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Post by Poeticsiren on Dec 20, 2001 10:27:31 GMT -5
you'll have to post and let us know how awesome it was  L. |
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Post by Ariela on Dec 20, 2001 22:28:30 GMT -5
Yes, you lucky dog!!!  |
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Post by luceluna on Dec 21, 2001 1:39:27 GMT -5
::fingers in ears:: I CAN'T HEEEEEEAR YOU!!!! *whispered* must....resist....urge to kill..... hybrid-watchers.....who have seen them live, while i rot and die in the cesspool of underage dance parties....  |
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Post by Happydoug on Dec 21, 2001 6:13:40 GMT -5
awww, thanks for thinking of me guys. i got back about 60 minutes ago (i've been surfing around). it's right now 6:44 am.
I'll try to keep this as short as possible.
The show was at a club called Centro-fly in NYC. Centro-fly is a smaller club that is more of a restuarant with a moderate sized dancefloor in the back. There were a lot of people in Armani suits, 4 dollar water, 6 dollar beers. It had a look that combined "classy upscale restaurant" with "shady warehouse." But for the most part, the majority of people were either drunk coked up (or both). Not a very good mixture IMO for a Hybrid show. There were a decent amount of people who seemed truly interested in Hybrid (maybe about 50-75 people). Unfortunately, in a crowd of about 500 people (half full), this wasn't very a very good sign. There was no one on the dancefloor for the warmup DJ (who was spinning some slow house and some good BT stuff. I met the guy, he was really nice). Oh, add the fact that they would allow us to use any light toys (meaning glowsticks, photons, anything... the guy said "We don't allow that here"), and you get a very hostile atmosphere for someone like me. (Dancing w/o being able to glowstring is like telling me I can eat cereal, I'm just not allowed to have any milk.) Like many NYC clubs, the bouncers were too much in your face (orange uniforms made them look like prison inmates, and they used their flashlights incessantly). Suffice it to say, this is not a venue I would ever go back to, and I would be mightily disappointed if someone like a Nick Warren or a BT would ever play there. I do have to give credit to the sound system, which was excellent.
Hybrid began spinning sometime between 11 and 11:30 pm. Their set can be summed up in word word: awesome. It was progressive. It had PHAT beats/bass. There were lots of breakbeats, and lots of effects thrown in. None of what they did was repetitive or boring, and, I have to tell you guys, I don't remember the songs, but they did some crazy buildups using effects that were just sick. (Don't know if they are parts of songs or what, b/c we could see what they were doing on the elevated stage.) Maurice started them off, then Chris came on, then Mike, then Mike and Chris were sort of going on and off, and around 2:30 am they started tagging. Now THAT was cool. Mike and Chris tagging on the turntables showed me how well they worked together. They were putting a new record down every 45-75 seconds. And it was integrated seamlessly and perfectly. I danced my ass off this whole time.
Around 3 am me and my crew decided to leave at 3:30 (the less than packed crowd had started to thin significantly before then). somewhere in there around 3:10 or 3:15, i started hearing the housed up remix of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." My first thought was "Sweet." My second was "What the?" I did not understand why they had switched from banging breaks to bootied up house tracks. It was almost surreal. Now, I'm not going to begrudge any DJ his musical picks. He's gotta spin what he feels is right. But bootied up disco-like house is something that I can barely stomach. To me it's very lowest common denominator and just doesn't sound good to boot. And you can't really dance to it that well. (Well, you can grind, but you can't do the Philly stomp at all.) This style of house was still playing as we left the club at 3:30 am. Now it wasn't all that bad, it was just weird to hear them go from phat breaks to booty house. I was basically left a little perplexed as to those music selections, but the rest of the night was so freaking awesome that small amount of time (when we were getting ready to leave anyway) didn't really count much in the grand scheme of things.
And while that part of the night was pretty surreal, I am left with a wonderful impression of Hybrid. I had gotten pretty down about not being able to use my glowsticks at all (not even in my hands), and if you know me well you know how bummed out I get when I can't dance the way I want to. What Hybrid's music did to me tonight was it lifted me up away from that negativity, and brought energy and passion into it, and, oh yeah: a huge smile on my face for the majority of the night. The energy and vibrations of their music tonight transcended everything around me and brought me to that aural area where everything sounds amazing, and the rest of the world sort of melts away for a short period of time.
final note: Just to make you all super-DUPER jealous, I am getting an encore performance tonight (friday dec. 21) in washington DC at Buzz. Buzz is basically a raver club, so the environmental issues that centro-fly had shouldn't be a factor. I am looking forward to an even better, more amazing night, and will post a review here if y'all want me too.
peace,
Happydoug
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Post by Poeticsiren on Dec 21, 2001 22:50:13 GMT -5
OHFUCKYEAHI AM SO FUCKING HAPPY YOU GOT TO SEE THEM AND FUCKING FEEL THEIR MUSIC!!! Sorry, just reading your post made me relive the night dana and I saw them...holy shit was that the best show i've ever seen and probably will see as long as i don't go to another one of their shows. God, I love those guys. Chris and Mike have this BEAUTIFUL rhythm they get into and when the tag, as you say Doug. It's quite a sight to behold. You used an adjective that I kept on thinking over and over and over the night that I saw them : SEAMLESS They spin the best shit, and God help me, I love them so much. I'm so freakin pumped you got to see them. Now you know what I mean when I said that I will never forget what it was like to hear them spin-it's truly transcendental. Mike has some SKILLZ with the effects he uses....the buildups and breaks he does fucking floored me. OMG...I still say audio orgasm... hehee Dana.....he twists those knobs and makes the house come down. Now, I want to hear about your night tonight when you get back even more since tonight you'll be in a better venue. Hope you got to impress people with those glow stick moves you have. ;D ;D WOOOHOOOOO I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU L.
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Post by luceluna on Dec 22, 2001 3:53:21 GMT -5
Around 3 am me and my crew decided to leave..... your CREW?! insanely jealous..... |
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Post by Happydoug on Dec 22, 2001 7:39:52 GMT -5
Hybrid, Cosmic Christmas by Buzz at Club Nation, Washington, DC 12/21/2001.
Well, here I am again, albeit a little bit later. I got up around 4:!5 pm after sleeping all day yesterday, and we left for DC around 7:30. We got there a little after ten, and were inside around 10:30. The warmup dj's were good (Alex Gold was very good, I would dare say Paul Van Dykish, and he spun some sweet remix of remember that was very nrgetic but didn't use the chorus at all). The venue was solid, although it could have done with much more ventilation and slightly less Stalin-esque power trippy bouncers. It could have also done without the thugs who were there (I was told later that they arrest someone almost every friday night b/c of violence, especially men assaulting women). Glowsticks and photons WERE allowed for the night, but sadly, no strings were allowed. The crowd, however, was MUCH better here than in NYC, and that definitely helped (as i would look around at other people who were dancing and smiling with me). FYI: I was sober for this night too (the original plan had called for me to be nice and messed up to experience hybrid in that "different" way, but I'm glad I didn't do anything: the stuff that was happening in the club would have had a very negative effect on my mind in any kind of altered state).
Hybrid went on around 2 am, starting with mike truman. I knocked on the plexiglass in front of the dj booth and got a little wink from him. His 45 minutes from 2-2:45 am was fabulous. It started with a lead out from alex gold (progressive nrg trance) and mike really messed with the candy kids. One of my friends at the party told me that the candy kids didn't know what to do when the "happy" trance left and the hard breaks came in. It was a phat song, almost hip-hoppy, but that was the only one like that of the entire night that was that dark. around 2:45 or something chris came on (I finally figured out who these guys are, btw), and he kept up right where mike left off, with some really nice trance breaks. They were pretty much spinning trance breaks the whole time I was there, with smatterings of the harder stuff here and there, and of course, all the extra effects and layering a music buff could ask for. The only song i can remember them playing was Private Taste "First" which has a really phat buildup that chris either added beats to or put another record on when the buildup hit the crescendo. A very good moment. I was dancing in front of the dj booth (it was raised and open, with a little plexiglass bar in front), so both of them were at the very least noticing me "blow up" as one of my fellow ravers so eloquently put it.
We left around 3:45. It looked at that point that mike and chris were tagging, sadly we were very tired after two hard nights of driving and partying, so we left. I can say, however, as our car was parked just outside the main room of the club, i heard a WICKED buildup that made me smile as we drove away.
And i just realized right now, I did not hear one song repeated tonight that was played last night. so yes, two hybrid shows, TWO sets of music.
and finally, as we reached the home of the people we left from (i had an extra drive, but this last stretch was the end of the night), the sun was coming up, we were listening to the end of Sasha and Digweed's Northern Exposure (east coast version), which just happened to have a sweet version of Finished Symphony on it. Finished Symphony, with the sun rising at our backs, after two nights of some of the beast breakbeats i've ever heard? A cherry on top of all the whipped cream, my friends.
My only (semi) regret was not being able to stay until the end of each set to possibly say hi to these nice gentlemen (and maybe yell at them to play FS on a huge soundsystem).
Wish you all could have been there! Suffice it to say i can't WAIT for their new cd this coming summer (it's this summer right?)
but as for now, it is 8:30 am, and i'm finally hallucinating, although it is from lack of sleep rather than any mind-altering substance. So I am going to rectify that situation by sleeeeeeeeeping.
peace,
Happydoug
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Post by vinnie97 on Jan 11, 2002 8:18:29 GMT -5
booty house, eh? SOunds like they've lost the plot...oh, and trust me, the new album's nothing to get too excited about if a new demo they're playing is anything to go by.
Hybrid is playing Dallas tonight (Friday evening) and I'm debating on whether it's worth $15 for pre-sale (certainly not the $20 at the door).
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Post by Flashpoint on Jan 11, 2002 9:08:26 GMT -5
No offense Vince, but most people will trust you on this matter like they trust me when I say its actually a very good song - i.e. not at all.
--(equally biased, but much less jaded) Matt.
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Post by luceluna on Jan 11, 2002 9:32:15 GMT -5
i will not hear a WORD against my Hybrid! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!  *chants* theyaren'tcookiecutterpeople-theyaren'tcookiecutterpeople-theyaren'tcookiecutterpeople.... go listen to the hybrid dub of Godspeed, THEN tell me they suck! |
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Post by vinnie97@netzero.net on Jan 12, 2002 3:46:23 GMT -5
If you got right down to it, you'd probably find BT accusing them of the same thing...however, he's too nice for that. BT's had a formal education in music, and I have some background in it as well...the repetition of themes is prevalent & tiring. And the thing is, Flashpt, I'm not alone...there's a growing contingent who share my opinion...they just don't care enough to shake the boat, so to speak. That doesn't matter for anyone on a personal level, however...they can freely like what they like, as uninspired as it may be. SO I wasted $16 and went to the show....heard 1 too many Hobird Mixes.  Like WOW, they're good at weaving between breakbeat & prog house tracks, so I can't say it wasn't completely unenjoyable...and the best moment was hearing BT's Remix of Tori Amos' "Talula" - 1 of his best remixes, and it made my night. Otherwise, I found myself becoming pretty bored, wondering when they were going to bring in the next track & praying it was something better (prayers which were answered upon occasion). VH |
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Post by Flashpoint on Jan 12, 2002 13:19:40 GMT -5
First thing... You'll get no debate from me that Hybrid have a tendency to reuse ideas, sounds (or samples, or drum loops). I guess I don't have this particular strain of musical attention defecit disorder that keeps me from enjoying something for what it is.
I myself am not *completely* uninitiated as far as music is concerned, especially composition. Not that that matters to you; but for some reason it's helped me appreciate what Hybrid does well rather than criticize what they do differently than I would have. It seems to me that BT often does the same. Not that the comparison is fair. He's got every right to be elitist if he wants to, seeing as he is one of the musical elite. I can claim no such status
As for the new song.. who's to say its completely uninspired? I for one have always enjoyed classical piano much more than a full symphony orchestra. So to me (double emphasis on TO ME) it fills in a nice little musical void.
Why do I bother? Probably for the same reason you keep complaining about Hybrid - to keep people honest. Even in the most elite and educated circles have a herd mentality. The way you state your opinions seems to lend itself to that.
My thought to everyone else: don't let Vince dictate/influence how you feel about specific songs/music, and certainly don't let me do it either. Listen and decide for yourself.
--Flashpoint (Matthew Craig) <br>
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Post by Poeticsiren on Jan 12, 2002 18:13:22 GMT -5
Laurie's simple blissfully ignorant philosophy- Whatever gives me goosebumps when it touches my ears...I like. Thus, I like Hybrid hehehehehe. But I can appreciate everyone's argument. hugs |
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Post by Flashpoint on Jan 12, 2002 19:21:16 GMT -5
Laurie... exactly. ;D
--Matt
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Post by Poeticsiren on Jan 12, 2002 19:32:26 GMT -5
;D
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Like WOW, they're good at weaving between breakbeat & prog house tracks, so I can't say it wasn't completely unenjoyable...and the best moment was hearing BT's Remix of Tori Amos' "Talula" - 1 of his best remixes, and it made my night. Otherwise, I found myself becoming pretty bored, wondering when they were going to bring in the next track & praying it was something better (prayers which were answered upon occasion).