Bingo Players at LIV Miami October 10, 2013

Maarten of the Bingo Players

My night began as another tedious two hour drive from the West coast to the East coast to the crazy city known as Miami. Tonight I was seeing the Bingo Players at LIV nightclub in the Fountainbleau. hotel. Maarten of the Bingo Players has been playing shows solo for the past several months as Paul had announced in July that he was diagnosed with cancer. Although Paul has not been touring with Maarten, he has still been working in the studio as well as running their label: Hysteria Records. My love for the Bingo Players started at my first music festival: Ultra Music Fest in 2012. This was my time ever seeing any famous dj’s and I was lucky enough to see Paul and Maarten play songs such as: Cry, Rattle, and Mode to name a few.

I was fortunate enough to have been on the guest list for tonight and was quickly reminded why LIV hosts some of the best dj’s in the world on a constant basis. From the steady stream of beautiful and wealthy people trickling into the club to the elegant design of the club, I can see why it attracts a high end of clientele. When we arrived inside the hotel we were treated extremely well by the clubs employees with courteous service and expedited entry. Upon walking into the club we were greeted with thunderous bass, a luxurious interior, and incredible lights.

Mednas who is LIV’s resident dj was playing mainly minimalist stuff but as 1:30 neared, he began to pick up the tempo of the music, building our anticipation for the Bingo Players set. By 1:30 we had gotten ourselves right in front of the dj booth with a prime view to see Maarten’s entire set. The lights dimmed as well as the music which I knew meant that he was about to take the stage as I could see him hiding behind a gargantuan speaker. By this point the crowd is already screaming and he hasn’t even started yet, when all of a sudden we see him appear and Out of my mind starts playing which turns the crowd into an absolute frenzy. Immediately upon finishing Out of my mind Maarten moves to his mashup of Foreigner: Cold as Ice and TJR’s: What up Suckaz which surprised me as well as everyone around me.

I could tell immediately that Maarten was setting the tone for a night filled with incredible mashups right after he dropped his mashup of Nirvana’s Smells like teen spirit and Martin Garrix’s Animals which I could tell many people had never heard before. I was already in absolute heaven and he was only on his third song of the night. He also dropped F*** the antidote up which contains Ralvero, Swedish House Mafia, and Knife Party which was another banging mashup. Maarten was just getting warmed up with no signs of slowing down his epic onslaught of bangers when I heard my favorite Bingo Players songs: Buzzcut mashed up with Cry (just a little). What really surprised me was hearing Fifteen mashed up with Turn down for what which Maarten dropped into an incredible trap remix and then brought it back to a hard hitting electro masterpiece.

With nearly half of his two hours done Maarten dropped the Cash Cash & Kalkutta remix of Alive blended masterfully with LRAD and moved onto Makj’s Revolution which I absolutely loved. As the night grew on the crowd was still increasing in size as well as the intensity in which they danced. One song I didn’t expect to hear was the older song Good Vibrations and then Maarten turned that into Henry Fong’s Jump with Avicii’s popular single Wake me up. I was really hoping to hear the song that got me hooked on the Bingo Players when I heard the intro to Rattle come on which turned an already wild crowd into one of the craziest crowds I’ve seen at a show. As the time grew increasingly closer to 3:30, he dropped Chuckie’s Make some noise with Showtek’s Slow down which I instantly recognized as Chuckie’s edit which I absolutely loved. One of the last songs I heard before leaving LIV was Eat Sleep Rave Repeat which was Calvin Harris’ remix of Fatboy Slims’ song.

By now it was 3:30 and we had left because we still had a two hour drive ahead of us to get home. As we exited the beautiful Fountainbleau sweaty and tired, I had this feeling of incredible joy and utter shock that Maarten threw down one of the better sets of my life. This was the kickoff of the Bingo Players Rattle and Roll tour which Maarten did an incredible job of doing. You can catch the Bingo Players and guests coming to a city near you soon!