DEMF - DETROIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT ...

[Suke]

Last minute Friday night at Gardner I found out I was going to DEMF. Missed last year, went for the Sunday line-up only. I'm not a big fan of long reviews so I'll try to keep it short.

John Aquaviva 3:30pm - 5:00pm:
Second track was Spaced Invaders. Played pumpin' house. Alot of hits. No techno. Caught him Thursday at Mad Bar as well.

De La Soul 5:30pm - 6:30pm:
Nice. Not a hip hop fan anymore but De La came through with the classics. Had all the Detroiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit heads leaving other tents when they heard De La warming up. First track - "Buddy"

Lawrence Gardner 7:00pm - 9:30pm:
Caught Lawrence on Friday at Turbo. My review is in the thread. Not much difference. A little better but not my thing. I'm not down with no beats for thirty seconds to a minute or very weak beats. Didn't really pound it out as much. Did a live p.a. with his crew and used the 1's and 2's at the same time (very rarely though). I will not jump the Lawrence Gardner bandwagon. He was good, but I like it aggressive. He would start slow, pick up, pick up more, get weak, weaker. I don't know. Say what you want.

Weather was shit, cold/damp/wet.

Venue was Safe!. kinda like ancient greece stadiums with the stairs and seats all in a circle. People dancin' on benches in the stands, ground level fit a "few" thousand more.

Toronto skins are much Safer, but Detroiiiiiiiiiiiiit skins have better way of putting gear together (from what I saw)

It was Safe! to see Families of all backgrounds out. Toddlers dancin' it up, people rangin' from 16-60 (no joke). LOTS of older people feelin' the Motown vibe, rinsin' out the dancefloor. There were ALOT of older people there, Trust! Add baby strollers to that list as well.

I caught a bit of Alton Miller. We was on point. I couldn't cope with Gardner so I had to leave.

I'm glad I went ... SLAM and "Coxy" later today, both with three hour sets. Major Damage.

Keep your ears to the Detroiiiiiiiiiiiiit River regarding these two Detroiiiiiiiiiiiiit residents/up & comers:

Keith Worthy (house)
DJ Row (tech-house/booty)

Detroiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit knows how to party. No Joke!

Told a Detroiiiiiiiiiit skin I'd look for her in the Dose tent at WEMF -----------------------------> Suke.

P.S. Maximum props to Bean for the last minute call.

 

[me]

"Once, twice, three? times a DJ." Same week bro. Did anyone catch Terry Mullan's set under the Ambassador Bridge? Any other noteable sets?

 

[gsnuff]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by me:
"Once, twice, three? times a DJ." Same week bro. Did anyone catch Terry Mullan's set under the Ambassador Bridge? Any other noteable sets? </font>

autechre, titonton, an jay denham all delivered the goods.

todd sines banged out an awesome set of minimal house at the 7th city afterparty..

good weekend.. I forgot how crazy those midwest kids are.

gsnuff

 

[Suke]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by me:
"Once, twice, three? times a DJ." Same week bro. </font>

Word! @ me. No more chances for Gardner. Full count strike-out.

Listened to some Terry Mullan on the drive home ----------------------&gt; Suke.

 

[Bean]

i think that if i went to DEMF for all three days, i would be dead.

one day was crazy enough!

i caught essentially the same sets as suke, and danced like crazy.... and am totally backing him up on the keith worthy call. this guy is solid.

the trip was definitely an adventure. facing crazy rain on the drive down, once in detroit, it managed to remain fairly dry.

it was awesome seeing a broad range of people at this event - that it wasn't limited to those who are often found at electronic music events.

laurent garnier's set, although interspersed with live stuff, was fairly similar to what he spun at turbo on friday.

acquaviva's set was fun - definitely one that could be appreciated by those not schooled in electronic music.

i'm not into de al soul, but their set was great. it was an amazing sight to see several thousand people in the crowd waving their hands in the air.

"when i say raise your flag, i mean your hand." - de la soul '01

the "techno" cars (ford cars with techno painted on them) were a bit much, but i guess that's what you get with corporate sponsorship.

my few hours at demf put a smile on my face and i still can't seem to shake it.

i hope next year's event will be as good as what i experienced this year.

peace,

sabina

"it's not going to rain." suke '01

.:. share what you know, learn what you don't .:.

 

[JEMZ]

Didn't see Suke... c'est domage. Ran into the Turbo boys, Paul Walker, and a a whole slew of London and T.O crew though.

Weather was shit.

Demographics were wonderfully refreshing. So nice to see the full spectrum of humanity partying it up in shit weather. Special big-up to the crew down in front dancing in the swampy puddle bear-foot.

Big-up to CNice from myself and Jen... nice meeting ya dude.

Laurant Garnier started slow but finished damn strong.

The Ford Focus tent kicked ass.

Too much sound bleed from too many tents with too much sound competing with each other.

No drum and bass

Too much Ecko, fubu, and emarica gear.

$5.00 American for a beer.

The winner for the rediculously large flyer competition: some party in some place in the states that had 6 DJ's and a flyer the size of WEMF's

Too many children? HELL NO.

1 wonderful girlfriend? Hell yes.

Should I go again? For sure.

Thanks Detroit.

 

[stargurl*]

Did anybody else pick up the flyer for some party w/ VANILLA ICE headlining?

I screamed so loud when I saw it that 2 women came over to ask who was headlining.

Hahahahaha

 

[CosmicbOi]

oh yea...the Vanilla Ice party...i saw that flyer...hahah....i think it's gonna be in Ohio or something...

i arrived on Sunday, just in time to catch Acquaviva ending his set....

Spent some time by the main stage...saw De La Soul, Lawrence Garnier....but then i discovered the Motor Stage...ahhh yea....Stacey Pullen all the way

Then we were off to Motor....but we had absolutely no idea how to get to the club..! So we just drove around, and stumbled upon this club, (cant even remember the name)... there were 2 rooms in this club...one room had techno (detroit locals), and the other room was techno as well, headlined by Marco Corolla!! sweet deal!

Detroit is a city that embraces electronic music....mucho respect...Toronto politicians could learn something from Detroit...

and i'll be there next year for sure!

nick

 

[Adam Duke]

SUKE! - Must a missed you there, buddy! Probably because of all the time I spent in the media tent drinking up that Bacardi/Red Bull sponsorship. Oi, vey!

Did anyone else check out the Underground Resistance Party on Saturday night? If there was anything I expected to get out of my Detroit trip it was this! Un-fakkin-believable! The Unknown Soldier (a REALLY BIG black guy in a ninja mask), an electro live PA, Suburban Knight and Dj Rolando packed an old warehouse space way out in the sticks of Detroit - it couldn't have been any more 'Detroit' if I begged!

@m.
^^^not a big fan of the rain, though.

 

[Libradragon]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Suke:

Lawrence Gardner 7:00pm - 9:30pm:
Caught Lawrence on Friday at Turbo..

I don't know. Say what you want.

</font>

Well, how about spelling his first and last name right? It's LAURENT GARNIER. Not lawrence gardner.

 

[Lucky]

Was in the motor city for Saturday and part of Sunday.

The first short yet memorable set was Prefuse 73 with mr lif as mc. To be honest I would have enjoyed more prefuse and less of mr lif. Within the half hour set prefuse performed for 20 minutes, and the rest of the time mr lif was freestylin. Although it was the best freestylin i've seen in six or seven years.

Kit Clayton and Autechre did not dissapoint, keeping the crowd on its toes and exposing people to brave new waves. CBC rules 12-4am.

Tortoise on the main stage was one big bad dissapointment. The show at the Pheonix a week earlier was much better for a couple reasons: First, the stage in T.O. was 20 feet away, whereas in detroit the stage was 100 feet away and higher than my two story house. Second, Tortoise needs to play more than 30 minutes to knock a crowd on its ass.

Nobukazu Takemura spent another 30 minutes creating psychotic beats. The Japanese sensation managed to piss a lot of narrow minded people off. I spent the majority of the time laughing at an idiot complaining about the music, yet he never left during the entire set.

Jay Denham kicked some booty despite a shaky start. He either needed a few dimes on his needles, or the monitors were too close to the tables.

By Sunday we were getting pissed with the rain and shitty party flyers. Stayed for half the Acquaviva set then left for T.O., regretting missing Kid Koala's half hour of scratch happy goodness.

I love Detroit, they have some great deli joints.

 

[terrawrist III]

I had a bit of a problem in detriot!!

Travelled a long way to be dissapointed for different reasons!
first of all we had to leave o monday at like 7 o'clock because the people we went with had to work the next day....i think this event is important for the culture of dance music and I wanted to stay till the end!! so pissed off!

second...the line up was not only bogus in terms of who was there, but how it was set up, a lot of no shows and mix ups..my brother wanted to see de la soul, was in his hotel room and was coming for them, only to get a call form me telling him that they went on 4 hours before scedule!! what the fuck!?

the city of detriot is a scary one, our trip to motor on sunday was long and trippy..boarded up windows everywhere and hos!! yes hos!!

the tragedy of the weekend came when we wiated 2 and a hlf hours for the doors to open for the JAK ritchie party, the ritchie detiot events are legendary and it would have made my year to attend this one..but when paople were cramming the front like a blob and that it was 50 at the door because of it, we left very,very dissapointed!

the real heart felt moments of the weekend came when I saw the paople dancing at DEMF during the day! I mean everyday paople, just maybe taking a walk..i have lots of pics of 45 year old black folks from the city and 6 yera old kids dancing together, shaking hands and loving the every second! that made my teary eyed and that was what the whole weekend stood for..togetherness through music!

 

[beaker]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Lucky:
Tortoise on the main stage was one big bad dissapointment. The show at the Pheonix a week earlier was much better for a couple reasons: First, the stage in T.O. was 20 feet away, whereas in detroit the stage was 100 feet away </font>

i thought their performance at the phoenix was a bit of a let-down compared to the last time they were in TO. however, i was standing all the way at the back since we were way too tired to move so that didn't help. i can't decide whether i liked that they shortened all of their songs.

 

[C-NiCE]

D-Town definitely represented itself.

What an awesome weekend. Went down fairly early on Saturday and spent most of the day just walkin around taking in all the madness that was DEMF. Heard most of Afronaught's set of sweet chilled out house. Also saw Glen Underground who really impressed me as well. A good intro to the weekend.

Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting JEMZ and Jen. Its amazing how small a world it really is.

De La Soul was the shit. Not too many new hits, but they really showed off there versatility by doing a nice set of there older stuff off 3 Feet High and De La Soul is Dead. Laurent Garnier didn't really impress me. He would start to get things pumping for a bit and then just drop everything and start to build the crowd again with 1-5 minute build ups. It looked like he was working hard up there, jumpin back and forth between turntables and synths and drum machines etc but I just couldn't maintain a dancing vibe. Kid Koala is the fucking shit. If you ever have the opportunity to catch this turntable genius, do it. He represented Canada well. Saul Williams was pretty cool. Not really what I'm into but still refreshing to see. A very intense individual who makes you stop and think. To finish the night, more turntable wizardry from Mix Master Mike. If only they put the video up on the screen, I think people would better appreciate what he was doing up there. Pure insanity. The guys hands were moving faster than anyone I have ever seen. Some of the fastest scratching and juggling I have ever heard.

It was so cool to see so many different people all enjoying the music. Even though the event was clouded in controversy with the dismissal of Carl Craig and the un-mistakeable fact that this event was sponsored by FORD FOCUS et al, it was still an amazing weekend. I hope that we could put on an event of this magnitude here in Toronto. I think we could really show the world how its done, Canada style.

Chris

 

[Suke]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by C-NiCE:
Laurent Garnier didn't really impress me. He would start to get things pumping for a bit and then just drop everything and start to build the crowd again with 1-5 minute build ups.

but I just couldn't maintain a dancing vibe. </font>

Word! @ C-Nice and all others who thought Lawrence Gardner was weak. Nothing worse then biggin' up a dj based on their name when you know they were weak (twice in three days). C-Nice put it on point ... 1-5 minute build ups, that's just a little too long for me.

JEMZ ... I saw a blonde girl with dreads dancing up near the front barefoot in a puddle, so I don't think we were that far apart. Too Bad.

hardtekfunk ... for once we didn't run into each other.

Also, Word! @ terrawrist about the old folks and the likkle youths. You don't see that up here.

Detroiiiiiiiiiit knows how to party!

CPop stage was dope on vinyl as well ---------------------&gt; Suke.

 

[mystique0217]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by terrawrist III:
first of all we had to leave o monday at like 7 o'clock because the people we went with had to work the next day....i think this event is important for the culture of dance music and I wanted to stay till the end!! so pissed off!</font>

NO WORRIES, BABEE-
cause i heard that it ended early..
cause of pouring rain..
when i tuned in the streaming video,
it was playing cd..
CD..
so you did not miss anything for the derrick may set

i think not..

 

[originalVIBE]

i just got back an 2 hours ago and i will review later. i had fun. detroit sucks.
Jesse.

 

[defazman]

Yah, I went down for the whole weekend but did not get to see as much as I wanted. The first day we waited around for Derrick Carter who didn't play, but then the Static Revenger (or Avenger) came and threw on some Frampton. Cool. That place was way to huge and the fist day I saw two big fights, which kind of sucked. If the weather was nicer it would have been way better. The tent at the entrance played some wild music though.

 

[chicom]

I had a great weekend, even though I didn't get to stay for monday

I must say that one of the best acts I saw the whole weekend was Titonton. I would definatly see these guys if they ever come to town.

As well, Don-Q layed down some good ghetto sunday morning, which really got the day off to a booty shakin' good time.

The one major lesson that I learned this weekend was no matter how much you want booze, regardless of much it costs at the hotel bar, don't go roming the streets of Detroit looking for a liquor store at 12:30am

 

[Straight Up D Shit]

I cannot believe what I just read, you whiny Toronto people!

I got there on Friday and stayed till Tuesday morning through rain and hail, experiencing not only the true spirit of the Motor city as you said, kids from 4 to 84 dancing together to amazing sound systems (the main stages' sound never interfered, did anyone see the tent with the best sound system in the world, right at the front?) and performances, but also to 2 of the best parties I have ever been to, the UR on Saturday and Plus 8 one on Sunday.

There is a way djs spin in D-town and it ain't the way they do it in Toronto. Derrick Carter ( I thought I hated Derrick Carter) rocked my world, I finally know why John A and Richie get more credit down there than any of the American djs, what about Innercity or Kev with his 4 life gospel singers, what about the turntablist Don Q, and Kelly Hand, that diva that started a bit shaky but finished brilliantlty. Who said there aren't any good female djs, did anyone catch Magda?

I mean I know it is save to go and listen to the ones you know, but no fun in hearing Laurent Garnier every 2 days, check out some of the locals. There was a guy, Malik something who did a life house pa and sung on top of it, I know it sounds cheezy, but it was so incredibly dope.

Anyone catch Murat on Saturday night?

What about Funk D'Void, o my f^%^&* god, never heard him sound like this in Toronto.

Yes, we know how to dance and dress better, but those Detroit "natives" had so much soul and so much music in them, I would move down there in a second.

And for those that bitched about $5 drinks, you should have checked out the Motor for $7 Vodka Red Bulls, 2 of those had me on the ground and I can drink more than the russian army. That with the cooky performance of the Grand Pubahs (Paris in a bat men outfit with tiny pvc shorts barely containing his beer belly,) followed by the Godfather made for a a wicked Friday night at the Motor.

It was so good to party with people that cared, not oversized, fake-brested, g-ed out idiots. So in the words of the ever so wise and mature Kid Rock:

"DETROIT IS PIMPING"

peace yall

 

[optik]

As

Bean
Suke will know this but

"we are going to the detroit electronic music festival"

Thanks again for an awsome trip!

I had a blast!

For those that also caught garnier here in t-dot or at DEMF... your lucky

Laurent garnier (from paris , france) is afraid of flying in airplanes...... so he says that this will be his last time comming to north america in a while...... thats why @ DEMF, to see him live is even bigger becasue i am almost sure that he does not play live too much?

thats all

optik