"It’s that time of year again. Last year 1000 of you nutjobs came out and completely lost your shit all over the dance floor. Lee Curtiss got too drunk to play and sprayed beer Steve Austin style at the entrance to welcome our wonderful patrons. Booking agents paid double at the door. Every god damn DJ you were a fan of was in the pit sweating their dicks off dancing like you’ve never seen before. We had about 7 lineup changes and still added some random shit on the fly. There were 18 reported pregnancies, 15 overdoses directly attributed to the event (34 other unconfirmed otherwise), shit you’re still trying to piece together exactly what happened and odds are you’ll never know. One reviewer said the event made The Old Miami look like day care.We’re here to do it again. Bringing you a carefully selected lineup of pure fuck music, we’re once again going to give you “next years party”. Come see & hear the music that everyone is going to be all up in next year. It’s a showcase of what’s about to be hot, because we’re fucking psychic. Seriously. We can see the fucking future. It involves us, you, 19 hours, blackouts, seizures, farm animals, lubrication, 10,000 jiggawatts of sound, CDJ’s-CCW’s-BBW-MIP’s-DUI’s-AOL-HIV-WWF-WCW-LOL-USA-RPG’s
Presales soon. Thank you and fuck you."
-GSHC
So very glad I took the extra (terrible) cab rides and checked this party out, because it was one of the few fun and stress-free parties I went to at DEMF this year. I had never been to 10 Critics before, but it made for a nice low-key locale. A fairly non-descript bar/lounge on the southeastern edge of Corktown, 10 Critics consisted of one sizeable main room with a central bar-in-the-round (or square in this case), and a side room housed in an old converted train car. Admittedly, I preferred the open-air deck at last year’s 9 to 5, but that aside, it was pleasant to find that the same relaxed, no-hype vibe had carried-over.
The soundsystem in both rooms was more than adequate and music from all DJ’s was predictably solid. Deserving of special notice was Mark Henning’s stellar live set. It was my first encounter with him and it was a welcome surprise. Unfortunately, as we already had tickets to Centre Street Social, we left the party circa 3am in the middle of Mark’s set. Sadface.
As we entered, Carl Craig was already pushing great music on the first level, with DJ Sneak soon doing the same on level 3. It always inspires a cheerful feeling in me to see world-class DJ legends passionately opening empty rooms, showcasing their true professionalism.
What can I say that I haven’t previously said about this yearly endeavor? Great party, stellar music, excellent vibe. Generally good times all around. Musical highlights this year for me were Masomenos (although I only caught Adrien’s half – still f’ing amazing), and Matt Tolfrey, who I only wish could of played for longer. His short but sweet set, closing with The Gathering – In My System, was probably the most memorable musical moment for me over all four(ish) days.
Another indicator that this is becoming a more prominent party was the improved sound, with two additional speaker banks at the rear of the yard. There also appeared to be a small film crew (?) covering the event for a portion of the time. I’m not sure if the fire marshal convention (I counted 4) bespoke the party outgrowing its britches either, but any fears were allayed when minutes later I spotted them chuckling over beers inside.Greetings from the Centre Street Social team.On behalf of all the members of [KONTROL] (San Francisco), Particle People (Minneapolis),
Beretta Music (Detroit), & Humanaut (Pittsburgh) we would like to
sincerely thank each of you for your interest in, and support of, the
event that was the Centre Street Social.
You are receiving this email because you are a presale ticket holder
that was not admitted to our event held on May 29th, 2010. We feel you
are owed an explanation as to the events of the night, so we are
sending you this official communication. My name is Ryan Walsh, and I
represent the door management for the evening.
So, here goes.
On Sunday May, 30 after a smooth start to the event and a party that
was really starting to go off, the CSS team was informed by the
Detroit Police Department at 3:00am that the venue was to be checked
to ensure capacity. The line was halted briefly while we could ensure
a safe, legal capacity for all presale ticket holders not yet in the
event. After approximately 10 minutes, it was confirmed we would not
exceed capacity with presale ticket holders, and we began once again
letting presale ticket holders in. At 3:30am, we were visited by our
first of three sets of police officers from the Detroit PD special
operations team. The line was requested to be halted until they had
finished their inquiry. Also, immediately before they arrived, there
was a reported shooting near Hart Plaza.
Between the three sets of officers, the Fire Marshall, and assorted
other police officials, they inquired about the following:
1. Our status as a legal venue
2. Our status as legally able to sell alcohol until 2:00am
3. Whether we were within legal capacity
After approximately 45 minutes, we were able to justify, to the lead
officer's liking, our legal status in each of these areas. Within that
time frame, a second shooting was reported near the Oslo and Vain
nightclubs, where other DEMF after parties were being held. As the
next wave of officers replaced those who left to handle the shooting,
the venue management was informed that although no legal citation was
to be issued, the officers wanted the music to stop and the partygoers
did not have to disburse. Although we felt we were within the law and
we did request calls to be made to higher officials (which they were)
to receive a final confirmation on our status, we were informed that
the police at the time of visit "are within their legal right to stop
an event from happening if they feel the event is unsafe in any way."
We still have no idea as to how they felt we fit this criteria, but
arguing had proven futile, and they told us to turn the music off.
Thus, the party was disbursed until 6:00am and I made an announcement
to return at that time to hear Daniel Bell's morning set. etc.. Soon
after, the Detroit PD arrived again and warned us to not restart the
event. At that point, Centre Street Social was closed.
We feel we tried every legal argument to maintain the event, but your
safety and protection from harassment by the police are our primary
concern. We felt if we did not shut down per the PD's request, the
police would cause the event goers undue duress and we wanted a
peaceful, safe resolution free of legal action.
As of today, we still do not have an official word from the venue or
Detroit PD as to the cause of our shut down and we are actively
pursuing an official statement. We will share it when we get it. We
can tell you that we'd heard every other event in the vicinity was
shut down as well, seemingly regardless of legality. Thankfully, ours
was one of the last.
Please do know this. We are a group of 20+ best-intentioned
promoters, music lovers, DJs, and dancers from around the U.S. who
gave it everything we had to produce a safe, legal, and top quality
event for Detroit and all the Movement attendees from around the
world. Contrary to some disheartening accusations which have appeared
on message boards, etc., we are not a bunch of wealthy amateur promoters.
We would never try to exploit or rip off anyone, in any way. To us, our good reputations
are paramount. We just wanted to throw a great party, and scraped up
the substantial funds required to do so from our personal savings. We
exchanged literally thousand of emails, brought in sound and lighting
from across the U.S., and assembled the best group of performers and
support team we possibly could. Ultimately, our event being shut down
was nothing more than unfortunate luck, which resulted in thousands of
dollars in lost revenue and obviously great disappointment from all
sides.
We can assure you, no one was more heartbroken than us.
That being said, we are people of integrity that keep our word and
always try to do what's right. Thus, we would like to offer the
opportunity for any unsatisfied would-be attendees to be compensated
for not making it in. This is only available to you if you have an
unchecked-in ticket purchased from Showclix.
Here are your options:
1. You can trade your ticket for a Guestlist/VIP spot at any of the
events thrown by the teams involved in this production. We'll be
liberal in our application. Whether it be SF, Minneapolis, Detroit,
Pittsburgh, or some combination thereof, we'll take care of you. Our
goal is to support you for supporting us. We're a family. Also, we'd
love to meet you in person to thank you and share a few stories.
Contact info for each crew can be found through any of our respective
websites. You guys all know about that "Google" thingy, right? ;)
2. You can email me, Ryan Walsh, at localbyproxy@gmail.com and I'll
check to make sure you qualify for a refund, and if so, issue one on
your behalf. YOU MUST DO THIS BY TUESDAY, JUNE 15th, 2010 at 5pm EST!
If you don't email us by then, option 1 will remain available
indefinitely.
3. You can try your best to sympathize with our situation, chalk it
all up to "sh*t happens", and choose to do nothing. In doing so,
you'll save yourself some extra hassle, show support for what we tried
to pull off with the best of intentions, and help ease the financial
loss we've incurred by this most unfortunate situation.
Again, we sincerely apologize for this turn of events, and thank you
for your support. We hope to see you at one of our events in the
future. Our beliefs are in solid sound, solid production, solid
talent, and a solid crowd. We need you for that.
Best,
Ryan Walsh on behalf of the entire Centre Street Social family
AKA "I'm On a Boat 2," if you attended last year's iteration, you will understand my recommendation. This is one of the rare occasions where I hope they change nothing about the party from last year. Everything was on point: smooth and speedy entrance, good sound, tons of room, ample and relatively clean bathrooms, phenomenal lineup. Plus you're on a goddamn boat, cruising down the river. There's nothing like stepping out of a sweaty techno romp to catch a breeze on the deck and see the city skyline floating past you in the background.
ReSolute Goes Detroit @ TV Bar
Being dubbed "Berghain in a box" by some, if you're interested in hearing where Techno is going these days, this is the place to be. Headlining will be the much-adored Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock, of Berghain (aka, epicenter of German techno) and Ostgut Ton fame, both exclusive to this event in Detroit. The icing on the cake? An exclusive closing set by none other than Daniel Bell, godfather of minimal techno. Somewhere between the 11pm - 9am timespan, Levon Vincent, a New York DJ/Producer garnering much recent acclaim, will also be playing. Rounding out the lineup will be sets from regional favorites from the likes of SanFran's Kontrol crew and Detroit's Beretta music, who along with Particle People and Humanaut helped put together this impressive show.
What is probably the most exciting lineup on an "official" kick-off party in years, Yel 3, presented by Paxhau, promises to have something for everyone, as it nearly runs the gambit of sounds that techno has to offer.
With the simple yet superlative lineup of Jan Krueger and Derek Plaslaiko, there ain't much that can go wrong. The one thing I was worried about -- Oslo's terrible ventilation and intense heat -- was well-taken care of with the additions of several fans (and a not too packed venue). Thanks guys! The only downer of the night was missing Derek's set (my fault). I had wrongly assumed the party would go late and that Derek and Jan would be trading on and off all night. Oslo, under some new stricter rules, closed at around 2AM all weekend. Overall though, a great time, and the perfect way to start off the weekend.
Whether it was the venue, I can't be sure, but the vibe at this year's VOLATL afterparty was entirely different than last year's. This was undeniably a change for the better. Whereas last year's party had a bit of a sketchy drugged-out sweaty rave vibe, the vibe this year felt much more laid-back and un-oppressive. The open-air deck out back certainly helped this. The sound in all areas was top notch, and the rubberized flooring on the outdoor deck was fantastic for feet weary from day-long dancing and walking. I didn't catch any of the sets on the first floor, so I can't comment to the music there, but there other two areas showcased some fantastic music.
My initial apprehensions about this party were soon put to rest. The massive line to get in moved along at a surprisingly quick pace, and the boat took off on schedule without a hitch. First of all, the boat was f'ing MASSIVE. The three floors provided more than enough room for huge crowd that attended, and there was plenty of room to dance no matter where you were (except for maybe right up next to the booth on the Luciano/Dice floor). All three floors also sported great sound, although it was a bit marred on two of the floors by a rattling ceiling. Also on the plus side were clean bathrooms that, on the first floor at least, didn't even have lines.
This party is pretty self-explanatory by now: Big green backyard, sunshine, a slew of happy ravers fueled by minimal sleep and maximal "substance" intake, unannounced big-name DJ guests alongside relative unknowns. Toss in some BBQ for good measure, and you've got yourself a kickass party. This year's edition proved no different. There were some problems with the sound earlier on, but aside from that, the day flowed along pretty smoothly, making quite a few people late to Movement. Even with both hosts eventually gone to play the festival, the party went on, stopped only briefly by the awkward-yet-engrossing ROTC kid gun display (the Old Miami is an old VFW hall, after all). Excellent tag-team sets from Matthew Dear/Ryan Elliott and Jamie Jones/Damian Lazarus (who got with the program eventually) were accented by Shaun Reeves playing on an injured ankle, Alex Picone, and my personal show-stealer of the festival weekend, Pezzner. Just as the then-unknown to me Jan Krueger did last year, Pezzner, who I had never heard of before, gave me a pleasant surprise with his fantastic live set. The only down-point worth mentioning: it seems the Old Miami will no longer play host to this party due to an unclear dispute between the party hosts and the venue management. All good things must end! Hope you got your fill this year.
Though the music inside was solid, the real party worth mentioning was going on outside on the deck. On the final night of a four-day technothon, you start to get... well... a bit sick of techno. I couldn't have been more grateful for the "disco" set courtesy of Jamie Jones, Lee Curtiss, and Lee Foss that night. Grooving to oldskool jams was a great way to wind down the epic weekend, and the perfect relaxing finish I was looking for before packing up and wearily heading home. Thanks for a great party guys! I hope to see repeat editions in the coming years. |
| DEMF 2009 Afterparties - Photos by Reuben Sweeney |
Notice this time I said "choice," as opposed to "recommendation." I did this because unlike my other selections, I don't believe this party is as viable to everybody. At the current ticket price of $50, this party surpasses all others (including almost the three days of Movement itself) as the most expensive event at DEMF.
Subtitled "Clink vs. Hello?Repeat," this party boasts a huge lineup featuring artists from (obviously) both the rosters of Clink Recordings and Hello?Repeat, along with support from local midwest and New York DJ's.
The expensive-for-Detroit cover of $20 might set some people off, but considering the lineup I would say it is well worth it. Repping the Hello?Repeat camp are two of my current favorite producers: Daze Maxim, and Bruno Pronsato. Bruno's festival-exclusive live PA is more than enough to draw me in, and is something everyone should see at least once. Also exclusive to this party is a live PA from Clink's Tim Xavier. For the rest of the lineup, check the flier.
