New York Hammerstein Ballroom

After having spent the day gorging on turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, New York peels itself off its collective couch, kisses grandma goodnight and heads out into the cold night to celebrate what will hopefully become an annual addendum to America's Thanksgiving holiday: 'Trancegiving', which is essentially a Paul Oakenfold showcase.

Last year's event at The Roxy sold out, as does tonight's at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Not long after the doors open at 10pm, the floor is packed with people, their glowsticks hovering overhead like drunken fireflies. Former Underworld member Darren Emerson does a fine job of whetting the crowd's
appetite for the outstanding Oakie with some aggressive trance a la Timo Maas. (Happily, Emerson leaves behind the disco-tinged material from his 'Global Underground - Uruguay' CD.)

But no matter how much Emerson engages the audience - which seems intent on burning off every single calorie consumed earlier in the day - he cannot compete with Oakenfold, who, time and again, proves to be in the elite class of superstar DJs. It's not just that his set contains expertly crafted sonic rushes that tickle the brain and body, or that he takes delightful moments of familiarity - U2's 'Beautiful Day,' Azzido Da Bass's 'Dooms Night,' 'The Finale' from the 'Empire Strikes Back' soundtrack, for example - and makes them new. It's that tonight, perhaps knowing that our taste buds had already
experienced a sensory explosion, Oakenfold has thought of how our other senses could also be blown away.

And so, accompanying his set, are visuals by Darren Aronofsky, the director of 'Pi', 'Requiem For A Dream' and 2001's 'Batman: Year One'. The 31-year-old filmmaker intermixes patterns, words ("after", "cab", "technical"), computer-generated shapes and snippets of black and white movies with live shots of the crowd and Oakenfold in action. It's a manic montage that holds its own against the frantic pace of the music. The combination of sights and sounds is going so well that it's hard not to
feel gypped when Oakenfold packs it in after two hours, with still another hour before the venue closes. His too-short set is a sign that, in America at least, the DJ is adopting a concert, not a club, mentality. As is evident tonight, that is both a pleasure and a shame.
Mia Quagliarello