From Steven Center Sent Mon, Jul 6th 1998, 17:37
From Steven Center Sent Mon, Jul 6th 1998, 17:37
so us lucky southern californians were blessed with a live dj & weirdness set by one mr. plastikman on thursday. i haven't seen any reviews yet, so i'll try to piece one together. first off, i have to say i was more than a little worried about how the show was going to turn out as it was being promoted by a local group called 'cand-e productions'. past experience has taught me to avoid all events thrown by production companies with the single letter 'e' in their name, but i couldn't help it this time. i mean, it's ritchie hawtin -- what am i supposed to do? all of my fears turned out to be unnecessary. the party ended up at the glasshouse in pomona, about 40 minutes outside of l.a.. it's not my favorite venue, since it can get unbearably hot in there and the sound gets very muddy at times (the glasshouse used to be a grocery store, of all things, so the steel beams in the ceiling combined with the relative small size of the room makes sound reverberate in what can often be an annoying way). even though the sound did get to that 'way too loud for healthy human ears' level a few times, i generally have only high praise for it on the evening. the promoters had not really decorated the venue with any annoying candy rave decorations, and other than some nifty lights and a projection of the plastikman logo on the wall, there really were no other decorations in sight. due to what i can only figure was poor promotion (i only ever saw one flyer for this gig) the venue was not crowded at all. they could have fit at least another 500 people in there, if not more. i can't complain, though, since the sparse crowd gave everyone room to adequately get their groove on. i also got the feeling that the low key promotion led to a very enthusiastic crowd, most of whom were there because they love the music, and not the 'rave lifestyle'. this made me very happy. i should get to the music, eh? it was fantastic. well worth the five year wait we have had to endure. ritchie was having a wonderful time, and you could hear it in his set. he was flawlessly mixing between two turntables, a 909, and some sort of effects rack system. it was very enjoyable. the crowd was in the palm of his hand, climaxing along with him, letting him take them wherever he wanted to go. i wish i was more versed in the hawtin style of music, as i enjoy it so much. i recognized a few tracks from his lp's and mixed cd's, but other than that the evening served as my education by professor hawtin. i was schooled. it was so good. i even saw krstplur!Rbn (xxxx@xxx.xxx) dancing, and that is a sight to see. i left at 4:30, and from what i have heard ritchie continued on beyond the 5:00 end time and kept spinning even after the lights were turned on in the venue. now that's dedication. my only gripe? i really want a plastikman t-shirt, and would have loved to have been able to pick one up at the show instead of having to order one on line. oh well. that and the fact that i forgot to bring earplugs, but that's all my fault. huge shout to ritchie, john aquaviva (i only caught the last 25 minutes of his set, and i was kicking myself for having to miss the rest of it) plus8/m-nus, and cand-e productions. they really threw the event well and in a very classy way. i was impressed. sorry for the long post. i'll go back to lurking now. steve mr. lumpy nightnoise soundsystem