Writing About Lives

The angels overlooking Central Park must be slightly deafened after German DJ Paul van Dyk delivered a four-hour ear popping set from 6 to 10 p.m last night. A superb mixer, van Dyk kept the crowd throbbing without a break, despite torrential downpours of rain for the first two hours. As the rain came down, the crowd got more enlivened, digging it’s heels in the mud to stick with the show. For about a minute, van Dyk’s master board short circuited. In a flash of lightning, it came back, and the crowd of mostly teens and early 20-somethings roared and started pulsing again. It was a sight to behold.

Between 8 and 10, the spectacular light show made the stage look like a scene from from another galaxy or dimension. And as if to reward those who stayed until the very end, in the last hour, one singer after another featured on “In Between,” van Dyk’s newest disk, appeared and sang, or should I say, appeared with mikes in hand while their gigantic images were featured on scenes in the background. A definite high point was “New York City,” featuring Ashley Tomberlin. The low point was never anything about the show, but the imbeciles near the front of the stage where I was. Drunk, pushing, shoving and fighting over their spots, they behaved abominably – all overcome by van Dyk’s supreme artistry.