IDM Mailing Archive

Just a quick review of the Underground Resistance show in London... Firstly the place was a nightmare to find as the address given was simply "Hoxton" so I assumed it was a big place that everyone knew of - people I asked did know of it but not its location and that I wasn't the only person to have asked that night! Eventually I wandered into a taxi office and the old cockney geezer behind the radio told me it was in New North Street which wasn't that hard to find - just on the other side of Hoxton! So finally at the venue - not a massive queue it seemed so I wouldn't need to wait too long to get out of the torrential rain and freezing gale force winds... totally wrong on that count! The guys running the security here made the guys running the Warp Night security seem a model of competency, and when I finally reached the front of the queue an hour and a half later and thoroughly drenched to the skin I found out they were also a model of rudeness and very aggressive and if ever I get a gun the first few bullets have their names on it - especially the one who held me back because I told him he lacked competency (fortunately someone grabbed me and dragged me through!). Rather bizarrely they weren't even searching people - just pushing people about and threatening people!?! So finally in - 11:30 already - by now the queue outside had grown even bigger and the torrential rain seemed no closer to giving up. Inside I was blasted by warm air, though possibly it was the air conditioning! (I had been literally so cold I could not use my fingers to get my credit card out for the ticket people). I got a drink and queued again for the cloakroom - another taste of queuing and bad security - they had this total cant in a flying helmet who was threatening people in the queue quite violently, until this black guy called his bluff and he turned pussy but still tried to make out he had some kind of authority! As for the venue... the first hall was a sort of r'n'b with a bit of hip hop room - when I got in they were playing that foul All Saints record and whenever I went by it didn't seem to stray too far from that; that room had some pretty good heating in it meaning it was always blazing hot (that sort of dry industrial strength heater hot rather than radiation from lots of dancers hot). The cloakroom played a series of old Hitchcock movies which no one even glanced at. Upstairs I didn't stick around as there was some bad pop music playing - I kind of figured this was where Talking Heads "Road to Nowhere" rather aptly drifted across the breeze from whilst in the queue. No idea where the room Moodyman was playing was or the room full of birds (unless that was the RnB room put on in the hope of dragging a little more snatch in). I'm quite mystified by how each room was meant to reflect a classic Hitchcock movie but if someone can help me out here I'd be grateful! Okay, lastly the UR room and very impressive it was too - A huge vaulted building bigger than you're average warehouse; the place was in pitch darkness except for a thin diagonal strip of bricks that had been demolished at one end and luminated with bright lights from behind (where the DJ booth was) and UR's projections of slogans and sharply photographed shots of machines and mechanisms which seemed to work extremely well on the dark bricks of the crumbling walls (the walls did have holes in them to the outside world!) Very few people were dancing and most looked like they were just trying to maintain enough body heat to make it to midnight then they could go home! At 12 there was a short countdown and then the front third which was a huge sloping stage opened up and everyone crowded on and it seemed to give everyone a cue to start dancing. The next hour was filled with some fine electro flavoured breaks and the crowd just kicked off! Then about 1.30 the techno went banging and the place erupted in cheers and everyone had finished warming up and was off! I slunk off for a bottle of water when the DJs changed over at 3am and the next guy came on and totally changed the beat, coming in with a latin jazz flavoured cut which descended into a constant beat before resuming again, then it was back into banging mode and everyone was off again! There was another big crowd reaction later on when the UR remix of Expo 2000 was dropped so I figured everyone knew that one! At 5am we were told it was midnight in Detroit and we had a couple more cuts before we were left with the sound of slipmats fkg up someone's needle - a nice way to clear the place I think! The RnB room was supposedly going through until 7 but I wasn't going to stick around until then listening to All Saints yapping on! So that was it! Definitely a good one except for the security and hopefully Mad Mike will send his boys over again real soon! BABY DIDDY --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org