dance dance dance · 2004-08-14 13:19

Have I told you I love dancing? I love dancing. I don’t do it often enough, but this weekend there’s no excuses; it’s the Koneisto festival in Helsinki. It’s a great mix – something like a large school hall for the main arena, and then 4 basements playing music ranging from house to electro to really really bad fast trance (and I used to like trance music). Also there’s an outdoor stage, by the water, but that had finished by the time I got there.

Last night saw Jimi Tenor, Plaid, and Richie Hawtin amongst others. All of these were ok (I won’t mention the dire Way Out West), Tenor (Moog and full band) started off as a bit world music-y for me, but then proceeded to get his p-funk on (enough to even excuse use of saxophone and flute). Plaid (2 Powerbooks; a few computer problems) started a bit lost, as well, but reached a pretty dark wall of sound by the end. Pretty hard to dance to some of it though. Richie Hawtin (DJing on two decks with a table full of electronics, including 2 Powerbooks (one widescreen), and a table full of records) forgot that techno is about machine funk – the first half an hour went nowhere, with just bang bang bang music. Occasional greatness, but no momentum. Well, my brain didn’t think much of it, but I was dancing away happily.

Best thing was discovering some new fantastic acts. Silicon Scally (iBook and mini keyboard) played a very tight electro set, the LBJ Soundsystem (2 iBooks, 2 MCs) was just utterly fantastic, probably the highlight of the night, and just the most fun to dance to (and it’s great to see local talent signed to a really good label). On the DJ side, Lil’ Tony (own mixer, no noticeable Apple products) played an amazing deep techno set – a complete mixture of styles and speeds, and technically very accomplished. He stole the show just before Plaid came on. And he dances to the music…. I don’t trust DJs that don’t dance.

What was odd compared to London was the pretty complete lack of drugs. It’s not a bad thing – people were there for the music, and seeing that many people at 5 in the morning still with coordination was fantastic. No walking over some kind of fluoro battlefield to get out of the venue.

So, 8 hours of non-stop dancing later, walking back at dawn (and a loss of 3 pounds of weight somehow), I’m happy. And I get to do it all again tonight! If I can move. Or hear. Or see.

(One Koneisto niggle: not allowing water bottles – they pour out a water bottle into a plastic pint glass. Insane! It’s a club night! You need water!)

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