It's a fair enough point. I mean, I've been caught up in bullsh*t like
that
as much as the next guy - not to say that I think I'm right, just that I
think it's bullsh*t, being fully aware that I am just as likely to be
wrong
as the next guy.
And because I think I end up sounding like a twat more than a hippy most
of
the time, I'll tell you what I think people should be making a big deal
of
(if they want to intellectualise about the clubbing experience): the
communal vibe. In my experience, few things encourage as much excitement
as
when you get people in numbers getting off on the same thing, whether
that's
political rallies, a small black church on the east side of Detroit,
sporting events or the rave. It's when community becomes nearly
tangible -
especially if everyone is witnessing with the same spectatorial
vocabulary.
It's like a controlled (or sometimes not) hysteria. The numbers don't
need
to be massive, but of course if the connection and numbers are there
together, it all goes off in grander fashion. For me, this tends to
happen
in smaller venues more often than not (but I'm not trying to resurrect
that
debate), and few things make me happier than either going into myself
with
the volume up, closing my eyes and feeling nothing but the pleasantness
of
everything around me, or looking around at my friends when 'The Wipe'
comes
on, knowing that we're all equally happy that some bloke in the DJ booth
knows how to make us happy. It's yet another kind of fulfilment when
you're
in the position to guide this along, especially when you don't know the
crowd at all, and you're just hoping to God they'll dig your sh*t - it's
one
of the few things that makes me a humanitarian and an optimist, despite
the
troves of evidence to the contrary. And I love both sides of the booth.
So if I were ever going to consider how DJs should big themselves up
(especially if I was trying to claim that ego had nothing to do with it),
I
wouldn't be spouting about how my ego is no longer a part of the process.
I'd be spouting about how the barrier between performer and audience is
eradicated when the right crowd is assembled for the right DJ in the
right
place on the right night - which requires a good crowd, a good venue, a
good
owner, a good promoter and a good DJ. None of which happens without the
right people, dedication, planning, fingers on the pulse, ground work,
experience, history, execution and the right wax. When that happens, it's
pure f*cking magic. In my mind, that's what must be happening in Berlin,
because I know that's how good nights happen in London. We might not get
the
same kind of international press or have the same people migrating in
droves, but for at least the last few years, all of these ingredients
have
come together with regularity here, and I bet it's not that much
different
in Holland, Tokyo or Berlin.
$.02.
Tristan
=======
http://www.phonopsia.co.uk
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
