Armin van Buuren Stereo Live May 23, 2012

After a crazy night at Stereo Live with Rusko's breakdown Tuesday, I couldn't help but imagine what was in store for Wednesday night's Armin van Buuren set.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Armin started making music at age 14 and had his first success with the song "Blue Fear" at age 19 in 1995. Several years later, the song rose to No. 18 on the UK charts in 2000. Ever since, van Buuren's trance (both neo and progressive), has been seducing the ears.

Wednesday, fans packed the sold-out venue, readily awaiting to enter "A State of Trance."

Lights flashed a simple countdown, signaling the DJ was about to take the stage. Van Buuren, currently No. 2 on DJ Magazine's yearly Top 100 DJ Poll, took to the soundboards.

The background lights flashed and Houston made some noise, with van Buuren shouting some additional encouragement. You can only guess the sold-out crowd's response. Little did they know that by shouting, they would bring confetti flying at them within the first few minutes of the set.

Van Buuren has been in the electronic-music scene for quite some time. He isn't a youngling like AVICII, but more on par, experience- and agewise, with other DJs such as Benny Benassi and Ferry Corsten. Whether he's older or not, though, the sounds he threw down were fresh and rejuvenating.

He remixed the Killers' "Mr. Brightside," providing lyrics up on the screen for all to sing along. But if it couldn't get better than the night's remixes, the beautiful voice of Skylar Grey in the song "I'm Coming Home" slowly dropped in to surprise us all.

The song's slow, melodic entrance allowed the crowd to sing along, with the screen again providing lyrics. (Just in case one didn't already know them, I suppose.) Hands began to rise straight into the air, with the crowd's faces turned directly toward the light-covered ceiling.

Everyone kept anticipating the drop. Many around me kept saying, "Here it comes...almost there!"