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It’s 5 am outside the venue where Sasha, James Zabiela and local boy Henrik Löwenhamn just tore the roof off near the sea side of Stockholm, my friend is removing his lunch and a Swedish girl walks by muttering those words… Translation: Bleebing Finns. Says it all really.
Our two days of drunken mayhem had started nearly 24 hours before when we (me and three pals) set on the boat that would take us over the Baltic Sea from Turku to Stockholm to witness Sasha and James Zabiela play in Monday Bar event in Munchenbruggeriet, a huge old brewery in Stockholm.
The 12 hour boatride was eventful, but probably not very interesting to you so we’ll just skip that part shall we. Bumbing into other people going to the event too was cool though.
We arrived in Stockholm harbour at 7 pm and took a taxi to the venue. It was still three hours before the doors would open so we went to get something to eat. Coming out of local McDonalds we bumbed into a friend of Henrik’s (the warm up DJ for the night) who invited us to a pre-party he had at his apartment. Nice (thanks Martin).
After a beer or two at Martin’s we headed for the venue and got there just as the doors opened. Walking into Munchenbryggeriet was amazing. After a flight of stairs we walked into a huge hall at the end of which was the darkened dance floor. Henrik Löwenhamn was playing some chilled breaks. We got drinks from the bar and picked good seats of which to enjoy the music. Henrik dropped first chilled melodic breaks like fellow Swede Petter’s “These Days” and towards the end of his hour long set progressed to meaner sounds like the Meat Katie remix of Altitude’s “Nightstalker” getting people dancing. The floor was soon filling nicely and when James Zabiela took the decks at 11 with Depeche Mode’s classic “Blasphemous Rumours” from 1984 album Some Great Reward he had a full floor in front of him.
James Zabiela… Man hearing him live for the first time tends to be an eye (or ear?) opener for most people and I was no exception. When most DJs are happy with just playing a record after another Zabiela would always have at least two things going on at the same time, if not playing records on top of each other than scratching like a maniac on the CD-players. His two hours was probably the best DJ set I’ve ever heard. It scares me to think that this guy’s only 24 years old and still progressing. He’s going to be the best DJ in the world in a couple of years if he isn’t already.
Towards the end of his set I had noticed quite a familiar figure lurking behind the other set of decks on the left side of the stage (they needed two sets since Sasha and Zabiela prefer bit of a different set of equipment and the Monday Bar guys were nice enough to grant both guys wishes). And after Zabiela had gotten huge applauds Sasha kicked off with Chable & Bonnici’s “Ride”, a huge builder of a track gathering some serious praise among prog nerds like me, then mixed faultlessly into Matthew Dekay’s new “If I Could Fly” track. From the beginning he had the crowd in his palm like a true master of his craft.
Watching Sasha mix is mindblowing to say the least. The way he brings tracks in and out is just amazing. Luke Chable Dub of PQM’s dirty “You Are Sleeping” shattered me to pieces, a new cheeky remix of Underworld’s “Two Months Off” spread a smile as wide as Grand Canyon on my face.
During Sasha’s set I also had a chance to chat a bit with the boy like Zabiela and I have to say that besides his DJ’ing skills the guy is also one of the nicest persons I’ve ever met in the industry. He happily signed my copy of his new mix CD Sound in Motion (in my humble opinion every one on this planet should own this) and also introduced me to Nils Noa, in Zabiela’s words the best DJ in Norway and also one of the guys behind Bermuda Triangle.
Sasha closed his set as planned at 4 am but then things took a turn to a one hell of a nice surprise. Instead of the party ending we got an extra hour of something you don’t get to witness often enough, a Sasha & Zabiela back to back.
The guys played a full hour of breaks destroying what was left of the place. Highlight was Sasha dropping the Wrecked Angle remix of “Age of Love – Age of Love” and Zabiela following with a mash up of Sasha’s “Xpander” and “Phantom Beats” by Hybrid. Sasha closed their set with his remix of the new Unkle track “In a State”… leaving us in a state of euphoria.
Then it was a trip with shaky legs outside to find the sun shining already and my friend puking. Nice combination. The walk back to the boat seemed to take ages but we had much to talk about, mainly what was the best part of the night (watching the back to back on stage in my opinion).
This is what we all live for in one way or another right?
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