I somehow survived, but not without a raging head cold, mainly from air conditioning. The 2nd piknik of mutek was not rained out and it was nice fun in a beautiful park with water falls. Mark Houle dropped another great set, better than his one at movement, but it is hard to be sure. Ricardo showed up this time (last year's mutek he lost his passport and did not show) and hearing him and Richie play together was quite nice. It was the best Richie set of all 3 that I heard that week, cause Ricardo kept some element of fun in the mix. It wasn't just a surgical operation of laying down tracks and building things up, heck it was a party with good party music. A lot of detroit stuff, including good life carl craig rmx. They went at it for 5.5 hours. I kept thinking they were winding things down and then it would start banging again. I was really looking forward to hearing them together from what I have heard online, and they did not dissappoiont and the crowd loved it to death . the last show was pretty interesting with Pole with band, as my personal highlight. It kind of reminded me of what I would imagine Porter Ricks to be like live. The sound at mutek was loud but often murky, esp at their Darling Foundry main event space. There were almost no mids, it kind of surprised me I thought that Mutek would be all about the audiophile surround sound setup, where the only ear damage would be done to those not wearing ear protection. But especially at that last show, Pole sounded best outside the space on the sidewalk with earplugs in. I actually kind of think that going to 2 festivals in one week is a bit excessive and probably bad for me in some real way. Why are things that are bad for you always so good? Anyway, Mutek was cool because there were a lot of people that do events there, promoters from all over ther US and CA, so it was cool to meet people and network and still have a good time dancing. It was intimate, without being too small, and there were no ravers there so that is a big plus. But alas, no good swag to brag about. tom
