The Minus crew threw a nice party last night at a small club on the corner of Rosa Parks and Mich. Ave, right next to the old Tiger stadium. For the front room, they hung parachutes from the ceiling and walls, using green lights to create a lighting motif, while an assortment of TVs broadcast Richie from the backroom. After fighting through the tight hallway leading to the back room, one walked into a room filled with darkness and occasionally flashing white lights. At the side of the room was Richie's set-up, accentuated by some red lights.
As one may imagine, it was extremely hot inside the party, due primarily to the overcapacity crowd. Almost everyone was drenched with sweat, and to make things worse they wouldn't let anyone outside. Didn't dance as much as I thought I would. When the dance floor is so crowded that you can barely raise your hands above your hips without touching the person two inches in front of you, it's kind of hard to dance much. People were dancing, but it was mostly body-jacking and head-bobbing. Couldn't really move your feet or your hands with that many people crammed inside. I was a bit disappointed to see Richie spend so long on each track. He let most records play out, focusing most of his efforts on the mixer and his EFX rather than digging through his crate for the next record. Reminded me somewhat of a Global Underground (trance/prog house) set, where the DJ will give a record five to seven minutes, letting the fluxuations in sound compensate for a lack of mixing. In a way, the heavy use of the mixer and his EFX worked well. There wasn't a track on the decks that didn't get the Hawtin treatment, which usually involved at least one sort of anticipatory build-up. And that 909... Man, that thing can drive a person insane! He would just program in these really tweaked out loops and let them cycle for minutes on end, until you almost want to scream from massive disorientation. At times, I almost thought of his party as a battle, with Richie challenging people to try to stay on the dance floor as long as possible. This was hard. Between the insane temperatures, over-crowdedness, hallucinatory lighting, and intense music, it really took some stamina and motivation to remain on the dance floor for extended periods of time. The lounge room was almost as cool as the dance floor, with lots of great people (kind of a who's who of Detroit's techno camp) and lots of conversation. Made me think of Richie as an Andy Warhol sort of figure with his parties as a mobile Factory. Seems like a lot of people come more for the parties than for his music. And who can blame them; the parties are done with such class and professionalism, attracting an elite camp of people, while his music seems to be crossing the line towards near-intolerance. ...if this was just a one-off party, I'm really looking forward to the Plus 8 party. Jason Birchmeier ---------------- Editor All Music Guide http://allmusic.com 734-887-5600x186 ----------------
