Reports – “Waiting For You” – Beyond – Sunday 8th May – Preview The Review

Well, we are back with yet another Preview The Review, although with so many full on devotions to still declare, nine to be precise, we can’t quite believe we are adding to the workload, although having savoured what was, without doubt, THE best Beyond for us in weeks (and there have been some truly terrific ones!), we simply couldn’t resist sharing another delectation to this divine dance club, not least give the magnitude of the magnificent music from two terrific talents (among a long list of others). So, with our new nibble sized review tweets already out there for everyone to see, (check http://twitter.com/discomatt), it’s time to glue them together into this bite sized reflection & then the full on review, both entitled “Waiting For You”, why? well this is why…..

Having missed just one Beyond bash in the last eight, and that was because we were at Delice Dream in Barcelona, it would be fair to say that our decline statistics of visits during 2011 have been sufficiently re-balanced, not least due to one particular person without whom Beyond just wouldn’t be the same. And whilst we have wrestled over the decision whether to publish a quite controversial report, we have savoured some simply superb showings from this brilliant brand, although as we have, week by week, posed the question, “Does It Get Better Than This?”, each event has proved that it does. Yet having walked away from Beyond this lunchtime & still feeling the full force of this fantastic foray four hours after, we kind of hope that it won’t get better than this, as if it does, it will have to go some & again, such was the enthralling extent of this latest awesome afterhours instalment. So why was it so spectacular and who made it so special? Well, as for the who, it was very much down to one, well maybe two, three, four, five & more, but yes one in reality and the one being Steve Pitron, who having sent us on a series of ecstatic emotional rollercoaster rides in the last few weeks & days, did it again, but in such a gigantic way that left us simply breathless with his brilliance. And it all began with a sequence of messages as we awoke to find our fresh faced way down to Vauxhall, the cries of “hurry, hurry, hurry” & “in your spot which is empty without you” ringing in our ears, our arrival at Area’s doors already full of emotions when we bumped into Paul Heron, the calls for us to be ready & waiting at the newly called “DM HQ”, as well as “MAAAATTTTT!” saw us rush onto Beyond’s main room for the last minutes of Gonzalo Rivas’s set, so fortunately in time for the first minutes of Steve Pitron’s, we first being greeted by his significant other Celso Moura and then by the man himself who kindly stored our belongings & charged our glass ready for the rapturous rhythms that would completely consume us for the next 2 ½ hours.

And those 150 marvellous minutes started with a corker, we immediately commencing with our “Doing The Disco Matt” (the new version – “Doing The Tearful Matt”) as the music was definitely rising up in our souls, Mr Pitron pumping up an already pulsating Beyond main room as only he can do, this starter soon leading into the outstanding “Offshore” , his already superb set then delving in & out of recent rapturous archives to include tracks like “Underground”, “Seek Bromance”, “Downpipe”, “Souk” & “Miracle”, some with an updated edge, others the outstanding originals, all which were going down a storm. But with slices of selections from his awesome “Afterhours” podcast also hitting our mark & sending us on, without doubt, the biggest emotional rollercoaster ride yet, (and that includes two this week!), tracks like “Bitch Lady”, “Catch You”, “Twist In My Sobriety” & “Live Your Dreams”, we were finding it difficult to comprehend just how colossal this latest precision perfect Pitron performance was, not helped by the exceptional emotional “Waiting For You”, the lyrics so poignant of our start to this euphoric experience. But it continued unabated, the Beyond main room simply pumping with euphoric energy & we feeling “So Alive” with ecstatic emotion, especially when he started a mini session of multi mixing within this scintillating set, thoughts of Alan K coming rushing to the fore, he being one of a few elements that this brilliant brand is slightly poorer without, yet with a line-up that included Jamie Head, The Oli, Paul Christian, Fat Tony, Gonzalo Rivas & Paul Heron, we couldn’t have been more thrilled. Or could we, as not only did pal Clington Forbes add to our “Doing The Disco Matt” delight, that was followed by the towering track treats of “We Don’t Need No Education” & “Everybody”, both sending goose bumps up our back, but we were then graced the privilege of another DJ booth moment with Steve & Jamie Head, the tears now really flowing, prompting Jamie to re-appear with a bunch of tissues. Then with Paul Heron also arriving and making our 7th & 8th nibble sized review tweet, the first following a claim we could do with HRT & the second as Paul had become “Pail”, our emotional state slipping our studious spelling, we were warned of an impending treat which came in the form of our all-time anthem “Release Me”, simply erupting Beyond into the stratosphere, the only one left to ensure that this Pitron performance had everything, being “Here Comes The Rain”. And he didn’t disappoint, indeed not one minute in the full 2 /12 hours did, this without doubt THE best set we have savoured EVER! But it had to be followed and there could be no-one better from the current stable of residents that could, Paul Heron taking up the mantle magnificently, delivering a dynamic new direction of dance devotions, pitching it all perfectly and meaning the main room rocked right up to our departure at midday, leaving us in admiration of this awe inspiring afterhours again, meaning, with more still to say it’s “…ready, steady, go for the full review…”. (DISCO MATT)