The whole weekend just played out perfectly. I left work around 3 pm to catch the 5 pm flight from Frankfurt to New York, and Lufthansa was kind enough to get me into JFK half an hour early at 7 pm NY time. Ruben (translucent) and Olga were even kinder, picking me up at the airport and taking me into the city. We went to my friends' apartment where I was going to stay, I took a shower, changed and we set off to Filter to meet Greg (Lust-E) and his girlfriend. From there straight to Roxy around 10 pm where a moderate line was waiting for us. The doors hadn't even opened yet but when they did 15 mins or so later we were inside in no time.

For the first 2 hours or so we were mostly just chilling in one of those couch booths at the front end of the dance floor, gathering more Dreamers (Raven, of course, nycx, Matrim, miss nikki, teraflops, Highmay and more that I can't remember right now). The opening DJ, Luis Diaz, absolutely sucked for most of the time. He opened slow, which was ok, but then got into breaks for like over an hour. Nobody at all was dancing, more or less just standing on the dance floor wondering what this shit was. Nothing against some breaks intelligently interspersed into a set, but a full hour of nothing but? I don't think so and neither did anybody else. Fortunately, after 1 am he got pretty good so as to work things up for PvD. At 1 am we had our official EZD meet up by the back bar. I think well over 20 people showed up, which was probably less than half of the total EZD turn out that night. As transpired later, EZD's were all over the place, some of which simply weren't able to make it to the meet up in time due to the line. Well, 1 am comes and goes, and at 2 am - German punctuality - cheers erupt, marking the arrival of the man himself.

As I had hoped, he started it hard right away and pretty much kept it up throughout. He completely tore the place apart, people went nuts all around saying things like "tonite PvD redeems himself" or "best PvD ever". Certainly no overstatements. He delivered a set that was absolutely flawless in its track selection, programming, mixing. He had it all, house, tech-house, techno (couldn't believe when he dropped Umek - Gatex late in the night), some breaks (intelligently placed, mind you ), and of course magic PvD trance. Quote from Raven :"The set was amazing.........it was as definitive and complete as can be, and the mixing was devilishly good. Flawless interweaving of every genre of electronica with a smooth flow and progression that was nothing short of perfect. The set flew by and as I was leaving I just kept hearing everyone comment on how amazing it was."

By the time PvD started Roxy was packed and the a/c appeared to be unable to handle it - the place was a furnace. Apparently, they realized that b/c it got noticeably cooler after an hour or two. Apart from that little glitch the club was in perfect shape for the night: the huge dance floor leaving room to dance even at peak time (lol!); the decoration with what looked like white, translucent (no pun intended...) canvas sails above and around the dance floor, some of which doubled as screens for cool video projections; the amazing laser show, mesmerizing just about everyone; the Phazon for the most part living up to its reputation and the high expectations of Twilo-spoiled ears; and, importantly, a vibe some people felt compelled to compare to the Twilo days. Maybe it wasn't quite the Twilo vibe with the occasional meat head but it was as close as one could expect it to get. Roxy with the new Phazon is only now starting to seriously focus on the music and to line up top-notch DJs. In time, this will draw the right crowd as it did for the most part on this awesome PvD night.

Unfortunately, time flew and it was over at 8:30 am. Walking out, everybody was still raving about the experience which left a deep impression and, needless to say, a desire for more which in fact should be forthcoming sooner than anyone could have hoped for. Well, we gathered our various cars and drove up to Ruben & Olga's place for a bit of an afterparty which we spent chilling, watching Ricky Ho, laughing (a lot) and finally sleeping some. It was the perfect wind down.

As early as Saturday afternoon rumours surfaced saying to everybody's disbelief PvD would play again Monday night. As it turned out it was true and PvD indeed did a second New York gig on Monday at Arc with admission being a bargain $10, to be donated for charity. The four hour set was to be from 10 pm to 2 am. Needless to say, everyone who could possibly make it showed up. Being all psyched all Monday long, I even got to the club as early as 8:30 pm at which time there were only two guys forming the "line". But of course it grew quickly and supposedly wrapped around the block later. Most of us got in before 10 pm, so as to not miss a single beat of PvD's making. Before he started everyone was just hanging out, talking, waiting. Some DJ played mellow house, more like background music than a real opening act which was just right. The icing on this night's cake to me was the unexpected arrival of Mat (Mateo), who regrettably had been unable to make it to Fridays show. This extra gig gave him the opportunity, as he put it, to redeem himself and me to see him for the first time in a year. And we sure enjoyed the night with PvD! He arrived just after 10 pm and, given that there was no opening DJ really, opened rather slow, housey. A bit like at the Vandit nights in Berlin he slowly increased his pace and by 11 pm the party was on full speed. The way it was going it was hard to believe it was not even midnight on a Monday. The vibe this time was in fact Twilo-like, owing to the smaller room, the Phazon, and most of all a crowd that was 100% dedicated, 100% connected to the music and the DJ, chanting his name, going nuts with arms in the air. With no promotion to speak of the club was still packed wall to wall with true PvD connoisseurs, a total of 1,600 people. Everybody was loving every single minute, and so did PvD himself being unusually animated behind the decks, really celebrating the party with the crowd. The set evolved to a true PvD trance set, not as banging as the Roxy one, but magical nonetheless. There was a lot of debate which set was better, but that's very much in the eye of the beholder. I personally thought the Roxy set was better, but the party experience at Arc as a whole clearly surpassed the already incredible Roxy.

I couldn't believe my luck, having flown in for the Roxy gig and then being treated to this - I was in heaven and the whole experience was so lasting that I was smiling for most of the remaining week at my relaxing 4-day Florida vacation with no desire whatsoever to go out there.

This was a truly unforgettable weekend, clearly standing out from the the many parties I went to this year, not least because I could celebrate it with the best people - thanks to all EZD's. And big thanks to PvD!

Now the jury is out on the question which club to make Paul's residency in NYC. The EZD poll resulted in a clear vote for Roxy. PvD's own poll results have not been released as yet. Let's keep our fingers crossed he'll sign up soon!