“You can’t start a fire, worryin about your little world fallin apart”
B. Springsteen

A new mix I’ve made, get the mp3 from the ‘music’ section: “Just Can’t Get Enough Sober Ghetto Bitches”.

Notes from the train ride last week-end. I had lots of time.

I’m listening to Arcade Fire’s “Antichrist Television Blues” the third time in a row now. I had already filed the ‘Neon Bible’ album under ‘waste of time’. This song though is great in reviving the songwriting skills of an early Bruce Springsteen and adding some fresh breath. And it seems the only song on which Arcade Fire show a sense of humor: Some of the piano bits sound like pure travesty. The lyrics are good too in bringing up some lines that remind of Springsteen’s american working class style but add an air of sarcastic bitterness that carry the lyrics a step further. I don’t say that I think Arcade Fire did this on purpose but that’s what the song turns out to be. It usuall ygets me humming along but not right now as I’m on a train back from Utrecht from a dj gig at the Reservoir Beats night.

It took me an 8 hour (instead of 6) train ride as the ICE broke down and we were stranded for ages at the train station of a tiny village in the middle of the netherlands’ nowhere. It felt like in that scene from ‘Trainspotting’. I entertained myself with watching the bunch of people and imagining what types they are and shaping and sketching a little ‘Lost’ set of characters: the calm friendly single father with his baby. He sure would totally freak out if things get tough. The handsome Sawyer-with-an-Ipod guy who prefers to sit a bit away from the rest, a little arrogant smile about their excitement wrinkling the corners of his mouth. The talkative handsome “I can handle anything” macho guy, always walking up to the edge of the platform as a childish proof that nothing can scare him. I bet he’s got a wife at home and if she went away on her own just for a week he would be a crying wreck. At some point I rather stopped imagining what it’d be like to really be stranded with those folks as it was a bit scary as I didn’t find one single person likeable. Misanthropic wreck that I am. Also cause I realised that I’d be some crazy mixture of Hurley and Ana-Lucia. Na, actually I got tired and exhausted at some point. I hadn’t eaten anything but an apple and a sandwich the whole day and it was already 8 pm. Two trainswitchs later I finally got a regional train that was headed for Utrecht. The first sight when I got in was five nazi skins. I picked another wagon.

I arrived in Utrecht two hours late and the number of the guy who was supposed to pick me up didn’t work. Seems I had confused two numbers or something. A kind info person knew vaguely where the Ekko, the venue I was headed for, was and printed me a little map. Walking through a shopping mall that was part of the station and didn’t seem to end I already had been surprised to see so many people there at 10 pm as Utrecht isn’t such a big city. Stepping out on the street then almost swept me off my feet. It was like being beamed into the middle of a Bucovina Club party. Hundreds, if not thousands of people dancing, shouting, drinking… it was Queen’s Day on which the Dutch celebrate the Queen’s birthday and also everybody sells their old things flea market style. It was crowded up to the tiniest corner of any backstreet. Amazing. And loud. Tents with djs or bands were placed just 50 m away from each other and blared each other down. In one street there was a guy playing “YMCA” with male dancers in front of him, in another some nuns were singing nursery rhymes with little afro-dutch children. I had forgotten that Utrecht also had so many cute ‘Grachten’, those little canals. Well, it was fun to ask my way to the club and although it took me some time I found it. Joep, the promoter and the guys who ran the club night, ‘Reservoir Beats’ were really nice. The only downside at all was: No food. Beer instead. Pils in cans. Everything in cans. I wasn’t aware how used I’ve already gotten to the german anti-cans garbage politics. I met Jeroen of Coalition Records and Das Oath who was with the punk band that played too on that night. And he told me that The Locust’s Nuremberg show is confirmed. W00t!

The night started with a nice dubstep set by … oh my, I’m bad with names…. I think it was Boycot Selectah. It was quite good. The room slowly got crowded and some people started dancing. Then the band played: Malle Pietje & The Bimbos. It was a hard rock / punk set that would have made the New York Dolls (whom they covered) and Courtney Love proud. In-your-face-rock about lesbian sex, alcohol and drugs. A bit too ‘Bambix meet Girlschool’ for my taste but fun neverthelezzz.
Then I was on and I was too exhausted to get stagefright and too drunk to be tired which seemed the perfect condition. I used CDJ 1000s for the first time and they are the shizzle. Fancy and intuitive. If I ever get rich… *sigh* I kindly had been granted the longest dj slot of the night, an hour 15 or 30. I first was worried to cross over too harshly from the live punkrock to some electronic tunes but it worked. It’s such a great feeling when you cue your tunes and your thoughts are all about which beats and harmonies could fit next while you try to sense where and how far you can take them. When I saw people even took over the stage for dancing I beamed. I think the room at least fitted 300 people, with the stage maybe 400? I’m not sure. It’s not about numbers anyway. Here’s an effort of a setlist although I don’t really remember the running order or if I missed out tracks:

M.I.A. – bird flu (Guns up Buraka)
Sidney Looper – tired of being bitchz (CSS)
Bonde Do Role – funk da esfiha
Christoph & Raphael Just + Ready For The World – oh disco (eve massacre mix)
Datarock + Crystal Takes Manhattan + Riot In Belgium – used to dance with the princess (eve massacre mix)
Modeselektor feat. Ninjaman – weed wid da macka
Otto von Schirach + Lilly Allen + Hot Club De Paris + DJ /rupture + Jahcoozi – attack of the black lilies club (eve massacre mix)
Heatwave – creezy hype
Felix da Housecat + B 52’s + Fatboy Slim – rockafella rocket shack (DJ Tripp)
Justice + Cursive – justified bad sex (eve massacre mix)
Etienne De Crecy + Yeah Yeah Yeahs – fast hearts (eve massacre mix)
The Robocop Kraus + Cardigans – fine fake prince (eve massacre mix)
MSM + Mylo – conga pressure (Partyben)
Sons & Daughters (Optimo RMX) + Justin Timberlake – love me in (eve massacre mix)
The Jackson Five + Prodigy – the abc of poison (eve massacre mix)
Dizzee Rascal + The Strokes (Lionel Vinyl)
Nomeansno + Kylie Minogue – slow means slow (eve massacre mix)

After me Robert aka Soundbites played a ravetastic WiiJ set. If you don’t know what that is head over to the Utrecht Massive’s website (BTW: Can we please found a ‘Nürnberg Massive’ too?! Please!) It’s a bit like watching Harry Potter djing. Some crazy electrick, to use Catweazle slang. You really should check Soundbites ep on Deathsucker Records. DJ Westrum was on after him but that’s when I went out for a while cause the constant loud level got a bit too much. People were so euphoric, it was great. From compliments to random kisses, the feedback was nice. DJ Illusive was last and did an amazing set with junglish stuff and breaks and a really really good MC.
At some point I had a sit in the backstage room which was behind the dj booth and just separated by a shutter, so you heard everything but it had a sofa and I needed some chilling. I even closed my eyes for a while and when I opened them again the fog from the main room had creeped into the backstage. Looked weird. Although it was a great night I was glad when it ended as I was tired as hell. We waited 20 minutes for the cab and when I finally hit Robert’s sofa I fell asleep within seconds. Thanks for everything!

Time is running short, I have to get to the second hand record market at the K4 now, so just a brief rant about the railway system: It sucks! For my ride back there again was no bloody announcement that no ICE was going until 5 minutes before it was supposed to leave. I had to take a regional train to Arnheim and then switch to an ICE there, so it again got later than it was supposed to. The worst part was when they announced the wrong platform for another switch I had to make in Frankfurt. We had three minutes to get to the other platform and when we arrived there we heard an announcement that the train on that day was leaving from another platform. No one gave a fuck. I would at least have expected a free coffee or, damn, at least a free piss. Well, we had to wait another hour. As comfortable as those ICEs are when you sit in them as much of a pain in the ass it is to see how bad this train system works. You should really think something so expensive cares a bit more about service. /rant over.