A party weekend in September
The PvD party clearly was the climax of a party weekend rivaling Ibiza in its
intensity: First, Friday night Chris Liebing @U60311 in Frankfurt, then PvD's
party in Berlin and lastly on Sunday afternoon Sven Väth and Richie Hawtin
at Green&Blue open air near Frankfurt.
Friday night was Chris Liebing's bi-monthly residency at U60311 and since Chris
has been so good lately I couldn't resist going despite the PvD party demanding
full fitness the next night. Surprisingly, Chris was already spinning when I
got to the club at 1:30 am. And how he was spinning! An excellent set, driving,
danceable, varied. Then around 3 am Charles Sieglin (of technasia) came on and
sucked for about 2 hours. Relief came in the form of Massimo, an Italian-German
DJ. Excellent set, just quality techno we have come to expect at U60. after
7 am Chris came back on and just would allow me to leave to catch some much
needed sleep. Such an amazing set, again. The tracks were Liebing style, but
somehow even better than the last time I saw him. The word that came to my mind
to describe it was "intelligent". Awesome. So i was forced to stay
until the end at 9 am
After a few hours of sleep it was time to get up and catch the 5 pm flight
to Berlin I had accidentally booked (wanted to take the 7 pm but a wrong click
and it was done, oh well). In Berlin met with a friend and Vandit night regular
at his place, had some food and at 9 we met some more people at this cool outdoor
bar named "Strandbar" (beach bar) on the river banks complete with
sand and beach chairs. After some drinks we left early to be at Columbiahalle
by 11 pm. What an energizing PvD night ensued!! And despite the all-nighter
the previous night I turned out to be in rare form
As at the Vandit nights PvD opened slow and mellow to a still empty house,
only to step up the pace with the growing crowd. Before you knew it he was going
full speed and pulled us along with him, we were out of our minds even at this
first part. Such an amazing set and so very PvD, featuring tracks like Motorcycle-As
the Rush Comes, Modulation-Spirits, BT-Flaming June (OMG!!). But then came the
killer to conclude the first PvD session: the live act consisting of none other
than PvD himself and John McDaid of Vega 4, performing 'Time of our Lives' live.
It was beyond belief. John put up an incredible show, interacting with the crowd
madly. The crowd went berserk and the entire place just completely exploded
like I have never experienced it before at any of the Vandit nights or Love
from Above parties. Until that night I hadn't liked the song too much, but that
performance was so energetic, irresistible, I couldn't help dying . It was pure
ecstasy, bliss, insanity.
After that guest DJ Judge Jules came on. I didn't get too much of his set as
I rested some from the wildness I had just gone through and chilled with some
people backstage. The parts I did get, though, positively surprised me as I
had had low expectations. Instead of cheesy vocal house it was very decent UK
trance. Well, just after 4 am PvD came back on to conclude the night with another
installment of blissful uplifting trance. While he did have some harder stretches,
they were by far not as hard as at the late hours at Casino. What he did, though,
was play out many tracks from the album, some more than once (also BT-Flaming
June again!!), which I thought very OK for a release party. He did one part
where he actually played like 5 or so album tracks in a row, including beautiful
Buenaventura. I loved that and so did the crowd. The party continued unabated
until the very end just after 9 am.
While this set wasn't exactly perfected to my taste – I like it hard
with lots of techno – I loved every minute of it dearly. This was easily
one of the best PvD parties Berlin has ever seen. Incredible. Can't wait for
Friday, when I do it all over again right here in Frankfurt
Well, that still wasn't enough for this weekend. After returning to Frankfurt
about 1 pm Sunday I got some rest and then headed out to Green&Blue open
air with Sven Väth and Richie Hawtin. Unfortunately, Richie had already
finished 2 hours before I got there (which was 6:30 pm). Sven spun a very good
set at that time, but only to deteriorate from there. It was all downhill through
the end which came at 11:30 pm. The set completely lacked concept, was slow,
undanceable, ambient and chill out music with just a few decent tracks sparingly
strewn in. no, that wasn't the Sven who can rock a festival like no other if,
IF he only wants to. Too bad. So I gladly skipped the after hour at U60 and
finally went to bed at midnight to get some much needed sleep, work looming
the next morning!
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