Let it be known that I've only have 7 hours sleep by now, but LifeFest was the best event ever!!
I decided to attend this at the last minute, 7
m the previous day I sent a message asing if anybody needed a ride to Windsor with me.
Left Toronto at 8:45am sans passengers and picked Stargurl* up in London two hours later, burned rubber down to Windsor to arrive 1/2 hour late but that's okay cos the show wasn't on yet, they weren't even selling tix at the gate! We putteread around the Casino a little, got $30 tix at a place in town and settled down to wait...
It was hot as hell, but the people were enthusiastic and they let everybody in at 3:00 (3 hours late). Thus began the music...
The second stage had some decent stuff going on but it wasn't my cup of tea, a little trance, little techno, much jungle at the end of the evening but ultimately it was the Main stage which had everybody's attention.
Because they started late the setlists were all screwed up, Stickmen and Kenny Glasgow didn't show at all, niether did Derrick May, big dissapointment there, but everything else went a-ok.
People on the main stage:
Clark Warner hit it off with some wierd stuff, not very upbeat techno, and little or no mixing, it was track and track with simple crossfades in between, nice but *meh* not great.
Theorem (Dale Lawrence) had everybody confused, I guess becuase nobody knew who he was, he played exactly what I expected, downtempo, ambient clicks and clacks, headphone music really, but I was boogying all through it. Most people left for the small stage which had some hard techno/trance at the time. (I'm looking for his first album called "Nano" if anybody has it I'd like to buy it or *ahem* copy it pls
)
Himawari was a last minute addition to the stage, I didn't catch much of it because well... they were wierd, a japanese duo doing wierd techno music with the girl doing the vox and dancing/singing very much like Bjork,.
Gene Farris fucking rocked the house! Nobody expected it but he just hammered out the funkiest shit and was undoubtedly the best performance of the show! About halfway through his set it started raining but they didn't shut it down!! He kept playing while the setup guys covered everything and the crowd was going berserk! Shirts were off everywhere, stomping in puddles, conga lines, and Gene was egging us on with hands in the air and some BOMB tracks, he lit the place up. The rain stopped but nobody stopped pounding thier feet to his beats
Juan Atkins busted on next and at this point I too a brief break (Redbull without liquour number 5!) but came back for most of his set and he pouded out some funky funky stuff, I'd love a setlist. Gotta get that Massive Attack - Protection Remix he played.
Carl Craig played some wicked wicked tunes, not at all the wierder techno sounds I expected from him, he busted out the 70's disco tunes alongside the techno and it was beautiful.
Kevin Saunderson although I really wanted to see him didn't really do it for me, Inner City only had 45 minutes to do something becuase of the late start and so they sang a few songs and left the stage, bit of a dissapointment but the set was tight.
When Richie came on everybody left thier seats. I'm not sure how many people showed up but (probably about 3000, which is a shame for an AIDS benefit that cool) everybody was there for Richie Hawtin. He pounded out some wicked tunes, not one imperfection in his mixing and definately the crowd was for it even thought we'd all baked under the sun all day. Unfortunately I was really tired and we did leave before he finished (we couldn't find Dora and Brian to say g'bye
)
Anyways, the trip was wicked, but 4 hours driving each way took it's toll. Gotta love the food. The prices for water etc weren't too much, I think it was $4 for REV! The people there (especially the women!) were amazing, American ravers are pretty cool
Nobody very sketched out, and if there were drugs there we didn't see much of it. It's a cool place to hold a party and no doubt will be used as such in the future. I'm just glad that Jay, Aimee, Dora and Brian were there to keep company
Thanks guys!
Rob
I decided to attend this at the last minute, 7
Left Toronto at 8:45am sans passengers and picked Stargurl* up in London two hours later, burned rubber down to Windsor to arrive 1/2 hour late but that's okay cos the show wasn't on yet, they weren't even selling tix at the gate! We putteread around the Casino a little, got $30 tix at a place in town and settled down to wait...
It was hot as hell, but the people were enthusiastic and they let everybody in at 3:00 (3 hours late). Thus began the music...
The second stage had some decent stuff going on but it wasn't my cup of tea, a little trance, little techno, much jungle at the end of the evening but ultimately it was the Main stage which had everybody's attention.
Because they started late the setlists were all screwed up, Stickmen and Kenny Glasgow didn't show at all, niether did Derrick May, big dissapointment there, but everything else went a-ok.
People on the main stage:
Clark Warner hit it off with some wierd stuff, not very upbeat techno, and little or no mixing, it was track and track with simple crossfades in between, nice but *meh* not great.
Theorem (Dale Lawrence) had everybody confused, I guess becuase nobody knew who he was, he played exactly what I expected, downtempo, ambient clicks and clacks, headphone music really, but I was boogying all through it. Most people left for the small stage which had some hard techno/trance at the time. (I'm looking for his first album called "Nano" if anybody has it I'd like to buy it or *ahem* copy it pls
Himawari was a last minute addition to the stage, I didn't catch much of it because well... they were wierd, a japanese duo doing wierd techno music with the girl doing the vox and dancing/singing very much like Bjork,.
Gene Farris fucking rocked the house! Nobody expected it but he just hammered out the funkiest shit and was undoubtedly the best performance of the show! About halfway through his set it started raining but they didn't shut it down!! He kept playing while the setup guys covered everything and the crowd was going berserk! Shirts were off everywhere, stomping in puddles, conga lines, and Gene was egging us on with hands in the air and some BOMB tracks, he lit the place up. The rain stopped but nobody stopped pounding thier feet to his beats
Juan Atkins busted on next and at this point I too a brief break (Redbull without liquour number 5!) but came back for most of his set and he pouded out some funky funky stuff, I'd love a setlist. Gotta get that Massive Attack - Protection Remix he played.
Carl Craig played some wicked wicked tunes, not at all the wierder techno sounds I expected from him, he busted out the 70's disco tunes alongside the techno and it was beautiful.
Kevin Saunderson although I really wanted to see him didn't really do it for me, Inner City only had 45 minutes to do something becuase of the late start and so they sang a few songs and left the stage, bit of a dissapointment but the set was tight.
When Richie came on everybody left thier seats. I'm not sure how many people showed up but (probably about 3000, which is a shame for an AIDS benefit that cool) everybody was there for Richie Hawtin. He pounded out some wicked tunes, not one imperfection in his mixing and definately the crowd was for it even thought we'd all baked under the sun all day. Unfortunately I was really tired and we did leave before he finished (we couldn't find Dora and Brian to say g'bye
Anyways, the trip was wicked, but 4 hours driving each way took it's toll. Gotta love the food. The prices for water etc weren't too much, I think it was $4 for REV! The people there (especially the women!) were amazing, American ravers are pretty cool
Rob
