Argh. Wrote a long thingy and hit the wrong button and lost it. Letsee...
Got there 7pm, no queue. Excellent. Went to the Effra for the traditional jerk pork dinner and pint. Met up with some mates and bumped into a few heads there - Wiggle Baron, Wub, Herb, Phrex and I think Particle Jim. Cheers Wiggle Baron for scouting the queue.
Strolled on over to Mass at about 8.30pm, queue was still quite short. Mystikz crew came through every now and then with boxes of t-shirts
. Took bets as to when the doors would open, I think I was pretty close at 9.20pm. Got inside, bought my t-shirt, bumped into Wub, then starting bounding up the staircase all hyped up. Unfortunately, the tune ended at that moment, so it turned into a slouchy walk instead. Then the next tune came on! Yay! Hopped up the stairs, paused outside Room1 to soak it in, then went to the cloakroom. Unfortunately, there was another queue there. You'd think that with only about 50 people gone in ahead of me there wouldn't really be a queue.
Anyway, finally got into the room halfway through Distance/Tunnidge. Pretty high energy start for DMZ. Started jumping around immediately, didn't even think about getting a drink till sometime later. Brilliant start.
Then Joe Nice/Chef came on with Pump Up The Jam
I don't think that many people appreciated that coz most of the room just stood there trying to work out what to do. Good fun start though! They dropped some nice mixes, a few standout tunes. Then they were on to their last tune and I was like "NOOOOOOoooooo! You can't not play DMZ vs MZN!!!!"
Unless of course Joe Nice did play it and I didn't notice. I don't think I'd've missed it though as bad as my memory for tunes is.
Vivek and Goth Trad:
'Nuff said.
James Blake and Kode9 came on playing different sounding stuff as expected. I can't say I fully enjoyed everything they played but it was a pretty decent hour.
As for Loefah's set, it was a bit half-and half for me. I kinda like his new sets but the beat gets a bit samey after a while. So I stayed for the first 15 minutes or so, then went over to Room 2 for some refreshment and air. I think Zed Bias might've been playing. Then went back to catch the last 20 minutes of Loefah and to get in place for Mystikz.
The plan was to find some space next to the corner speakers but we ended up next to the fire exit instead. Which turned out to be a pretty good thing. More on that in a bit. Anyway, Loefah finished off, and Mala came on. With Anti War Dub!!!
Mad skankage ensued, which basically describes the rest of the set. Thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed that. Despite the sweat that was just gushing out of me. I think the airconditioning wasn't working because I hadn't felt any air coming out of the vents that I normally stand under. Fortunately, they did open up the fire exit so I was able to stick my head out to get some air every now and then. There was also a decent amount of room to move there for some reason. I suppose it could have been due to the sweat I was probably flinging around. No way was I stopping and leaving though!
Then the set came to an end and Skream/Benga came on. Had never planned to be present for their set, so took that as a good time to leave the room to cool off, dry up and get rehydrated. Went over to Room 2 for a bit where it was a lot cooler and vibes were more chilled. Then headed back to Room 1 for Kryptic Minds and Youngsta, which I had been looking forward to the whole night. Kryptic Minds absolutely smashed it and I was really hyped up when Youngsta stepped up. And then the music stopped.
Everyone stood expectantly for it to come back on. Nothing. Then the lights came on. Uh oh. Still nothing. Half the room drifted out. I think you might be able to an idea of the demographics of the oldheads/newheads/nonheads/deepheads/whatever present from that. Then the music came back on. Yay! And went splat again. More waiting. Worrying now. Then the music came back on again! Yay! And went on for a while. And then crackle crackle splutter splat.
And they packed up after that.
Dejectedly made my way over to Room 2, which was now seriously packed. Moxie was playing some good tunes though. But most of what she played had already been played by someone else by that point. Still, it got the good vibes going again. I thought she was gonna play out the rest of the night, but then Hatcha and N-type came on. They launched straight into the wobble bangers which was ok I guess. Then they played some tune with a female vocal in it which I think they kept adding effects to or mixing oddly or something. But I found it pretty horrible and so did my mates. I decided to call it a night at 5.30am and went to the cloakroom. And proceeded to queue there for half an hour! It wasn't even a particularly long queue, it just didn't move! I guess there must have been a ton of people who'd lost their tickets.
Managed to make it to the traditional MacD's stopover, but before they changed to the breakfast menu. Bonus! For the first time ever, I wanted McNuggets. Then was disappointed when they said they only had big macs and cheesburgers. Oh well. Got a Big mac meal, went to sit down and bumped into Wiggle Baron again. Which turned out to be a pretty lucky for him. Sat for a bit with other mates after that, then started on my 2h journey home.
Definitely enjoyed this birthday party more than last year's, despite the technicals. Moving the decks to the other side of the room definitely helped with crowd movement in and out of Room 1 because last year, people couldn't even get past the door while there was probably space further in. It didn't help with the heat situation this year though, mind. Also, it means that randomy people were less likely to jump over and do a pull-up, which seriously killed it for me last year. Vibes were definitely a lot better this year, none of the aggression crap from last year. Hope this will be the start of another good year for DMZ!
The variety kept me interested all night. James Blake or Kode 9 playing Salem 