[This should have been posted a week ago, but I've been sick a fair bit since
I got back, and with the Beyer discussion on 313 the last few days, somehow
it seems more topical now.]
*** Warning: Possibly controversial opinions to follow ***
12 days ago I left Los Angeles for a short Queen's Day adventure in Amsterdam.
While I'm no Alan Oldham with the cyberquill, I'll try and give some of my
impressions of the experience from a musical standpoint.
I arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday April 27th having gotten little sleep on
the plane. I decided to sacrifice an afternoon in (overcast) Amsterdam for
some much-needed kip so I'd be fresh for the Jeff Mills at the Melkweg party
that night.
I headed into town and started walking down the Damrak from Centraal Station
towards the Leidseplein where I was to meet up with 3/4ths of the 4 Dutchmen
of the Apocalypse, namely Wibo (and his brother), Otto and Hans. I looked
down towards the Dam and saw a giant brightly-lit ferris wheel that towered
over all the buildings in the Dam. I knew right away this was going to be a
fun trip :-)
I got to the Heinken Hoek and ran into Hans who arrived at the same time.
Eventually we all showed up, had a good reunion (I have pics!) and after food
headed to the Melkweg. Later on inside I met 313's Bart Wolff. (Hi Bart!)
When we got there and went inside, a Dutch woman named Estroe was up on the
decks. My initial impression of her was, "That poor woman. I'd sure hate
to have to open for Jeff Mills."
Woo-whee boy. Did *that* impression change in the next couple of hours ...
Within a short time, it became quickly clear that Estroe meant business.
She wasn't gonna cow-tow to *nobody*. She was laying down slammin' track
after slammin' track! I'm not the trainspotter Wibo is, but I think we
heard Richie's "Orange" and a Beltram JB3 track in there, amongst a gazillion
other awesome records. She went OFF! The place was going bonkers from 12-2,
and she had the packed crowd in the palm of her hand. By the time she got
off at 2:10, my impression had changed. Now it was more like, "Geez, I feel
sorry for Jeff Mills, to have to follow Estroe." I figured only someone
world-class like Mills could compete with that girl that night ...
And, well, Mills was ...
Erm, Mills-like.
I saw him in Barcelona at Sonar last year. I don't think anything will ever
replace the initial impact of seeing someone for the first time. He was
awesome, everything I expected him to be.
But this time he was ... eh. Pretty much the same, I thought. (Dutchmen,
can I get a witness?) Very much even tempo'ed, with little dynamics. Sure,
the crowd went nuts a few times, but Estroe got a much better crowd response.
(Note to promoters: People's energies peak from 12-2ish. Don't put headliners
on at 2 AM or later. It's just *dumb*.)
Hans got tired at about 3:45 so we had to leave before Jeff was done, but I
walked out of the Melkweg being flummoxed at something that was undeniable:
<controversial>
I liked Estroe better than Jeff Mills.
It made me think about DJ'ing and the final result, i.e. what goes into your
ears. And I realized that, despite the fact that Jeff's mixing was flawless
and I liked it just fine, I liked the *records* that Estroe played a lot more.
And that's the bottom line. I liked her set better than I liked Mills' set.
</controversial>
I'll skip Friday as it was music-free. Suffice it to say that the combination
of the only nice sunny day of my trip with "special ingredients" bon-bons
from Chocolat and the carnival in the Dam made for a very nice day :-)
Saturday: Queen's Day!!!
Rewind: September 1994.
I'm in downtown Los Angeles. James Cameron is filming a "New Year's Eve 2000"
scene for the movie "Strange Days" and he needs a lot of people to make a good
crowd for it. Up steps promoter Philip Blaine, who throws the Millennium rave
and brings in Aphex Twin to DJ and Dee-Lite to play live, and voila, you've got
14,000 people completely covering a city block and you got your crowd scene.
Now it's Queen's Day in Amsterdam and it's like LA '94, only ... EVERY city
block is like this! (Well, almost.) Complete madness as roughly a million
Dutch crowd into the city for the spectacle. I LOVE IT!!! I don't really get
agoraphobic, so I didn't mind it too much. When the crush of people in the
street got too much, I got out of the way and found a different street to
cruise down. And sound systems playing Techno and House on every other
street, it seemed! With regular (read: non-raver types) Dutch people crowded
around, boogying their asses off! What FUN! We'll NEVER see this in America.
After about 7 hours of street partying, my comely young Dutch consort and I
headed for the Westergasfabriek for this huge Awakenings rave in an old gas
storage tank building. Wow, a rave you can -walk- to. Now there's a concept.
(One that doesn't exist in L.A. Heh.) This one's a big one - the promoters
put them on in this place every couple of months, and the lineup's superb - our
own (313) lister Lady Aida opening, Alter Ego playing an hour live set, then
Sven Vath for 4 hours, followed by Dave Clarke, with Steve Rachmad finishing
up. The place is, by midnight, predictably rammed to the gills. 8,000+ ppl!
The venue is awesome. Massive speaker stacks, with 4 extra sets of speakers
out over the crowd, with a huge lighting rig that must have cost a fortune
in guilders. Not to mention the biggest mirror ball I've ever seen. They
had a bloody indoor fireworks show, fer chrissake!
Unfortunately we didn't catch much of Lady Aida due to the long trek (too bad,
'cos I love her RA mixed sets!). Alter Ego was OK, but low in the BPM's which
made things seem strangely sluggish. They got the crowd going at times though.
Then Sven Vath took to the decks, and brought the music down. So, what does
he put on to get things rolling? "Knights of the Jaguar"! And from there
he goes straight into a Basic Channel track. Whoa. BC in a booming cavernous
round brick hall. Holy fuck! The crowd goes bonkers. [EMAIL PROTECTED] I am
having
much fun now! For another 4 hours Vath goes straight to hard, dark pounding
Techno-land. I'm in heaven. It feels like the '94 heyday of raves to me,
back when I felt like this was truly The Music Of The Future[tm], and it sure
sounded like it. (And there's even a smartbar, something that America seems
to have lost.)
Somewhere in between at about 1:30-1:35 I tried to find johno from 313 by
the right speaker stacks, but didn't see anyone meeting his description.
(Sorry John ... I missed the 1:00 AM meeting time.)
Dave Clarke follows Sven. Last time I saw Dave in a small club in Hollywood,
he played mostly Detroit and Electro. This time he surveys the crowd, thinks
"I've just followed Sven" and proceeds to play Even More Dark Pounding Techno
for 2 hours. Woo hoo! An awesome and versatile DJ. I'm lapping it up.
After Rachmad had been on (playing similarly) for an hour and a half, we
decided to go out into the misty Amsterdam morning at 7:30. I climbed back
on the train pretty spent. An amazing party, one of my best ever. (Ed. note:
the next day I found out that 2 kids died that night. What a shame. :-( )
I tried to go see Mills in Leiden that night, but it was sold out - on a
Sunday night! The Dutch sure love their Techno. And I love the Dutch!!! :-)
Much thanks to all my Dutch friends who made it such a wonderful time - Wibo,
Hans and Otto from 313/Lowlands, and my other Net friends from Amsterdam,
Utrecht, Hilversum, Den Haag and Rotterdam - you're the best! I'll be back
again someday, for sure!
Your Los Angeles correspondant out,
- Greg
