DEAF ’08 – CLOSING PARTY

After 3 long but enjoyable days (nights really) Day 4 of DEAF was to bring around the most anticipated event of the festival…

a 3 room shindig spread over two venues with some of the biggest and most influential names in techno music performing side by side with some lesser known up and coming acts, the closing party  was a neat surmise of what the festival in general attempted to portray over the weekend. But just how satisfying was the whole thing gonna be? Containing a party in two separate spaces that aren’t usually used together meant that there was some doubt in my mind (and others) as to how the whole thing was going to pan out. The warning signs came earlier in the week when this statement appeared on the DEAF website

“This is a multi stage festival event so there may be restricted access to some of the stages if they are at capacity.”

Hmmm, well at least they were giving fair warning, and they had the foresight to not put Model 500, Moritz von Oswald Trio and Laurent Garnier in the one room, but I suspected that this set up was going to cause problems, but more of that later.

After staying in bed ’till quite late in the morning – ok, early afternoon – en route to the party I was playing a few records down in The Globe bar where, all weekend, DEAF had given djs the chance to play short sets. Putting DJs on in different pubs around the city was a nice little touch, as it added to the general atmosphere around the city a little. Compared with last years festival I found that the festival had generated a genuine buzz around the different gigs that were on, chatting to folk about what they had been/hadn’t been to, where they were going later on and so on. Anyways, I played a bit of disco, some italo and deep house and then made a quick exit to make sure I got a place in the main room of the closing party.

Arriving in not long after 9pm, Maura O’Boyle aka Americhord was already getting some bodies on the floor; I’ve been wanting to catch her for  some time as I love the couple of releases she has had in the past on D1. She didn’t dissapoint with her stripped down, crisp techno and she no doubt won over some new fans on the night. Bar a remix 12″ last year, she’s been quiet on the release front lately, hopefully there will be some new material in the not too distant future, as this set of new material is definitely up to scratch with her previous output.

Next up was new D1 artist, Annie Hall, who’s debut 12″ has just come out and is one I’m liking a lot. Hunched behind her laptop at the very back of the stage, she kicked off with some great electo, the type of which features on her recent release. Breaking up tracks with short vocal samples she quickly upped the pace from electro to mildly abrasive techno, that maybe wasn’t as well recieved as Americhord before her, but im my opinion was equally impressive. While the nights main attractions were men, one of whom as been around since year zero of techno, it was great to see some newer female techno producers getting a chance to step up to the big arena, and holding thier own.

As Hall’s set went on The Village was becoming increasingly packed, and quickly too. I snuck out for a quick cigarette at about 10.20, thinking this would be the last chance I could risk one, before the venue filled to capacity, and I was right in thinking this. The problems apparent in selling out a gig where the capacity of the  main room only accounted for roughly half the tickets sold were now obvious as many punters got to the door only to be told that they could not gain access to the main room. To add to the dissapointment, Moritz Von Oswald – who was to perform next door in Whelans – would not be appearing, meaning that many would be missing out completely on the 3 main acts. The reasoning for the no show from Von Oswald slowly filtered through the crowd as the night went on, and sadly the rumour that he had suffered a stroke on the flight over was to be confirmed a couple of days later. Let’s just hope that his recovery is swift and complete, as music needs the likes of Von Oswald, the kind of artist who turns our preconceptions of music on it’s head.

Talking of people who’ve turned music upside down and inside out, the main attraction of the weekend was about to take centre stage as Juan Atkins along with Mike Banks, Skurge and Mark Taylor were about to perform their first Irish show as Model 500. Rightly introduced by Cornelius as the Godfather of Techno Juan took to the stage to a rapturous reception from the now over-packed floor. It was immediately noticeable to me that Atkins seemed to be in a somewhat vibrant mood, less the shell of a man that far too many reports speak of. Shaking hands with the crowd, talking into the mic while tinkering on his Korg, his backing group prepared themselves and a minute later Cosmic Cars kicked off the show, and kicked me square in the balls. I’ve been lucky enough this year to catch a few acts I’ve waited a long time to see and after Dopplereffekt and Kraftwerk, Model 500 ticked off another box in glorious style. People continuously pushing by me and one other fucker spilling a pint all over me couldn’t deflate my excitement.

There was a rugged, somewhat haphazard style to the performance at times which only added to my enjoyment of it all. Yeah, the drum loops weren’t live, but everything else was. This was the sort of performance to shut up the people who still think that techno and electronic music is just a bunch of nerds pushing buttons.  Juan’s continuous chanting and singing may have gotten on some peoples nerves – and the fact that a fully fledged band were performing seemed to confuse some gormless munters waiting for Garnier – couldn’t have bothered me less and I was happy to see Atkins willing to participate so much. It’s obvious that Banks is the real backbone of the band live, but never forget that all the music is from the little space cadet out the front. What we got was a performance of classics and going on that description there wasn’t an out of place song in there. This was the work of a man who has changed electronic music like few others. Be it the deep techno of “Starlight” (which was accompanied by some truly beautiful keys from Banks, taking an already sublime piece of music to a whole other level), the body popping “Clear” to the brutal “Game One” this was a showcase of techno in all its shapes and forms. As noted above, some of the increasingly messy crowd were somewhat perplexed by what was going on, which meant the room did thankfully clear a little bit as the set went on, giving me space to even pogo a little to Cosmic Raindance. By the time “Technicolour” closed out the set I can happily say there was barely a moment I didn’t enjoy. The only major slip up was “The Chase” as it didn’t gel within the setting, sounding messy and out of sorts. Even though it was my highlight, “Starlight” started out in a similar fashion, but just kept on evolving to perfection.

I know from other reports that the sound was poor in many parts of the venue, and I put up with a fair amount of pushing and shoving to hold my spot for most of the set and I was more willing than usual to deal with the crowd, but then sometimes those are the minor issues you’ll let fly. With Von Oswald sadly not performing I decided to hang around to see what bag of tricks Laurent Garnier would pull out of his bag. Sadly Garnier had decided to take the remants of an overflowing toilet with him instead of any decent music. It’s hard to believe that this was the same man who’d performed some of my favourite dj sets in the past. It was nothing short of disgraceful the nonsense he was playing, especially after who had been on stage before him. I’m not going to dwell on it anymore, but Garnier really needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and think about what he has become. Because all I can see is an embarresing shell of a once great Dj.

The venue was still completely wedged when I left, and many angry and disappointed ticket holders had long since given up trying to get entrance to The Village, some of whom had gone into catch Fuck Buttons and Shawn Rudiman (playing his 2nd set of the weekend, as a replacement for Von Oswald) in Whelans, while others had simply gone elsewhere. Even if Moritz had played in the 2nd room there still would have been problems with people wanting to get into The Village for Model 500/Garnier as they were bigger pulls, and many more less “educated” (and judging by some of the bullshit been talked in the jacks after Model 500 there were many who didn’t have a fucking clue how important Juan Atkins is to techno) folk wouldn’t have had an interest in anything bar the main room. In the past DEAF has come under criticism for the organisation of its big parties and again it has happened. If they want to do a big gig like this again they are going to have to plan these things out a little bit better. It’s a shame as this year was an overall success, and was one of the best weekends I’ve had out this year, even if I did find it a bit tough going at times, but I can’t think of another weekend in recent memory where there has been so much great music on display in Dublin, or any other city in Ireland. Regardless of the problems during the closing night – and I believe refunds are being made available to people who couldn’t get into The Village – Eamonn and Karen along with  promoters who put on some other great events under the DEAF banner all deserve a big thank you. I hope it continues in a similar fashion next year.