Rave rave, techno techno! I mean, studios are fun and all, but for me the real point of all this stuff is the dancefloor. Something deep inside keeps making me want to unhook all the gear, pack it up, drag hundreds of pounds of flightcases (ok, more like 250lbs total) into a car, and into a club or party, hook it up, play the techno, then do the whole thing in reverse. There is nothing finer than seeing a dancefloor moving to beats you've made, and the feeling you get guiding the techno up and up and up into a huge whirling vortex of sound, then DROPPING it... can't be adequately explained, but the rush is the most addictive thing ever. :)
Sonance Society is a party crew in Reno Nevada that has been on a two-year hiatus from throwing events - so when they came out of retirement, they went all out, with the best sound, lighting, and (*cough*) lineup they could get. The sound was excellent, provided by Lite Brite, who have been doing this stuff for well over a decade.
This party was crazy - Reno is always a little surreal, but seriously, you never know what's going to happen there. At one point, a group of thugs hit up the main entrance and demanded the cash box - they sent three of the (ex-military) security staff to the hospital, but give 'em credit, they saved the cash box. :D Crazy stuff.
Had a helluva time - Travis and the Sonance crew are a total ball to hang out with, hopefully we'll cross paths again this summer.
When the [inertia labs] folks decided after eight years of throwing parties that it was time to throw in the towel, they decided to go out with a bang and throw one last party to end all parties. All the things they'd joked about over the years came out - lots of live-pa, circus performers, even a mechanical bull!
This one was a tonne of fun - two rooms, with the main room having a ridiculous pile of sound. My only regret is that Seattle live-pa Novatron was playing in the second room while I was playing in the main room, so I was not able to catch the bulk of his live set.
The Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival is an event that occurs every year in Bellingham Washington. I was contacted to do a set, and we made the voyage down - little did we know the party would be held in an *amazing* space, the Museum of Radio and Electricity! The soundsystem was also off the hook, and visuals were fully sponsored by Edirol, resulting in one of the best visuals rigs I've ever seen. To top it off, I shared the stage with KJ Sawka, an amazing drum&bass drummer who does most of his drumming live. It all came together for one spectacular night!
The fine folks in Victoria, who throw a Friday-night techno event at The Jungle Room, invited me to come and play a set. It was a lot of fun, fairly well attended and hosted by some of the most gratious hosts I've played for. I brought out a bunch of new music for this set, which is always stressful - some of it worked, some didn't go over as well, but it was still a great time.
I was contacted by the fine folks at NewMindSpace to see if I'd be willing to play at a different kind of event - a robot-themed dress-up party held on the Vancouver SkyTrain transit system! I really had to think about that one - pretty much anyone I mentioned it to told me I'd be insane, that we'd all be arrested, that the police would confiscate my gear, or it'd all get broken or stolen. Plus, I would have to setup in record time - five minutes or less - and play without a soundcheck!
Well, to their credit, the NewMindSpace folks had cleared the event with SkyTrain authorities, and we had almost no hassle - about 400 people showed up, dressed in all manner of robot costumes and apparel, and we prepared for a massive robot SkyTrain invasion! Unfortunately, the SkyTrain that showed up to take us on our voyage was the "old" style, with individual cars, instead of the new type where it's all one long car joined by accordion sections. That sucked, I ended up playing for one carful of people instead of six - but it was still fun. At one point it was so packed in that car that people were crowd surfing, and the whole car was bouncing up and down so much I thought it might leave the tracks!
