It was a pretty jam-packed weekend. A fairly large west coast posse showed up this year and while my attempt to get them into the full range of what was on offer in Detroit wasn't entirely successful, it was certainly a good time. Now I'm back in Portland nursing the leftover of a cold (aggravated to no small measure by the out of control cigarette smoke in a lot of the venues and the festival itself -- I thought I would gag at the Planet E party and at the State Theatre). But enough of the woes in my nose !
Started out Thursday night at Foran's. Mike Taylor had some equipment problems so he really didn't do a full set, but it was a good way to get going. Nice to see longtime 313er Kelli Kavanaugh again. I wandered up Woodward to Bleu a little after 1:30 hoping that TP might be finishing up, and much to my surprise the place was totally empty. I mean, totally. The lights were on, the front door was ajar, there was nobody inside, nobody at the front desk, at the bar, on the dancefloor, taking out trash -- nobody... weird! Friday I hoped to make it out to Belle Isle but never got there. Just as well because I hear traffic was pretty messed up. In any event I got sidetracked at the Camillian Cafe/ Spectacles/Beatdownsounds second annual pre-DEMF Friday afternoon thing at Harmonie Park. Again, not very many of us but I did see Norm Talley and Reggie Dokes and couple others spinning. I gotta tellya, Norm moves fast. On Sunday I got a CD of his set at a booth at the festival, fresh from the burner! Dennis Donohue and family hosted what turned out to be the big 313 list gathering out in Southfield Friday night, with a lot of people from all over -- Europe, west coast, Chicago, DC. Beer was imbibed, burgers of all varieties consumed and various people spun various things: Kent gave us the world premiere of his Cornwarning Megamix ... Some of us headed over to the UR event at the Baker to Baker cabaret. Not the best neighborhood in town, but definitely not the worst. It reminded me a lot of growing up as a kid -- we had a neighborhood folk dancing event every Friday night. Baker to Baker is a neighborhood social hall, you show up, pay your $5 or whatever, they provide cafeteria tables, a counter with setups (no alcohol for sale on premises), and of course sound system and DJs, and it's BYOBBB, bring your own brown bottle baybee!. Someone said it was a remarkable cross-cultural experience. Basically, everyone had a good time, the music was all over the map and when a good tune came along a lot of people jumped up and grooved it on the floor, even a line doing the Detroit hustle at one point. And as others have mentioned it was worth it just to see Mad Mike dressed to-the-nines. He was looking sharp! I hooked up with Gerald (Matrix) and his crew, and we stopped in at the Input party in the gallery at 715 E. Milwaukee. A big back room with a pretty thumping four-corner sound system, and Kevin Yost was playing pleasant but not particularly interesting jazzy house. They kept turning up the levels until it was unpleasant so we bailed. On arrival downtown, I wanted to pick up a couple doughnuts at Lafayette Coney Island, but it was just after 4 and the doors were locked. As I turned away, suddenly there was this whirlwind and something grabbed me in a bear hug. "Dude! You missed it!! Party of the weekend!!!" This was Rob Theakston who was chowing down after the Ghostly party at Alvin's -- setting a theme for the weekend, which was that I was never quite in the right place a good part of the time. Saturday our west coast crew went out to Submerge for the first panel with Juan Atkins, Duane Patterson and Mark Taylor. This was my first look at the new Submerge 3000 and they really have done a great job rehabbing the old Laundry Workers local. The panel was kind of self-conscious at first, with an MC who just didn't know how to manage the situation or ask effective leading questions. Once the Q&A started things loosened up and we even got Mad Mike in the mix on the issue of how to recycle Detroit's solid waste into auto fuel. If we ever break the unholy alliance between Detroit and Houston you can point to the Model 600 as the bellwether of the new age: http://www.submerge.com/model600/metrp.html Actually Duane Patterson's design is very reminiscent of the work Amory Lovins and his "hypercar" team have been working on for years: http://www.hypercar.com/pages/what1.html We all trundled down to the new S.I.D. store in the basement, where I scarfed up the Shari Vari remix doublepack and all of the Electrofunk releases. At the counter, I saw a stack of mix CDs by Franki Juncaj, who I mentioned here last week because of his excellent Groovetech set. So I say to my friend, "I really liked that Groovetech thing but I don't know how to pronounce his name." Guy at the counter says, "That's me!" I'm still not sure if I can pronounce that name, but Franki rang up my order! OK, so we're all done with Submerge and now at the festival. Missed out on Jay Langa and Mad Professor (who i've seen several times doing the mixing desk thing for Lee Perry's live shows), but we arrived in time to start with part of Deepchord's excellent live show. I also caught some of Heather Heart, Steve Rachmad and Mike Dearborn, but Mike Grant stole the show on the first day in my opinion. A really gutty, full-fledged set that didn't skimp on musicality and kept moving. I did miss John Tejada who got very high marks from many people. Saturday night we only went to one party but it was a good one: UR. The sound problems in the Johansen Gallery from last year got fixed, and though the crowd was still more into the stand-around mode, a good solid core of us were moving the middle of the floor the whole time. Excellent set by Rolando but my hat's off to Buzz Goree who, along with Mike Huckaby, is my favorite Detroit DJ right now. I think my best musical moment of the weekend was hearing Afrogermanic, it opened the room --outward-- just like it did in London. We did miss out on the Beatdown, Porter St and other parties, and since we were leaving UR after 4 I decided to skip the end of Cannonball Run which I again (!) regretted after hearing BMG's description the next night. But hey, UR was completely worth it this year. Sunday, I got motivated early and caught most of Gary Martin's noon set that he played to an empty house, yet another example of botched scheduling. Missed Brian Gillespie, who was shut off at 1 in the underground stage -- "they told me they needed to stay on schedule," meaning that everyone sat around and listened to commercials while they set up Stewart Walker's gear. Me and Greg Earle did hear Brian tear it up at the DJ Supply showcase at 6, but in the meantime: Stewart just shredded, got a big cheer and applause at the end of an emphatically upbeat seat. Keith Kemp played a rolling west- coast-Siesta-style laptop set, but it got samey after about half an hour. At this point I ran across Linda G who was helping Huckaby out on artist logistics. (She says hi to everyone and is happily cooking at a restaurant up in Ferndale these days.) Keith was followed by Adam X with a crusty old hardcore set and some blistering straight-up techno from Bryan Zentz. I also caught a fair bit of Rick Wade and Boo Williams, who brought good cheer and stage personality to a pretty responsive crowd. After all that, it was time to make our funk the P-Funk. Just wish it had actually started at 8 as listed rather than 9 ... I simply couldn't find the right handle for the Sunday afterparties. We got to Planet E around 1:30. After half an hour in line we were at the front, and all of a sudden at least 50 people come up clamoring that they are the VIP line. At that point there were very few admissions in any event, and total door gridlock set in. So we bailed and checked out the C-Pop scene (way crowded so we didn't go in), and finally I went back to the old Submerge building. I have to say, when Submerge moved out of DEI, the magic moved out with them. Now it's just a building, with some fairly good renovation work, but the party was, frankly, pretty flat. Cisco Ferreira was playing slow and Punisher was playing fast techno, the crowd was utterly listless, and I hit the exit ramp in under half an hour. Back to Planet E for another 45 minutes in line, during which there were power outages so once again no entries. Finally got in after 4, but the cigarette smoke was overwhelming and while I heard Carl had played brilliantly earlier, by the time I got to the main area it wasn't all that interesting. But I must say that Mark Ernestus was playing one of the best dub sets upstairs I have heard in years. And I ran into my Portland friends Jeff and Dawn Hood who run the Starbass record store here, so it worked out. They're from Lansing and Jeff was telling me how he used to go to the City Club, where Richie's party was upstairs, back in 1984 to hear bands like Ministry! Monday morning I was definitely feeling the effects of an oncoming cold so I stayed in. We hit the festival right around the start of Green Velvet's set, and what can I say other than it totally rocked, from Flash to La-La-Land. We had a good time watching Frankie Muthafockin Hahdkoah Bones play the old slow jams ("Don't -- panic" !!) and I heard a little of K. Hand and some really nice stuff from Mike Huckaby. But no doubt the day was owned and the world was rocked by AO. Especially that bit between about 4:45 and 5:15 just sounded great and he was really putting everything into it, ending with a very good crowd reaction. Thanks, Alan, it really hit the spot -- my favorite set of the festival. My friend Susie is a huge Pet Shop Boys fan, so we played hookie from the festival and went up to the State Theatre, getting caught in a mob of Red Wings fans on the People Mover at Greektown heading over to Cobo. The Wings didn't do so good Monday evening and neither did the PSB, who did a fairly short show with a lot of ballads (what Susie called "Neil Tennant does Phil Collins") as well as the usual crowd- pleasers ("West End Girls," "Go West"). I'm not a huge PSB fan so it wasn't any big deal to me one way or the other, but the State is a thoroughly impressive facility, sort of like the Warfield in San Francisco all grown up :) The cigarette smoke was so thick you could cut it with dull scissors. We made it back to Hart Plaza in plenty of time for the Aux Men. I'll second the other comments about this. It was a really well rehearsed and musically deep presentation, but the scheduling really undercut it because it was definitely a more contemplative history-of electro/techno rather than the big glitzy finale that we got from Derrick and Richie in 2000 and last year from Juan and the heavens above. Also, the current crowd just plain doesn't know '70s and '80s funk and electro, and it seemed forced to yell out for everyone to sing Shari Vari when it was obvious that most of the audience didn't know the tune at all. All the same, I was completely impressed with the musicianship, and Nico Marks exceeded my expectations with some terrific soloing. Given that most of the covers were never performed live to begin with, I think this is a pretty great accomplishment. And I think the Aux Men shouldn't hold back from doing some Aux and other more recent electro/techno as they go on tour. As great as it sounds on record, imagine what "Let It Ride" or "Electro Techno" would sound like live! I lobbied a lot of people to go to the Deep Heat Detroit party at the gallery at 101 E. Baltimore behind the White Castle and the USPS off Woodward. (Actually it's an old fire station!) Again a cabaret setup with a keg and a couple turntables up on stage, very low key (although they did have a fog machine!). Saw Tim Harper and a couple other guys spinning. There were only about 30 people there making me wish I'd been more persuasive in getting a crew together because the party would have been awesome with a larger crowd. I did have the opportunity to meet L.A. Williams whose Chisel label is one of my real favorites, and he assured me it's still going on (I later heard he may be moving to London). So on to the final wrap-up, the KMS party at the Works. Last year was a lot of fun, and I know a lot of people had a good time this year, but by the time we arrived around 3:30 the crowd seemed tired and jaded although there was a fair bit of dancing in both rooms. The door-sleaze factor was in full effect as about 20 people were escorted in past us low-ranking paying peons. This didn't add to my sense of fun and made us regret not sticking with the Deep Heat party. --------------------- In general, I thought the festival was in fact weaker than last year. The music was pretty good but not as strong, and the crowds were actually a little smaller and less "candy" but there was less excitement overall. The absolutely incompetent scheduling and ambience didn't help. Half hour to hour breaks on each stage between acts, filled with the same inane half dozen ads on the screens. Certainly there are many hectic logistical details that need to be dealt with to switch acts and yes, the bills gotta be paid and sponsors gotta get their exposure, but this was beyond insulting, it was a totally stupid waste. As for the afterparties, they were completely uneven, with some of the most hyped ones (Trackmode, Planet E, Minus) completely overpacked, and some that deserved more attention getting little. There's a certain kind of imbalance here that is probably unavoidable. On the other hand, Mike Banks and the UR crew pulled off three really cool events in just 24 hours. Despite all the politix and Carol Marvin's obvious limitations as a festival director, it's really an enormously positive thing for the city and the music. The sense of energy in Detroit is so different than it was in 1999, maybe it's not even obvious to those who live there. I do think the missing piece now is radio. There ain't hardly any worth talking about. It's been 15 years since Mojo, more than a decade since the Wizard and AO (Aux namechecked Fast Forward during their set!), and the golden era of Friday and Saturday booty mix shows led by Gary Chandler is behind us. How can a truly vibrant scene be supported without radio exposure? That's a real hard one to figure out. But for the time being, the DEMF is still a major source of torque for Detroit techno and Detroit house and all the other electronic music stuff that doesn't fit into genres. >From the gossip I heard this weekend, it appears that Carol Marvin has a pretty strong chance to renew PCM's contract to run the festival. The big question now is whether the Kilpatrick administration will step in and fix what needs to be fixed. So the old advice still applies: stay low, stay strong. Great to see everyone this year, and there were many (Dan Sicko, LKS, others) who I know were there and our paths just didn't cross. But that's the kind of problem I don't really mind -- an event so extensive that you don't automatically know exactly who you'll run into ... phred --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
