Hey all, Thought I would rap in about Richie Hawtin's Control party in TO that went off this past Monday. This is a bit of a long post so bear with me, but I need to get it all out!...
I don't know what Richie's been doing at his parties outside of Canada lately but I gotta say I was, well, blown away for a number of reasons. Some good, others not so good. I mean as per usual his set was bass-booming fantastic with all the best possible tricks to tweak the mind (I danced my ass off and had a huge smile on my face the whole time), he brought in an amazing sound system perfectly tailored for his signature brand of techno, and Magda also gets high points for her set that led beautifully into Mr. Richie Rich's even though she had to deal with some weird technical difficulties about midway through that prompted help from The Man himself... But... First of all it was supposed to be a Control party which, in my recollection, is usually designed aesthetically to be the minimalist of the minimal with basically red light blaring into darkened dancing crowds to the wee hours. But, this time around...holy s&#t...not a chance. There was an overdose of cigarette marketing right down to the bar napkins, bad swirling strobe lighting (some advertising said company), cheesy girls decked out in neon mesh skimpies in the audience (obviously hired by the cigarette company due to the cigarette packs hanging off of various fleshy body parts), and so much event promotional material everywhere (its some new crew here called The Hump) including stamped onto my hand for entry and on the shirt backs of half the audience, that you could choke on it. I mean call me old fashioned, but when DEMF started putting cars on display in the middle of the festival I decided it wasn't for me anymore. I like the parties that make it or break it without corporate sponsorship and, hell if they NEED to have it (i.e. the large festivals) then at least they don't make me feel like I'm at an office party for my favourite cigarette co. when I'm out to see someone like Richie. What the heck is going on? Does anyone else find this kind of thing upsetting? Or am I just suddenly waking up to this?... I mean one of the friends I was with had more people tell him "That The Hump throws such great parties" than even knew who Richie was when he tried to talk with them about his music!!! When I saw Richie's New Years party in Detroit in 1999 there was definitely mesh everywhere but it was on the walls - not on breast- implanted half naked tarts. And that party made me feel like I was getting a secret ticket to the mind of Richie, not Hugh Hefner's! SO all of this led me to the gut dropping feeling that Richie's "salary" has gotten so big that he's willing to let any crap into his parties just to make his dough. Made me pretty annoyed and somewhat sad to be honest, because Richie has been a HUGE influence on me musically, I mean HUGE. And I figured he'd have more respect for his audience than that...So I actually started to consider whether I would pay to see another show of his if that was what I'd be in for. Anyway, has anyone else found this to be the case recently at his parties? Or just found this trend to be, well, downright lame? Still loving the minimal underground (where I can find it), Berg
