidden Agenda have made history with an event that has been one of a kind.

For the first time in San Juan, the Coor's Light Temple of Sound has managed to turn the Roberto Clemente Coliseum into the largest club in the Caribbean.

Believe us, this was not an easy task... over 20,000 watts of sound power, the most advanced laser lightning and special effects, huge projection screens, hanging dancer platforms, and other mind-blowing stuff were used to put together one of the most spectacular productions of the year.

To start the night off, Philadelphia's own downtempo and house dj Pete Moss created the perfect welcome for the guests at the main receiving room and lounge. This area served as the station to chill out and meet all of the famous San Juan nightlife celebrities as they showed off their fashionably black outfits.

.....suddenly, a voice over the loudspeakers gave each and one of us present the official welcome as huge curtains opened to reveal the Temple of Sound. The sight was mindblowing as the main stage, the main dancefloor and 3 VIP areas were revealed.

One of San Juan's best artists and internationally reknowned dj Ivan Robles kicked off the opening with a set of banging tribal house along with live percusion. His show has been acclaimed in world reknowned clubs like Pacha in Ibiza.

After Ivan Robles blew everyone's mind, it was hip-hop's famous DJ Irie, the official NBA Basketball DJ, turn on the decks. He played the best in commercial hip-hop and made everyone sing to top chart hits.

After a couple tracks, out of backstage popped out R&B's famous diva Lumidee, who made the crowd sing along to her hits "I'll never Leave" and "Uh- oh". Everyone sang along since these hits have been inundating national radio stations all over Puerto Rico.

The stage then was set for hip-hop extraordinaire the notorious Fabolous, as he started pumping the crowd who eagerly awaited the appearance of this Billboard #4 spot artist. As soon as he stepped up, him and his dancers took over pumping the crowd into a frenzy.

After Fabolous's show ended, the atmosphere changed completely (I mean totally!!!!) as world superstar trance artist Ferry Corsten took over the closing of the night. This change of mood was one of the huge mistakes that the production of the Coor's Light Temple of Sound made as the crowd took a while to assimilate such change (from hip-hop to trance) and start reacting to the music.

Ferry Corsten, one of the world's best trance deejays and producers, made his stop at San Juan as part of his five week CD release tour across U.S. and Canada promoting his new album "Right of Way".

His set started with huge technical difficulties that indicated some bass vibration and/or cartridge problems. I almost started spelling d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r as the hoarse sound and trackskipping got worse, Ferry was growing impatient, and the crowd still didn't react to the music.

After like 5 tracks of the worse sound you could ever imagine, I began to believe that the 20,000 watts of sound power just couldn't handle Ferry Corsten. It became so bad that I thought Ferry would just stop his set abruptly and leave.

After a few more running and scrambling by the sound crew (thanks Jorge and Santos), the problem got fixed and the people started to react to the melodic uplifting trance that was being played.

Fireworks, lasers, smoke, lightning and dancers brought the magic back to the night as Ferry started also to get in touch with the crowd and take them into a musical journey.

The climax of the night came as Ferry threw the tracks "Punk" and "Rock your Body, Rock" one after the other. Since these songs were used for the whole promotional phase of the Coor's Light Temple of Sound (hats off to the promoting company Foote, Cone and Belding), everyone reacted and went crazy stuttering the rhythm with their voices and dancing along in a frenzy.

Even though the venue was one of the best and innovative production ventures ever seen in the island, a couple of turndowns during ther night that need to be addressed:

1) The music selection was horrible. There should be no mixing of hip-hop and trance on one same stage, no matter how commercial hip-hop could be. For the next time, choose either hip-hop or dance only, no mixing.

2) The sound during Ferry's presentation was a disaster that should have been avoided. These type of problems could be taken badly by such superstar djs, especially if the have the intention of promoting a new album.

3) The coordination with security failed as suddenly, press member wristbands were denied access to the main VIP. How could the press not have access to the one place where you would want most of the pictures taken???

4) The show ended too early. (That is the only turndown of hosting a party at a government-owned facility)

5) I wanted more Ferry!!!!!!!!!!!

Photography by: Michael Ramirez