M2 Festival 2006 ::: Zaragoza, Spain (11/11/06)

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!