The last time I heard Richie play was at DC10 during a 6 hour tag team set with Ricardo Villalobos last September. I didn't catch him in Detroit, but had 6/10 circled on the calendar as a big night out - a Sunday night at Smartbar after finals week - you knew this was going to be trouble. We rounded up an awesome crew - me, KJ, Gal, Evan, Guido, Jen, Chris, Marcel, Eli and Sunil and got ready to MAKE [M-nus] PARTY! We arrived at the club just before midnight and got to hear about an hour of Brad Owen who was banging the hell out of the Funktion One! He was playing some serious techno and really got the energy up before handing it off to Richie around 1am. I'm not sure if it was the tone of the opening set or if Richie was just in one of those moods, but he didn't waste anytime hitting up the Smartbar crowd with a solid hour and a half of MAXimal beats. Richie really cranked it up for the Sunday night punters - anyone who talks sh*t about him is really off the mark. He is as good as ever. 
The venue was comfortably crowded and rockin hard like I haven't seen it in awhile (on a Sunday no less!). The only venue issue was the complete lack of air conditioning, 
which meant the dance floor conditions were EXTREME. After awhile, just about everyone realized there was nothing we could do and that we were all going to be 'sweatin to the oldies' all night long. Seriously, I have never been on a sweatier 
dance floor, but everyone hung in like champs and rocked that place hard until the lights came on. Richie dropped the tempo about midway through the set and played some more heady tracks, but then ended things on the deep and dirty tip... just the way I like it! He also played Ambivalent's RU OK, which sounded incredible on that system and had me and the rest of the dance floor going bonkers. Definitely a Top 3 night out in Chicago for me - amazing beats, wicked vibe, good friends and a proper afterhours... 
After Richie finished things up, we gathered the crew for some late night eats at Wrigleyville hot dogs, then made our way back to Evanston for a sunrise session on the beach. The last five standing - me, KJ, Guido, Gal and Jen - grabbed a bucket of beer, wine and cava and set out for the 5:15am sunrise on the Clark Street beach in Evanston. We successfully evaded the police on the walk to the beach and then planted ourselves right near the water to watch an INCREDIBLE SUNRISE. After a few hours on the beach, we went to Clark's for breakfast and secretly made our own cava mimosas and laughed about the antics of the morning. This session had it all - a sunrise, booze, the rabbit, Preachy, a photo shoot, Guido's hysterical commentary and a run-in with a car full of first years on their way to their first day at work! We also gave Nir a call and caught him on the bus to work in NYC - we just had to rub it in, sorry my friend!Richie closes it out with some dirty dirty techno:
The crowd begs for one last song and Richie tosses out a few records:
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