Review: Cream at Amnesia June 23rd

Deadmau5 headlines Cream's second party of the summer.

Cream is one of the craziest and busiest parties of the summer in Ibiza, and this week was no exception.  I was especially excited tonight as Deadmau5 was making a special appearance, and he is a DJ I’d been wanting to hear live for years.  Attending a Cream party is probably one of the best people watching experiences that exists.  Crazy antics, wild clothing, and creative stories people tell insisting they are on the guest list are just a few of the things I witnessed tonight.  As an American myself, I also picked up on the fact that an unusually high amount of clubbers tonight had come from America compared to the numerous other parties I've attended in the past month that I've been living in Ibiza.

At 4 am I entered the club to finally discover for myself if Deadmau5 would live up to all the hype that has been generated about him.  As I made my way through the completely rammed club to get to the terrace the first thing I observed was signs posted throughout Amnesia informing people of the smoking ban now in effect in Ibiza’s clubs, which many people were definitely ignoring.  Finally, I had reached the stage just as Deadmau5 began his set.  I noticed he was wearing a T-shirt that said “high on life”.  Could this be in response to all the rumors last summer that his many canceled tour dates were caused by excessive drug use? 

I didn’t know what to expect from Deadmau5 as his sound has definitely changed over the years from house to recently more breaks and dubstep.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear much of his set was infused with the sounds and music from from his older album Random Album Title, including “I Remember”, “Faxing Berlin”, and “Alone With You”.  The wildly popular “Ghosts N Stuff” was also played, as well as his recent hit “Raise Your Weapon” from his latest album 4x4=12.  The surprise of the night was an edgy live performance by singer Sofi.

Not wanting to miss out completely on the music in the main room, I tore myself away from Deadmau5’ set to catch the very young and talented Mat Zo, who is considered to be a recent trance breakout artist and producer.  I entered just in time to hear him play his popular track “Rebound”, which he collaborated on with Arty.  Mat attempted to end his set at 6:30 am, but the crowd went absolutely wild screaming and yelling, and demanding more, which Mat happily came back and played until the lights came on and Amnesia closed.

Next week Cream continues with its incredible lineup when Above and Beyond, one of the biggest names in trance, begin their summer residency.