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| quote: | Originally posted by tathi
isn't Sasha's sound completely different to Lawlers? I'd sooner pair Lawler up with Digweed (add Tenaglia and you would have a fucking awesome party) |
You know, that's EXACTLY what I thought, but I was completely surprised. But here, gimme a minute and I'll dig up my review for the event.
EDIT:
Lawler and Tenaglia did happen this year, in New York, in Central Park if I remember correctly. Something like 15 hours of them going back to back, although I am not sure exactly what the reviews were [just a wee bit out of my price range to travel for that party]
| quote: | The sly perspective
well, the hype leading up to this party was huge, and going in, I knew I had to curb my enthusiasm because I've seen too many nights like this where the guvernment packs it's main room to the point where things cease to be fun, and just end up annoying. And getting on the guvernment floor around 11pm, I was happily surprised at the 'late arriving crowd', and was able to get my groove on for the first segment of the night. Caught the ending of mark oliver's set, but wasn't overly impressed, but I still wanted to take advantage of the room before the club got silly.
Paolo Mojo hit the decks and almost instantly won me over as a fan. He had a very unique vibe to his set, a deep, groovy tribal. Not the thumping kick my ass all over the floor tribal we all showed up to see from lawler, but definately dirty and groovy, and well paced for the timeslot. Couldn't ID any of the tracks although I was feeling each beat one after the other in very positive fashion.
About the time Sasha logged onto his fancy new computer was about the time the guvernment became intolerable. There was literally no room to breathe, and although this is expected, I was still awestruck by managements lack of decency in capping the room at a sensible number. The crowds were so bad it took at least 20 minutes to refill water, the smoking lounge which was the only access to outside air was completely logjammed with people, and very unpleasant to be in. As a result of the crowds, I staked out a seat behind the booth [which was set up on the stage], and didn't stand up from 12:30-4am. Musically, Sasha was decent at this time, it took him some time to get going, and for the first hour or so, his set seemed to 'chuggy', and lacked any kind of direction or any appreciable energy. But closer to the time Lawler was slated to take over those decks, Sasha kicked it up a notch and was in terrific form balancing melody with bass like only a handful of DJs in the world can still do.
Lawler followed, and didn't waste any time attacking the crowd and continuing on the set sasha had built. Hard driving electro with fierce jabbing basslines were prevalent for the beggining of his first timeslot. but I soon tired of itting still and sweating my ass off, and only barely managed to hang on to my motivation to stay until 4am, when the drink was opened to the guvernment crowd to gain access to the skybar.
Ventured up to the skybar shortly after 4am, and this is when the night took a turn for the spectacular. I swear, just reaching the skybar was a relief in itself, a break from the surging heat of downstairs, and room enough to feel comfortable with your dancing neighbours. Manzone and Strong were playing a set I wasn't at all impressed with, light tribal, with an excessive use of Gwen Stefani vocals, which crossed the boundary of being tedious to annoying very quickly. Towards the end they picked it up a little, sensing the large crowd gathering in anticipation of the meyhem lawler was going to unleash upon us.
Lawler comes on at 6am, and blows the crowd away with a huge set. Electro at it's very best, lawler played house, with very heavy glitchy electro goodness, the exact type of music I'm feeling most right now. Although I love what Lawler was playing, it's still rare to find a DJ who can play the style without treading into too experimental waters, and Lawler's set gave me a great appreciation of him as a DJ by being able to throw down an almost purely filthy electro set, without annoying the crap out of people with bleeps and bloops. I was eating the music up, and with the additional reserves of energy for sitting down in the guverment for several hours straight, I was going harder than I can remember in recent history.
Sasha came up to the skybar at some point, I was going too mental to truely notic until I heard some trance elements in the choons being played. I looked up, and saw sasha and lawler going nuts themselves over a build up of a track sasha had put on. I had my doubts about those two spinning in together with they're extremely contrasting styles, but once sasha compromised slightly on the melody, the set turned out to be very unique, and reminded me a Sasha and Digweed experience, where Sasha provides the melody and Lawler provides the groove. [albeit lawler's sound it much more sharper and harder than digweed]
No one I think on the skybar wanted this party to end, and even at 9:40 in the morning the club was still at least half full, and I don't think there were many people who were left were willing to leave before the DJs did. But then the local authorities made an unexpected and most unwelcome stop, and shut the party down. Now I'm not familiar with the noise by-laws, but if you were going to complain about a party, wouldn't it make more sense to do that at 4am instead of 10? Or if there were gonna bust the club for drugs, you'd think they'd make an effort to find some?
But sadly, that party came to a close, right after lawler jumped on the mic and thanked and praised the crowd for coming out and partying as hard as they did. This had the makings of one of those really special parties where the DJs themselves are having just as good a time playing as the crowd is listening, and I have no doubts that if it were possible, Sasha and Lawler would have played far past the 10am scheduelled end time to appease the hungry crowd.
So all in all, a great night, once you got out of the guvernment main room, and well worth the meagre $15 cover charge. Special thanks to all the TAs in attendance, I may show up to a party alone, but I'm never by myself when you kids are around.
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And the review thread for this party is huge....A sign that it was one of those *special* nights where the vibe was insane, and the rest of them can be found here.....just under 420 posts:
review thread
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Not Everyone Understands House Music, It's a Spiritual Thing, a Body Thing, a Soul Thing
Last edited by Sly_Guy on Nov-18-2005 at 01:56
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