MUTEK 10 : Piknic 1 Saturday

Eager to catch as many performances as possible, I got up early today (well... noon... early enough), ate the cutest breakfast ever (it was hung in a picknick basket just outside the door), and got on the metro promptly at 1:20pm.

Thankfully the rain had just then cleared up, making Jean-Drapeau Park an absolutley lovely and picturesque setting for the day. We arrive a bit early and wandered around trying to find the Piknic site since there was not yet any music to serve as a guide. After a brief wait, the Piknic site opened. It was quite a beautiful spot, set up against the river with Montreal's skyline in the distance.

Opening the festivities was The Mole, the one artist on today's Piknic lineup that I was probably most interested in seeing. His set was slow and soulful house, laid back, with an emphasis on instruments over vocals. It was the perfect soundtrack for a loungey outdoor party, with a cool breeze on your face. Sadly, almost nobody was there yet to hear it. He finished up his short slot with a B-52's white label mix that I've become very fond of lately.

Next up was Brendon Moeller, who played a fantasticly deep and dubby tech-house set as more people trickled into the park. By the time he was halfway through, the central area had filled up with cheering party-goers, and the surrounding areas were covered by those lounging on blankets, lawn chairs, and giant red pillows.

I ran into Dave Pezzner during this time, who I had just met in Detroit last week after his fantastic live set at Old Miami. We got to talking and I managed to snag an impromptu interview with him -- keep an eye out for that here next week. Really looking forward to seeing him play again tonight, as he mentioned he's changed up his set even since last week.

Halfway into Thomas Fehlmann's set, the entire area was packed. Sadly, it was also time for me to leave, as I had a scheduled interview with Dandy Jack at 6pm.
Even more depressing though -- as I sit here now (7pm) I'm still waiting for Dandy Jack to arrive and have just been informed that he just now finished his sound check! Arghh... these artists are driving me nuts! Kind of bummed out that I will be missing The Mole's closing set at Piknic, as I so thouroughly enjoyed his opening one. I'd be interested to see if or how different he played to a now throbbing and dense crowd.

Check back here later for this post to be updated with pictures from Piknic (don't have a card reader at the moment because I'm writing from a terminal in the Trylon).