Four incredible months in Barcelona, finally over. Leaving was bitter-sweet to say the least. I came to Spain with a short list of things I wanted to see and do... and somehow I managed to avoid many of them (e.g. go to Berlin and Morocco), but somehow at the same time, I was able to have more fun, make more friends, host more afterhours, drink more wine and eat more bocadillos then I could have EVER IMAGINED. When all is said and done, I think the trip far exceeded expectations in every possible way. A big reason for that was having KJ there as a partner in crime and making some new friends that will be with me for life (you know who you are). All that craziness and no deportation, only one visit from the police and no injuries. Well almost... more on that later.
After all of the fall madness on Caller d'Arago, we had to throw one last bash to go out in style. I promised it was going to be a tame night for listening to music, drinking wine and saying goodbye to the good friends we had made. We made good on all those promises except of course for the first. I know it's hard to believe, but things got a little nutty in No. 6a with the typical goofiness and KJ swinging me around the room. We even had one last visit from the neighbors who seemed delighted to let us keep making party when they heard it was our last night in Spain. I'm fairly certain the entire building let out a collective breath when they saw us wheeling our big suitcases down the street those last days. We also decided to dance on our countertop one last time... a decision we've come to regret due to a hairline fracture and a likely-to-be-lost security deposit. Party karma is such a bitch!
Having been Stateside for the past few days, I've had a chance to think back on all of the incredible memories we made during our semester on exchange (yes, we actually were there for school, people!)... and I can honestly say we made the absolute most of an incredible opportunity. Siesta y fiesta!! The soundtrack will be available shortly...so stay tuned (seriously).
I went to London for my final weekend in Europe - to celebrate my roommate's birthday, to hang with some friends and to check out the *secret* Sasha party that's been in the works for a few months. The party was in an old car park on Kearn and Curtain Streets near the Liverpool tube stop (for those who know London). Apparently they've had 1-2 parties there already and are having Alex Under for NYE. The venue is covered but doesn't have full walls on two sides, so it's actually outdoors. They did a great job with sound (pretty damn good considering!!), and the rest of the event organization. The party was actually early - 9pm to 4am. Scarlett Etienne played for the first three hours - I've heard a bunch of her music, but this was my first time catching her in person. She played her groovy minimalish style and set Sasha up very nicely. And, she is even more gorgeous in person. Yowzas!
When Sasha came on, I really didn't know what to expect having not heard him since his Fundacion residency in NYC. He played all over the map - in a good way, keeping it interesting and bouncing between genres. The crowd was really into it - honestly, I didn't expect the Brits to still get so pumped for him, but even some of the old school heads I was hanging with really up for it and not at all jaded. The crowd energy was great... it did get a bit overwhelming at a few points (as is expected of a big event) and somewhat sloppy. I actually thought Scarlett was going to drop "Mouth to Mouth" at one point, but she left it for Sasha, who dropped it around 2:30am to an ENORMOUS reaction from the crowd. He also dropped a bunch of classics (I knew them at the time, but CRS right now). They had lasers and lots of fog (which at times was too much), but overall was a really nice compliment to the venue. When they'd smoke the place out with the fog and lasers, you really couldn't see anyone for like 2-3 minutes - it was totally trippy. Overall an awesome night - I got to rock it out with Taj and some of the peeps I met at DC10, which was awesome...and really had a pretty cool and unique London clubbing experience. We contemplated hitting the official afterhours and/or Fabric, but opted for a low key session back at the apartment, which was a blast.
An amazing four months in Barcelona is finally coming to an end. KJ and I are headed to London next weekend for her birthday, so this was our final weekend to make party in Barcelona. Friday night, KJ was still in Paris so I rounded up a crew to check out the crazy party boys of M.A.N.D.Y. at The Loft. And they definitely didn't disappoint! The music was super funky and fun and their antics equally as good. They were speaker humping and pouring vodka into the mouths of the crowd... good times! I never know which is Philipp and which is Patrick... but I do know the blond one kicked things off and played one of my favorite Ricardo Villalobos tracks (affectionately known as "The Horns"). We rocked out till the bitter end and then cruised home for a short-lived afties session. I think I'm finally running out of steam! Well, almost...
KJ rolled back into town on Saturday for a final night out on the town and it took a major rally on my part to get back on my feet. But, being the consummate professional, I got it together, invited some people over for a pre-party and then set off for a new destination, La Cova. The venue (a cave!!!) is outside the city and requires a metro and bus trip, which turned out to be quite eventful. The bus came late and then we got stuck in traffic on the way there (2am!) due to a tractor trailer that had overturned on the highway overpass. Anyway... we finally arrived at 3am, just in time to hear the remix of The Doors' "The End" and the beginning of Becka's set. I'm not usually a fan of the harder side of techno, but both Becka and Ara played some great music that kept us stomping around the dance floor until the club closed. A highlight during Agent Orange's set was his remix of "Set It Off." After closing down the cave, we took the bus back to Barca and called it a night early (for once!)
Razzmatazz (The Loft) is celebrating its 6th anniversary this month with some incredible lineups. I wimped out Friday night and missed Matthew Jonson, Carl Cox and The Glimmers ... so Saturday night I was not to be denied! MouseUp warmed up the room nicely for Kevin Saunderson who came on at 3am and literally tore the room apart. Dark, hard, dirty beats for just under 3 hours. Me, chief head dress, and the crew had a great time until the party ended and we were stranded on a curb in the middle of nowhere for 1.5 hours. No cabs anywhere and the metro was not running for some reason. Not cool! We waited until sometime around 7am to catch the train home and when we arrived there was a solid crew of people waiting outside my apartment ready to make more party. The beats and booze continued... Barca style, yet again, until the wee hours!
I'm not sure exactly where to begin... let's just say, I love my friends, I love props and in combination... there is always going to be a few hundred hysterical stories to tell. Here we go...
11/22/06 ::: For those who don't already know the story... five people were supposed to come to Barcelona, but our sunniest Sunny fell off a horse, broke her arm and was forced to stay home on her birthday eating Benke's terrible cooking. The first thing we did when Nora and Shirley arrived on Wednesday was to drink some wine and pour out a glass in honor of our fallen friend. We love and missed you dearly, Sunny!! And promise to make it up to you!! The first night was spent catching up and drinking wine, not necessarily in that order.
11/23/06 ::: We woke up mid-morning and made our way to Las Ramblas, one of the most famous tourist areas in all of Barcelona. We did some walking, some eating and some sight-seeing, all while trying to perfectly time a meeting with our surprise guests (Sai and Dale who had flown in from NYC to surprise Shirley). Shirley, Nora and I were in position at 3pm at Bar Lobo as Sai and Dale approached from behind Shirley. Dale played captain as only he can and the surprise went off without a hitch - Shirley was absolutely shocked! Yay!!! After consuming a few lemonade beers and yummy tapas, we cruised up Paseo de Gracia taking in the Gaudi architecture and shopping with a stop to check out the roof of Casa Mila. Gaudi's roof is amazing anytime of day, but we caught the sun just as it was setting, which was a special treat. After the walking tour, we made our way back to my apartment for a snack and some chill out time before going to El Born for an incredible dinner at Cafe de la Academia. Jet lag finally got the best of Sai and Dale so they went home, but me, Nicole, Nora and Shirley made our way to a cool little neighborhood lounge, Fon Fone, where we invaded a snowboarding convention and started our bagging spree.
11/24/06 ::: We spent the entire day outside soaking up the sun and the sights - walking down Gran Via, through Plaza Espana, past the fountains, up to the Museo National Del Arte de Catalunya and through Montjuic. During that time we walked, we laughed and we bagged... repeatedly. When we finally made our way back down the mountain, we stumbled upon a shit store in Poble Sec and hit the prop jackpot. After buying a few bags of ridiculously silly items, we found a place to eat and then went back to my place in L'Eixample to nap and regroup for the big night ahead. Sometime around 10pm we got the pre-party underway with some tunes and wine. A few of my friends stopped by to hang out before we finally took the Metro to a converted theater called Sala Apollo (aka NITSA) for Luke Slater. We scouted out a little booth area as home base and then proceeded to dance and debach (like that word used as a verb?) until the club closed (early!) around 5:30am. After a quick stuffed animal stealing incident outside, we hit the road for home and continued the party on my roof until some hour that I'd rather not mention. Highlights include: sunrise grape and pineapple mimosas on the roof, Shirley biting faces and then making a quick exit with JC, my costume change into Steve "I Love Techno" Erkell, me and Nora "bringing sexy back," and Sai and Dale... well, being Sai and Dale.
11/25/06 ::: After a short sleep and rally, we hopped on the metro to Camp Nou, home of Football Club Barcelona and just under 100,000 nutty football fans. Barca was the heavy favorite in the Spanish league match vs. Vilarreal and they didn't disappoint. They won 4-0 and the last goal was an absolute stunner by Ronaldinho - a chest-trap, bicycle - the first such goal of his career. Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!!!!
After the match we went up to Tibidabo, a mountain town on the edge of Barcelona, with a stunning view of the city. We had a view drinks at Mirablau, enjoyed the view and then went to Danzatoria to people watch and dance the night away to cheesy house music hits. We couldn't find a cab at closing time (3am) so we walked and walked and walked some more until we finally found a city bus that was operational. And, just when we got back to my neighborhood and thought we were going to go home early for a chill night at home... we walked past some apartment on Avda Roma that had music blaring out the window. Within minutes we had been invited up to join the party... here we go! For some reason the hostess took a special liking to us and kept feeding us bottles of wine and whiskey. And while we enjoyed the music and the libations, we had the pleasure of getting to watch a wasted girl self-destruct - Tasmanian Devil-style - face planting the floor, the DJ gear and KJ's lap on the couch. We stayed a few hours and then went back to Arago where the afties action continued despite Uncle Dale's scolding (haha!). We played "Pin the Titty on the Titty" and even made a human sculpture out of KJ's passed out body - one of our best works yet! Let's just say once again for the record, EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE US.
11/26/06 ::: Somehow we missed church. Maybe next week! Sunday was spent chilling, eating and recovering. I even managed to do 20 minutes of Spanish homework. We had one last dinner together at 99.9 Origen and then came back to Arago to enjoy the last few hours of our wild adventure vacation together.
11/27/06 ::: Say it ain't so! I hated to say goodbye to Sai, Dale, Shirley and Nora but I guess the time had come. I couldn't be too sad knowing how special the trip was and how incredibly blessed I am to have such amazing, well-rounded friends who make life worth living. What an incredible trip... until next time, my locos!
Pacha Barcelona is a bit of a posh venue so I hadn't been too anxious to check it out. That is, until Larent Garnier was booked there. We rounded up a crew of school and non-school party people and finally made the pilgrimage to check out the club. I was so excited to see what kind of goodies Laurent would have in store after catching some of his DJ and live sets at I Love Techno last month in Belgium. The venue was in fact, fairly posh, and geared toward the more upscale party peeps. However, our crew was not to be stopped... we came, we danced, we made party, like only we do. Laurent did not disappoint, playing all over the electronic spectrum inspiring both us and the poshies to boogie the entire night. Apparently no set is complete these days without some version of Rej so Laurent dropped it 3/4 of the way into the night and then finished his set with "Man with a Red Face," which is always great to hear. After the party ended, we cruised back to Casa Arago for a fiesta and photo session on la terrazza. LEGENDARY.
M2 was absolutely awesome - 19,000 people in two gigantic rooms!!
I took a party bus from Barcelona to Zaragoza (about 3.5 hrs) with some *new* friends - 5 Germans, 1 Kiwi and 1 Portuguese - an awesome crew of elite party peeps to get down with. We arrived at the festival sight at 6pm and spent the first 1-1.5 hrs eating, drinking and checking out the rooms. After that, we danced our a$$es off for 14-15 hrs until the party ended at 10am Sunday morning. Here goes the review: 6 - 8 pm ::: Carlos Palacio and then JLF - some decent beats, which got the legs stretched and ready to go.
8 - 9 pm ::: Ice Cube - I will probably never go to a rap concert again, so I figured this was my chance to hear Cube lay it down. I had a blast singing along - white girl style - to all the old NWA hits. I even had a West Coast gangsta style photo tribute to Cube. It was Cube's first trip to Spain and apparently he forgot that not everyone speaks English. He was yelling to to the crowd and was surprised when he wasn't getting a response.
9 - 11 pm ::: Tiefschwarz - Best set I've heard from them yet (and I've heard them a bunch this year including ILT and Ibiza). Relentless, funky, driving beats for 2 hours. So good.
11 pm - 12:30am ::: Kraftwerk - I was reluctant to go to Kraftwerk again but I was with 6 people who hadn't ever seen them including 4 Germans! (I didn't think that was possible!) In any case, the crowd reaction was much better this time than at ILT, where people seemed quite bored. At M2, people were really into it, "head grooving" and giving Kraftwerk their proper respect after each track.
12:30 - 5:30am ::: Francois K & Derrick May (2 hours each followed by an hour of tagging) - HOLY SHIZZNIT. They destroyed that place. I have to say, the two times that I've heard them together (M2 and PS1 a few years ago), I have been absolutely blown away. I don't think I'll ever miss a chance to catch them together again. FK played a nice re-edit of Rej, one of my favorite tracks that Victor always plays (brain dead at the moment, so no ID) and a bunch of other wicked stuff.
For 5 minutes sometime during the Cosmic Twins set ::: The Chemical Brothers dj set - My friends wanted to go check them out so I agreed to walk to the other tent. We stayed for a few minutes and then turned around and went back to FK & DM despite the fact that 75% of the festival was watching the Chems. It was like night and day - mass vs. underground. I knew where I had to be.
5:30 - 7.30 am ::: Miss Kittin - I have to hand it to her, she is always fun, always rockin, definitely knows how to throw a party. She played a lot of great underground stuff and then threw in some fun jams including a remix of "Sweet Dreams" and Trentmoller's remix of "Go". Say what you will, but the "Go" rmx is such an amazing piece of music - those vocals have and always will be so incredibly moving. I was standing on a chair in the middle of the dance floor motioning and singing to the crowd throughout the entire track. AWESOME MOMENT.
7:30 - 8am ::: DJ Hell - It was my first time hearing him and we only stayed for about 30 minutes, but I really enjoyed what he was playing. He led off with Audion's "Mouth to Mouth" which just gets better and better every time I hear it. Such a wicked track!
8 - 9:45am ::: Oscar Mulero - We closed the party out with some absolutely PUNISHING beats. I'm not one to really seek out hard techno and by the point we went to hear Oscar, I could barely feel my legs... however, I danced like a woman possessed for much of his set. At one point I sat down thinking I didn't have anything left and then somehow I managed to get off my ass and dance like a lunatic for another 45 minutes. Yet another incredible night of music - I've been so lucky to catch two festivals in Europe and a bunch of other great parties. Six more weeks to MAKE EURO PARTY before I head back to the States!
Say it ain't so!!! Our dear friend, Oliver, is headed back to Costa Rica after living in Barcelona for the past three months and we are extremely sad to see him go. Despite our best efforts to chain him to our kitchen table, it looks as though he's really leaving. So, we did the only thing we could think of... MAKE GOING AWAY PARTY at our place! I think the pictures speak for themselves... thank god the walls can't talk.
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