February 25, 2007
The Killers at Wembley Arena and off to Morocco
Just got back from The Killers gig at Wembley Arena. It was really good, The Killers certainly know how to put on a good show. Expensively staged, a fitting treatment for the full capacity 20,000 crowd at Wembley Arena, The Killers captivated the (mostly) young crowd for over 1 half hour. They played all their big hits and ended (as I guessed) with All These Things That I've Done.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club opened, never heard them before, not bad but not my favourite and from the reaction of the crowd most of them haven't heard about them either.
I'm off to Morocco later on today for a week of surfing (yay!) finally another surfing session, the last one was at San Sebastian months ago. I'm flying direct from Gatwick to Agadir and will stay there for the whole week with a surf camp run by English (fun).
Posted by vhadiant at 12:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 01, 2006
Fatboy Slim Live on Bondi Beach
Wicked! Last night was the best NYE for me. Fatboy Slim rocked Bondi Beach in front of 15,000 revellers. When I heard that Fatboy Slim was coming for NYE 2006 I said to myself this is one party that I absolutely have to go. So we had the troops rounded, tickets bought and off we go to Fatboy Slim.
The three of us came in at about 10pm, I reckon there were already 5000 - 7000 people inside. A large section of Bondi beach was fenced and lots of cops and security guards patrolling the possible intrusions points of the fence. Fuzzy was not going to risk a break-in like the one at Mobile Home a few years ago.
The weather was hot and muggy, but it didn't stop all 15,000 of us to dance our butt off. Although by the end of the night I was feeling really filthy covered with sweat - mine and others! Ah well can't really help it for a big party like this.
The first thing people must have noticed as soon as they arrived at Bondi Beach was the massive light beams coming out from the main stage. The stage itself was amazing, I think Fuzzy had done a fantastic job with it. The party itself was not on the beach, we were on the slope, the grass area just before the beach. The main stage was on the beach so you were looking down to the stage, which was a very good for you neck. Well not that quite down for the people right in front since the stage was a bit high.
It was a a big and elaborate stage with a lot of lights and covered with LED display. Imagine the *entire* stage, from top to all the way to the bottom was covered with LED display. The camera often went to sweep the audience and display them on the stage, it gives the impression that Fatboy was mixing the tracks floating on top of thousands of people - that's awesome. Hard to imagine I would think, but if you were there ... damn it's cool.
The supporting DJs on the main stage (Alan Thompson and James Taylor) did a very good job as openers for Fatboy. I can't say anything about the DJs on the other stage since we hardly checked it out. The two times we were there the stage was empty but for 20-30 people. Must be tough for the DJs there. James Taylor's last half hour set was impressive, I remembered thinking this was a good lead up to Fatboy Slim.
Midnight was nearing and the crowd was restless. James Taylor just dropped his bomb tune just before midnight the party atmosphere is everywhere. We were waiting for Norman Cook himself, but not before the fireworks. At 12 after the obligatory countdown by the crowd, fireworks lit up Bondi Beach. It was nothing in comparison the main fireworks in the city but hey it's better than nothing. The stage at this point was completely dark.
Nearing the end of the fireworks a familiar tune from Underworld (Born Slippy) kicked in. Slowly at first but picking up quickly. Seconds later the familiar words "Right Here, Right Now" came up and the crowd went wild. It seemd that everyone was screaming their heads off. The "right here, right now" looped back for over 1 minute. The LED on the stage was displaying a massive RIGHT HERE - RIGHT NOW sign. At this time everyone was chanting "right here, right now" and that's how Fatboy started his 3 hours set.
The next 3 hours of Fatboy was amazing, it wasn't the underground or progressive or cutting edge electronic music. It wasn't meant to be like that, it was just simply an amazingly fun party set. It's mixed of breaks, house, top 40 tunes, his old tunes and his new tunes. All in all it's pretty much mainstream music, this unfortunately will disappoint people who are expecting a mixing God. But he isn't, Fatboy Slim is not a scratch artist nor does he's a good mixer, Fatboy is a party DJ, has always been and will always be - and damn good one at that. The entertainment is not limited to only his set but his actual performance itself. It was a delight watching a fun DJ like Fatboy Slim. A lot of DJs just stuck their heads between their headphones and keep mixing as if there's no one outside his little deck.
At about 1:10AM ish, I felt totally wrecked and told the others I needed a break. Beside it was a good timing since he slowed down a bit, suggesting people to take a break. DJs do that, slows down in the middle of the set preparing for the finale. So we walked around, chilled out a while and filled in our water bottle, James even had a chance to eat half a sandwich. A fair bit of people had the same idea with us and we can see that the crowd was thinning out a bit in the main arena. We were back about 30 minutes later, just in time for Billie Jean. The next 1 half hour continued to be the best entertainment I've had so far. I was particularly impressed with the "Praise You" mix. Probably the highlight of his set.
Towards the end though I was a bit disappointed. In the last 15 minutes I think he tried to put too many songs in a very short time. He mixed and changed and mixed again too quickly for us to enjoy the songs. It feels like moving backward and forward on your CD trying to find the song that you wanted to hear but you never ended up finding it. Regardless, I think Fatboy put one hell of a show and the fact it's NYE also put everyone in a festive mode creating a superb atmosphere. Fatboy Slim, Bondi Beach, 15,000 people in a good mood, you can't go wrong :) Fatboy is known to throw the best parties in the world and this NYE 2006 @ Bondi Beach is no exception.
Update:
Track listing & torrent file are here. Seems that what I think back and forward from 1 song to another is just him mixing Gorrilaz lol :)
Update 2:
Grrh, InTheMix moved the photos around. Not happy Jan. Now it's here.
Posted by vhadiant at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2005
Crazy Penis & Roots Manuva
Saw them @ Parklife 2005. Overhyped I think, the highlight for me was Nick Warren and Sandy Rivera. Parklife itself was a good event, that was the first big open air dance event that I've been to (Sounds on Sunday doesn't count).
The event itself was great, but I was a bit dissapointed with the sounds system. Because they have 3 stages, they can't really ramped up the sounds too loud otherwise it will bleed to the other stages. Unfortunate but necessary.
Well', I'll be going to Fatboy Slim this New Year's eve, yet another event organised by Fuzzy, and it's also another open air event. Hopefully Fatboy will be as good as expected and doesn't dissapoint like Roots Manuva and Crazy Penis.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 03, 2005
Pty Ltd (live)
These guys are really amazing [the website took a while to find]. I saw them at Chinese Laundry last night and they really brought the house down. I found it really amazing to watch live performances these days, they are so much better than normal DJs spinning records. Don't get me wrong, some DJs are good but watching live performance is really different, the vibe is different and the crowd is slightly different. After Terminal 9 a couple of weeks ago and now this I don't know how I can go back :)
They have several gigs planned in Sydney. I'm tempted to go see them again sometime soon. They were selling their latest CD on the spot but in a lapse of judgement I decided to not buy it, damn I'm regretting it now because at the moment you can only buy the CD on their live gigs or mail order them from their office.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2005
Nokia Terminal 9 Tour
We went to Nokia Terminal 9 Tour last Saturday to see Mix Master Mike, but it was True Live and The Loose Cannons who stole the show.
True Live is a six piece hip hop band with Keyboard, Drum, Double Bass, Violin and Cello. They are effing ROCKS! You just have too see them to believe it.
The Loose Cannons is a 8 piece funk band from the UK, watching them live is an experience by itself. I can't find their CD in any of the local online music shop, [sigh] I guess I have to import them from UK.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 24, 2005
Kate Monroe: MATBlack
I've just got the latest CD from my favourite DJ, Kate Monroe. Like her previous compilations, Kate Monroe always get my grooving :) I love it!! I've been to many of her gigs and of course many many many visit to her set down at Cargo (Sublime). Not once she ever disappoint me .. that's how much I love her. Haven't been out clubbing for a while and listening to this CD, I couldn't believe how much I missed this ... clubbing I mean. Note to self: must try to go out clubbing again soon :)
MATBlack is a house CD compilation, because of her limited budget, Kate have to find lesser known tunes, however those tunes rock! Well In The Mix has reviewed it in much better way that I could possibly have, I can only confirm my devotion to Kate Monroe and tell everyone that I can't wait for the next CD (Mat White) to come out.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 15, 2005
Currently in love with ...
Keren DeBerg :)
Yet another artist discovered from Scrubs, even if the quality of the show has been going downhill since the beginning of season 4, I think I can watch the show for the music only :)
The Scrubs website has an extensive list of all the music played in the show (and more from other location here).
Oh and in Keren's website you can listen the full 5 songs from her debut album.
More good info about Keren on Scrubs@MOPNT.
[More]
She apparently started her own record label "Big Pea & a Dime" :)
Posted by vhadiant at 06:54 PM
March 22, 2005
Newly discovered music: Lazlo Bane
Lazlo Bane, probably most well known from Scrubs theme song. The actual "Superman" song itself is in much slower beat than the rendition for Scrubs.
Posted by vhadiant at 09:34 PM
March 21, 2005
Newly discovered music: Counting Crows
I'm going to start blogging about bands/artists that I've only recently discovered and liked. Counting Crows took the first entry here :)
Apparently (according to Wikipedia) they are "extremely popular" (don't you love those Wikipedia's NPOV claims ;), hmm maybe in the US, I certainly never heard of them. Mind you this was back in 1994, so I was still in Indonesia, probably listening to Dewa, Slank, KLA and other Indo bands.
Well they're new to me, music is nice pop-rockish, very mid 90s actually. Wikipedia article describes them as a "rock" band, I reckon they should be filed under "easy listening".
Now listening to Counting Crows - Rain King.
[Update]
Ahh .. "Big Yellow Taxi" yes I've heard that before, so not that new afterall huh.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:03 PM
