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Review: DEMF 2009
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| patpicos |
A party like this deserves its own thread!!
What a weekend! This year, artists got longer slots and made it easier to arrange scheduling between stages instead of shifting around every 30mins!
Saturday
Kate Simko: Saw her for 20-30 mins toward the end of her set. It wasn't bad, but didn't take much to lose me.
Adam Beyer and Marco Carola: OMG!!!!! these 2 were relentless. Techno at its best. Im glad I finally got to see Carola after many times missing him (DEMF08 no show, Missed him in TO, missed him at Minitek...). Carola even played longer than his slot. He definitely gets the title for set of the weekend!
Carl Cox: Caught the last 45 mins of his set after Carola. He was playing his old techno style (not the housy crap he played at Circa). I wish he wasn't at the same time as Carola.
Sunday
Osunlade: caught a piece of his set and he was amazing. Reminded me of Matthias Kaden. He was the surprise of the weekend (never heard of him)
Tiefshwarz: Wow, those 2 were amazing. First time hearing them and they did not disapoint. their set was perfect from start to end. Such crazy basslines.
Loco Dice vs. Luciano: 3 hours of bliss. A mix of driving basslines and mixing in the Luciano style. These 2 form a great duo. Will post a video shortly.
Monday
Carl Craig: He looked so bored during his set. The part I saw was nothing spectacular.
Los Hermanos: Nice live act from those guys. Unfortunately I only saw bits and pieces as I went back to my room for a bit.
Kevin Saunderson: Great mix of techno and groovy tunes. 9/10
Derrick May: 1st hour was meh, then he really picked it up in the 2nd half. Unfortunately, the last 15 mins stunk. As good as he was, he should not have been the closing act for the weekend (in comparison to Speedy J last year).
Ellen Allien: Very fun to watch and she was playing good stuff. THe transition to Tiga was a fun, yet cool. Does anyone thing that she looks like MissK ? :)
Audion: his set was average. The crappy stage didn't help either.
Overall, Friday was the best night and Sunday the worst.
Boat Cruise
This thing was massive!!! First time on a boat cruise. It felt nice dancing on carpet :) Loco and Luciano started slowly and got back to the levels at the main stage eventually. Some tracks were recycled from their main set. Stacey Pullen was also good on the other floor. Unfortunately that room was pretty empty. He dropped the hard stuff.
As fun as the boat cruise was, it was definitely overpriced. Also, there was still plenty of capacity on it.
Sets I wish I had seen
Heidi
Steve Bug
Carl Cox (the piece i didnt see)
Wighnomy Bros (they started great, unfortunately I had to change...and missed the rest.) Heard they were awesome
Guy Gerber .... Loco/Luciano were too good for me to skip to the beatport stage
Octave One
Adultnapper |
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| El K Dee |
I had a blast this year despite the lineup not being as nice as last year's.
shocking well-played/outdone sets:
Damian Lazarus
Ellen Allien
Z-Trip
Bassnectar
Disappointments:
Derrick May
THE BOAT |
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| Anas Attia |
Shoulda grabbed some of the free rent being offered all over the city :S
The entire weekend was great, next time, less weed more dance.
Hightlights for me..
Carl Cox (woot first time)
Flying Lotus (wierd end to his set, he didnt know when he was supposed to finish, they changed the time on him)
Adultnapper (both times I saw him)
Martinez Bros
Anthony Attalla
Z-Trip
Guy Gerber
Nic Fanciulli
Weignomy Bros
So glad I didnt go on the boat, only because I was so jelous the entire time till people got back to me hee hee
ps I know some of you found this place in Greek Town (Pappy's) wicked food, ate there every day for lunch. |
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| DigiNut |
Let me try to pick out a few highlights before totally crashing. In no particular order:
- Marco Carola playing insane hard techno, miles apart from the typical minimal stuff, and seeing the crowd (or at least our crowd) go absolutely ape;
- Loco Dice & Luciano's main stage set. I've never been a huge fan of Loco himself, but now having seen these two together, well, there's not much I can say that would do justice to their awesomeness. Somebody ended up asking me what concoction of drugs I was on, when I was in fact completely sober at the time, that's how good it was.
- The boat. Well, actually, I wasn't blown away by any of the sets, but the boat itself was a trip. I think every deck was at least the size of Footwork, if not twice as large. The experience felt a bit like club-hopping, on the busiest night of the year, with unlimited in/out privileges and the party following you wherever you went.
- The green body suit guy. I'm just wondering how he survived the whole weekend in that outfit.
- Some really amazing breakers (DC probably) duking it out to... deep house. No kidding.
- Afrikaa getting virtually every single chick on the dance floor to get up on stage and shake it... lol, nothing I haven't seen at a top 40 I guess, but I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've seen it during a breaks set.
- People-watching at the MID stage. lol. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, maybe one of the others can. Oh, and the mind-bending 150 bpm techno that was going on at same stage before Audion.
I'm barely even scratching the surface here, but then I've never been one for detailed reviews. If I remember more after reactivating a few neurons then I'll share. :)
All in all, pretty f*ckin' outstanding weekend!
P.S. Anas, I met you, but I elected not to introduce myself by my TA name, haha. :p Good times! |
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| nadezhda |
overall a much more successful DEMF than last year...lots of sunshine, great group of friends, no injuries, no feeling like i was going to die waking up tuesday morning, just good times!
SAT:
started off the day with steve bug. i just love that man. he was great and was a perfect beginning to DEMF. i had wanted to check out damian lazarus as well but he comes to toronto way more often and i didn't want to miss any of steve's set, especially since he only seems to come to toronto on school nights anymore and i just can't do that. headed over to the beatport tent for adam beyer, who i really enjoyed this time (didn't really like him at 99 sudbury a few years ago, but my musical tastes have definitely changed since then). ended up listening to carl cox's closing set, but i don't remember it being anything special. then again, i was really drunk and tired. tried to go to the cassy afterparty at oslo around 2:00, but they wouldn't let us in because it was almost over. boo hiss. woke up passed out in my bed without having any recollection of getting there. resolved to drink more slowly the next day!
SUN:
nic fanciulli was allright, but didn't blow me away. hung out in the beatport tent for tiefschwarz and then after they were done, i took the opportunity to eat my first corn dog ever. LOL. it was pretty awesome and gross all at the same time. then we headed over to the main stage for the set that i was most excited about - loco dice vs. luciano. OMG. AMAZING!!! i've been waiting for years to see luciano since no one can seem to book the man in toronto and he wasn't in miami the year i went. so ing worth the wait! it was exactly the kind of stuff i want to hear right now. although i did want to kill all the crowd surfers because i really didn't feel like worrying about getting kicked in the head when i just wanted to dance my ass off.
went back to the hotel for a quick break and to change, and then headed over to the boat. that thing was huge. obviously, i only cared about MORE loco dice and luciano so i didn't go to any other floors. i pretty much lost my mind, they were so good. i haven't heard any sets that i loved as much as the two they did on sunday in years...hope this one was recorded. i pretty much didn't stop dancing once and i refused to leave my spot by the front except to grudgingly get more water cos i thought i was going to die if i didn't. i'm kind of afraid i'll end up in some video looking like a sweat-drenched madwoman (with a neck that had turned green from my necklace), but let's hope not. it was so hot in there. ugh. but so worth it! everything else at DEMF paled in comparison to them as far as i am concerned. <3
MON:
went to see adultnapper, and although i really liked his set, i found it hard to dance since i was crippled from the night before and melting in the sun. came back to the beatport tent for ellen alien, who is another dj i've been wanting to see for a few years, and i loved her. then tiga came on and i found the music really annoying, so then commenced a few hours of wandering around trying to find something that i liked. checked out carl craig, but he was finishing in 10 min. went to see afrika bambaataa but didn't like that either, although i walked by luciano and had to restrain myself from going over like some ridiculous fangirl. wandered around for a while. caught some of kevin saunderson who was good. went to check out audion and, although i liked what he was playing, i couldn't really get into it. ended up closing the festival out to derrick may, who was pretty good, but nothing special.
sunday night made the whole weekend for me - everything else was just icing on the cake. i loved that i got to prance around in shorts all weekend because the weather during the day was absolutely gorgeous, although i did freeze to death monday night and had to borrow various items of clothing from my friends. i cannot wait to eat some vegetables again though. and seriously - what is up with americans and every restaurant having pancakes served as a side dish with an omelette? do you not think a giant omelette is enough food? i couldn't get over the portion sizes (and trust me, i can eat a lot!)
can't wait for next year!!!!! |
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| DJ Mach X |
I Dunno why so many people think the boat was disapointing... it was never going to compare to a day time smaller boat trip, it is not even in the same league..two totally different things. I think it was fun, not overpriced cuz I got tickets earlier. Beer were reasonably priced. The organization of it was pretty good, no real hitches, no clusters that I thought would actually happen! I think it was fun and the music was what I expected. It was totally the company I think for my fun, the friends and fellow partiers were awesome!
Derrick May was disapointing, I can see why he supposed to close, but was unimpressed, some record skipping, some trainwrecking...
Everyone else was fun... Carl Cox was good party cheesy clubby goodness! Lots of fun!
Wighonomy Brothers were amazing! Tiga was amazing... Bayer was fun, I can't even begin to pick out my favorite things, they were all great in their own way.
Wish the weather was a bit better on the Sunday and Monday, got in cold towards the night! Brrrr
Loved that there was no tickets for booze, just straight up cash!
I had alot more that I wanted to say, but can't remember it all lol!
EYE CANDY THO! :eyes: Wow.. the women at this festival!
People watching was VERY intresting too... they came out earlier and earlier than I recall previous years!
Small vitamin waters?! Weird...
Adam Bayer
Carl Cox
Me trying to be artsy
Me and friends at the beatport tent
Love the t-shirt!
Loco Dice vs. Luciano epic booth party on the boat...
Me and Tiga
More pictures - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77072&id=505714286&l=5560fcd444 |
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| geroin |
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| Pett |
where to begin really.
had about 10x more fun than i had anticipated having.
Some highlights for me were musically:
- Corolla , beyer, wighnomy bros at beatport.
- Carl cox dominating the crowd with his awful music although i hear he was pretty good during Coralla's set.
- Loco/Luciano on the boat cruise
- Damian Lazarus @ old miami
- whoever that super botched dj was wearing the yellow shirt at old miami
- Some Skater looking kid/Dj spinning on the boat.
Soooo many other great dj's
Other highlights:
- Great Friends/other random ppl
- Great Weather
- Good organization
- Tigers game
- Hotel location
- Wtf reactions to costumes
so just scratching the surface here, you kinda just had to and should have been there. Good times all around def a successful trip. |
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| MissNick |
Whew what a weekend. I know that I ran into some of you because I have seen many of the same faces at the Guv.
Highlights: Luciano and Loco Dice on the boat, dressing up like a sailor-girl and our white sailor hats, 80s workout outfit day, passing out Lovevinylrecords.com stickers, Carola, Batayla, Whigonmy Brothers, Ellen Alien, Carl Cox, chilling at Old Miami, 36 hours of dancing with a one hour nap, laughing at all the completely cracked out people trying to function on Monday, and dancing on the flagpole stand during Derrick May's set.
OH... and the DJs who threw down vinyl! |
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| jchung52 |
DEMFinately a great weekend.. haha ya i said it. 14 hours of sleep and i feel great :D
Review on Sets
SATURDAY
Nikola Baytala: first set to hear of the festival and it was mediocre. It took a while for him to get into a groove and even then, there were quite a few slip ups that kind of turned me off but didn't matter cuz everyone was starting to show up and I was wandering around meeting up with me people then.
Heidi: always a pleasure hearing her. fantastic energy and she def picked things up and got the crowd going. crowd went nuts when she dropped the track that goes... "bon bonbon... chicka chicka.. bon bonbon" track id? lol
Damian Lazarus: great set but i think Heidi's was still better. Not much else to comment on it
Adam Beyer: annihilation, just started throwing bombs out there. By now, the crowd was well on their way to bamboozlement. The sun was setting and it seemed like carola would have to destroy the place to keep things going.. (which everyone expects he would)
Marco Carola: Heard him a few times in Miami and each time was impressive (except for Sunday School where it seemed like he was up for 5 days). Carola was fantastic, full on tech bomb after another. TA presence in full to the left of stage rocking out. I would have to say Carola's set was my favourite all weekend.
- also checked out Drumcell and Steve Bug for a bit here and there but unable to fully comment on their sets but from what i heard, it was pretty good
SUNDAY
Nic Fanciulli: first set of the day that I managed to get to.. and he started at 4pm haha hangover in full effect. Good way to start they day. I was planted against the wall for a lot of it since my legs were still hurting from the night before, but it was def what i needed to get my day going. some great tribal tech with a bunch of crowd pleasers like Black Water which got the crowd singing :cool:
Tiefschwarz: great stuff here, enjoyed it, and thats all i have to say bout it
I went back to the hotel to change and regroup cuz it was getting nippy and I wanted to be good for the boat so I unfortunately missed some sets I wanted to see but I wasn't feeling the best anyways so it wouldn't have mattered much.
Loco Dice vs. Luciano: after seeing the two of them at the Shelbourne during WMC, I wanted to see the duo together once again and got my wish. These guys really know how to work a massive crowd. Rolling basslines, drop after drop... the crowd was in full crazy mode. thoroughly enjoyed their set and would have to it equal
to carola's.
IM ON A BOAT: well this thing is massive. 1500 capacity, each level was like a mini club. unfortunately i was getting sick again and was planted on stool for half of it. by the time I was good again, the place was a disaster haha. sketch factor was to the max and it was a sauna in there which prob didnt help. loco vs luciano was pretty good, but nothing compared to what they did on main stage.
MONDAY
Adultnapper: Started off slow but soon enough, he just started killing it. I missed him at zone unfortunately but heard it was one of the best sets at zone in a long time so I was pleased that I was able to check him out and was impressed. Great stuff
Ellen Allien: set was all over the place...she played multiple genres which really threw things off for me but it seemed like the rest of the day was going to be an electro day. still a fun set
Tiga: banging electro. Haven't heard him live before but really liked his stuff. very good technically and track selection was smooth
Bad Boy Bill: this guy has been around forever and still is able to throw it down. the place was packed for him and lots of fist pumping going on. his MC (forgot his name?) did a good job working the crowd
Benassi: well, was benassi. heard a few tracks and was alright i guess, mixing was a little iffy
Carl Craig: good stuff here however cannot comment on the whole set since i wasnt present for all of it.
Los Hermanos: really great stuff here. violin, cello, drums, dj, dancers, MC. Their take on a bunch of songs was fun and I really enjoyed them
Kevin Saunderson: after hearing him in London, I wasn't too impressed by him at all, so I was skeptical about checking him out. However, he was a lot lot better. Great techno coming out of him.
Derrick May: receives award for DJ who trainwrecked too many times. To be honest, every mix was off. His EQ'ing was off as well. Really was a downer, esp for a closing act on the main stage. Track selection was great and I was dancing to them all, but each time he made a transition, I would stop and have to start all over, and you could tell the crowd was doing the same. Too bad..
OVERALL REVIEW: first time to DEMF and Im already planning on going again next year. For the price, you cannot beat it. I love day parties, esp when the weather is nice (which we had all weekend). Tons of friendly faces made the event super fun as well, partying outside of familiar territory. There were lots of interesting characters: tons of wacky costumes, candy ravers, people too messed up etc etc. But it was highly entertaining. Great job to all those involved in putting this festival together and to Detroit for allowing and supporting this event. |
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