There are two places on this earth where one can experience what I have in the last 5 days. While Ibiza is probably a wonderfully exotic destination (and slightly more hardcore), its location and the price tag associated with anything that goes on there makes it inaccessible for most people I know. So what does that mean? It means I'll be traveling to Miami every March until I'm no longer physically able. It means nothing should stop you, loyal reader, from experiencing as DJ Mag puts it "a five day-balls-to-the wall party".
The best way I can describe the trip is to just move through it chronologically...
Friday:
Day:
Arrived in Miami around noon and spent the day registering, attending panels and going to the WMC opening pool party while I was waiting for the rest of the group to arrive that evening.
Midnight - 7AM:
Pawn Shop- M.A.N.D.Y., Booka Shade, Soulwax, among others
Pawn Shop is listed as one of the top 20 clubs in the US. They took a theme and ran with it! Notable feature of the club include a vip section with rows of real airplane seats (complete with tray tables and armrests!), a schoolbus converted into a "chillout area", a red bull truck dj booth (the cab is the dj booth facing the audience, and the back of the truck was enclosed by curtains and was a VIP dance floor, and a whole collection of other crap you'd probably find in a pawn shop. Oh, did I mention the old school dentist's chair in the bathroom? This was my first experience of going to a show where there were so many DJs on the bill and no time slots available... so we saw what we saw :-p
Saturday:
1PM - 10PM:
Ultra Music Festival:
D:Fuse
Danny Howells
Nic Fanciulli
[food/recharge]
Josh Wink
DJ Graph! (yes it was awesome to see an old friend perform at ultra!)
Richie Hawtin
Carl Cox (about half of his 3hr set)
We planned to deliberately skip both the really big shows and performers we planned to see the rest of the week (or soon in Austin-- minus big D of course), but there were so many more sets I wanted to catch... Danny Tenaglia, Darren Emerson, Mauro Picotto, Seb Fontaine, Junkie XL, Sander K, Hernan Cattaneo, BT... and more. Ultra was surreal.... like Disneyland for Electronica. It was also extremely physically demanding as we were dancing and walking for almost 9 full hours.
Sunday:
7AM-12:30PM (that's right I said AM!)
Breakfast in Bed w/D:Fuse... This show was... incredible. Bed is a cool little venue (capacity of only two hundred or so), that has about 15 "beds" set up along the perimeter of the venue surrounding the dance floor. The concept being that you can lounge in "bed" with your friends or dance like you would at any club. When we arrived at 7am, we were relieved to find out we were on the guest list so we could get in first and claim our own "bed". We started chatting with the people in the bed next to ours and about halfway through the show one of the guys we were talking to informed us that we were hanging out with Martel- half of SF's biggest promotion duo! Needless to say we've now got some friends next time we go out up there. DFuse played an amazing set, with material unlike what he's normally been playing to promote People 3. The man was on a journey, playing a lot of his new stuff and mixing in some classics from years past.
Midnight-6:45AM:
James Holden & Sven Vath @ Nocturnal
Nocturnal was a cool three story club that reminded me of a grown up version of Sky in Austin. It was a little empty when we arrived, but we immediately started rockin out to James Holden. He played till about 2:30, then Sven "the wrath" Vath came on and tortured everyone with his special blend of filthy filthy German techo. He kept the crowd so energized for over 4 hours, and at 6:30 when they announced that the party was moving up to the terrace to watch the sun rise, we just had to leave.... It was impossible to not move while listening to his stuff and we just didn't have any energy left at all...
Leaving Nocturnal I witnessed something that just defines how absolutely _insane_ this week is in Miami. At 6:45 AM, there was STILL AN EXTREMELY LONG LINE OF PEOPLE WAITING TO GET INTO SPACE NEXT DOOR. 6:45 AM?!?!? Sven rocked so hard that we completely skipped going upstairs to see Desyn, Loco Dice, and Tief Schwarz. That really, really speaks to the dude's talent.
Monday:
11PM - 6AM:
OM Records 10th Anniversary party @ the Mansion
This was a great party to close out our trip with. Lots of nice calm deep house in the main room, and hard chicago style stuff in the back room. I thought I'd spend a bit of time relaxing in the main room, but I couldn't resist the call of the floor... Back room it was! I don't know who any of the DJs were that I saw, but I do know that they kept everyone in the group moving (including Krissy and Gina dancing on a table for an hour) for almost 6 full hours.
Tuesday:
Relaxed/slept, then went to explore South Beach in the afternoon. It's a really cool place, long streets filled with unique stores, clubs, gyms, restaurants, and plenty of people walking around. Also went to Spec's Music where they practically have a wing devoted to Electronica/House music. Had there been more downtime in the trip I would have liked to spend more time on South Beach. Oh well.
Takeaways:
1: This is a town where people are take nightlife very seriously and a week where people come from all over the world to survey the current state of dance/electronica.
2: Many of these clubs have 24hr liquor licenses, and even if they don't they stay open nevertheless.
3: Miami also gives me hope for electronica in America. I've partied in NYC/SF where people get stabbed, and I've partied in Cleveland/Austin where people just don't get it.
4: This minimal/underground shit has got legs! Everyone was dropping minimal tracks or new tracks with the signature minimal sound... Techno is back people!
Things to do differently next year:
1: Don't register for the conference, no time to go to the panels if you're serious about the music ;)
2: Don't stay at the Wyndham, find a place in South Beach proper instead
3: Check out the mega clubs... Metropolis and Space, also Nikki Beach
4: Don't get there a day after it starts :)
I'll post pics as soon as I sleep for a week :)
