Sasha, Digweed, Jimmy Van M - Chicago

Left Windsor around 1pm.
Arrived in Downtown Chicago around 5 local time (central) time zone, we gained an hour which turned out to be gold. The event was held at the Congress Theatre. Not knowing that there were two theatres bearing that name in the City, we had to high road it from the location we thought it was.

Stood in Line for about an hour an was let in at 8pm. JVM opened at that time playing a very interesting set. He played a tad ambient yet incorperated heavy baselines in the beginning. The last half of his set, he begin to play dirty, punchy tracks which signaled that Digweed was the first one to take over. Van M's set was from 8-9:30pm.

Diggers took over from there and immediately started out with heavy dirty tracks that made the crowd light up. Verry very dark prog. He played for a while until about 10:30.

Sasha then came on to the delight of the crowd. IMHO, his set didn't really go anywhere. He played for about 45 min's till 11:30. Played very trancy records, a bit uplifting and not very base heavy. The crowd was very in to it.

Around midnight, the show took off. Diggers and Sasha began to play 4 songs on, 4 songs off. The for the last hour, they were playing 1 on, 1 off. During this time they were helping each other mix tracks in, which is evident in one of the photos I shall provide. This last bit was very very hard,punchy and base heavy, even including the tracks Sasha was dropping.

First encore was a total shock to me as Sasha called for one more track, he then proceeded to mix in Bedrock - Heaven Scent (remix). Sasha then ended the night with Age of Love.

Crowd:
Unbelieveable ! There was a tonne of people that made lengthy trips in order to make this event. I was quite impressed with the level of knowledge of these partiers. Quite a mature crowd, with about 30% or so being relatively young. I would say there was close to 1200 people in the place.

Lighting:
I don't know where the promoters found the lighting apparatus that they used but it was amazing. There was a big circle of light that stood upright then collapses to enclose the DJ setup creating a dome.

Venue:
A very large and old theatre was used. The acoustics were top notched. It also had two stories which was a cool concept.

Was back in Windsor by 8am. In all, we had a blast and it was well worth my time and energy.

Dave

 

Marquee

JVM

Sasha

 

That sounds insane and very slick!

 

Diggers,Sasha,Van M

collaberation?



Serious Digweed

 

i just have a few words to say

I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE.

damn.
sweet pics dAve

 

nice one dave. cant imagine starting and ending so early though

 

yeah, ending at 2 was a bit of a drag but in the long run, it was a blessing cuz I didn't plan to spend the night there; I would have still drove home.

 

wow... looks awesome...

Guess I missed one hell of a party.. *sigh*

 

I was supposed to see them this saturday in Boston. I opted to stay home and have the house to myself instead.
I'm wondering if I made the right choice.

 

left hand=digweed
right hand=sasha

take turns

 

sit on hands before for added realism

 

you should have seen it ! They both couldn't wait till the other mixed in a track so they can have their turn. It was like they were trying to out do each other.

 

I'd really like to. I haven't seen the pair spin together or alone. I went to catch Sasha at Meow a couple years back but that was a fucking disaster and a half thanks to the typical denizens of that particular venue. Them trading on and off like that to mix sounds so fucking cool. Can't say that Sasha has ever gotten me "right there" where he does evidently for other people, or that Digweed's programming doesn't sometimes make me disinterested in his sets despite his unparalleled technical skill, but watching the two of them together is still pretty high on my list of partying to do's.

 

nice lighting


Diggers

 

WTF!...peeps not even dancing...standing around like sheep!

 

nice pics Trini

just outta curiosity, how much was the Chicago show?

I don't think I'm going tomorrow night in NYC after all, I've got family coming into town and I'm on turkey duty. Might go at 4am to catch the last half of the show.

 

have a happy thanksgiving...poo eater

 

oh fuck me.
i am SOOOO jealous right now.
SOOOOOOOOOOOO JEALOUS.
lovely pics of sasha

 

thanks deep...how did you know we were having poo with our turkey this year?

 

Dave, the pics look fabulous...i hope you & your cru (lynne & whoever else went) had a great time...it's a shame they didn't come by toronto...

deep i have to agree, seeing them separately, (unless that was in the basement of element) is one thing, but seeing them together must be a great experience; i can just picture them playing off each other...& there is something to be said for playing 1 on 1 off...some argue flow is lost, but i think each dj feeds off the others mixes & wants to push their own mix to another level...bring it in early, drop off the bass & play the mids off each other w/ a little smidgen of vocals to liven things up...i think i'm going to have to go out & buy some 12's + i'm certain the track selection in chi town must have been pretty sweet...actually jvms set sounds intriguing & i have a feeling helped build the crowds anticipation for s&d...

thanks for the review

jc

 

Review:

What an amazing nite! From the old theatre venue to the great, energetic, music intelligent crowd and a cool vibe. We ran into people all the way from South Carolina and even Colorado. A few people had even saw S&D on this mini tour already or were going to see him again in NYC or Boston. Most people were surprised that we had driven all the way from Canada just for this one nite
Since we decided to go to this, I was eagerly awaiting this day to arrive. The last time I saw S&D together was Halloween 2000 at Twilo and must say that their set in Chicago ranked up there with that nite.

Best memories:
- Sasha and Digweed being both surrounded by the circle of lights
- Van M grooving to the ambient but dirty baselines for the first hour of his set
- Sasha and Diggers tag teaming
- the amazing lighting and effects for the entire nite
- and of course the music - from the dirty pounding baselines of Diggers to the more trancey tracks of Sasha to the breaks that Van M threw in there. And the two encores to end the nite of first POB's mix of Heaven Scent and then the timeless track Age of Love (a new remix I think) to close it all off.

Even with the drive, getting kinda lost in Chicago and having to wait in line for an hour, the nite was well worth it

Ilia

 

Reading this review is killing me!!! I thought about going to one of their shows, but decided it was too much trouble... now I'm regretting it big time. Hopefully they'll be hitting T.O. some time soon. If not, it doesn't matter becuase I'm pretty sure I'll see them at Homelands 2002

 

41 bux US