PEPPERMINT MARCH 24:
On March 24 did a full 4hours & 1/2 at Peppermint. That was a great night full of great people and some of the best music I've been listening to. I tell you playing to a big crowd is the same thing as playing to a room full of 10 people.. your selecting your favorite current songs you've collected. Had a small problem with a delayed beat echoeing on the backside of the club and bouncing back. Some mixes I was confused as to why was I off-beat until I stopped focusing ont eh delayed sound and turned up the monitors to re-focus on them. Fav tracks fo the night was the Tocadisco mix of Deep Dish Dreams and (had to do it) Washing Machine!
Videos:
http://www.peppermint-club.com/media/video_56.asx
http://www.peppermint-club.com/media/video_57.asx
First off went to the Russian Embassy to get my visa for Moscow- got declined... reason? I hold an American passport since I was born and the guy behind the window said with a smile "it's not our problem- It's YOUR (USA) Problem"
So Jet-Set got set-back for a few months- was really looking forward to going though!
Whatever, I'll eventually get the right paperwork done and check out the scene in Moscow.
By end of the week had completed yet another 2 episodes of Wheels & Gears for GearOne and finishing up a proposal for "GearOne News".. coming soon!
GearOne (my day-time job in case you were curious)
DOHA- ONE BIG FRIDAY
Thursday night came by in a flash and I had to sleep early as I was catching the 7am flight to Doha for "One Big Friday" at the Intercontinental Hotel- Doha. I can be totally honest in saying that Dubai's airport is working up to maximum capacity. It's so packed in the early hours of the morning, you wonder how people have time to check in, pass immigration, walk the 1.5 KM or so to their planes and make it on time!
Qatar- finally a country I've been so hyped-up about visiting and one of the few left on my checklist of Middle Eastern Countries to see (minus Saudi Arabia and Yemen now.. ohh yeah, and Iraq of course!). Qatar Airways is no comparison to Emirates- their catchphrase is supposedly "Taking you more Personally..." yeah right! All flight attendants know how to stick that fake smile on their faces when you first get on the plane, right? WRONG! One of the flight attendants had the WORST case of PMS I've ever seen on any of the 3 billion women on the planet! Passengers were just trying to find their seats and stick their bags in the over-head bins and this cabin-crew-pms-chick was just bashing her way through rushing the passengers to sit down and close the bin.
44-minutes after takeoff from Dubai we're in Doha. I know this place is under construction but DAMN! airport is a mess. Reminds me of Beirut airport in the early 90s (and that was pure quality chaos at it's finest).
Got picked up by Kellie the promoter- she's a cool mid-20's English living in the gulf, driving a mini and got her dog in the back seat. She took me on a scenic route of Doha before getting to the Intercon (where the party took place). Lots of construction everywhere- the roads, the bridges... and a whole bunch of banners bragging about the Asia Games 2006 (which I doubt by observation that Doha will be ready for).
Lebaneezy, we're Everywhere!
Al Jazeera HQ
Got to the hotel around 9am, checked out the beach party location- smack on the sand with a huge EAW sound system. Took a break to power-nap before getting picked up by my good friend Fawaz, or DJ Jo, but in Doha he's known as Jojo- he's the resident at a club called "Pearl" at the Marriott. He took me for a cruise around the city, checking out some of the malls and the construction sites. We got back to the Intercontinental for the gig around 3:15pm. The party was advertised to start at 4pm- and by that time people slowly started to trickle in.
One Big Friday- Doha... Fawaz built-up by playing all the commercial stuff and some other tasty house tracks until I took over at 6pm. The sun was setting and just kinda kept it funky as the sky got dark, until eventually built into harder electro territory. There was some movement in the crowd- mainly had my eyes focused on 6 people- 2 from London (I could be sure they were of Indian Origin) and 4 from Holland. They listened and danced from the first track until the last at 9:30pm. Some friendly people in Doha, I think they should consider building their first REAL club soon so people wont be so shy dancing in front of each other all the time.
with DJ Sam
with the dutch people I was just telling you about:
Within an hour I had to be back at the airport to catch my next flight back to Dubai. DJ Sam took me around for an Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich that we rushed to eat in the car on the way to the airport. Oh, Doha airport again! That place needs to rush the upgrading FAST if they expect to have the Asia Games.
Dubai by 3am. Since I arrived on Qatar Airways, and booked to fly the 7am flight on Emirates- had to check out of the airport then check right back in. Cool, after that 30 minute u-turn spent some time reading magazines, buying a $100 2 Gigabyte SD card (3 years ago I got a 256 MB for $200!).
Dubai Airport:
Dubai After Take-off (Burj Dubai Coming up towards the top of the frame the big building)
LEBO-LAND SPEED OF SOUND w/PETE TONG:
Beirut- Pete Tong, Speed of Sound, Marlboro (oops I'm not allowed to say that name) yeah yeah! Every time I fly to Beirut I feel like a 7-year old going to Disneyland for the first time. From the moment we're over Baalback, the snow-covered cedar mountains until we touch down in Beirut my adrenaline gets pumping! Hung out with my sisters for a few hours before another power-nap then off to BIEL to check out the set-up & test the sound.
BIEL Outside:
DJM-1000 is Pioneer's new flagship top-of-the-range mixer, or at least that's what some DJs and tour managers have been saying. I don't know where to start about the mixer other than it's a BIG BLOCK and has lots of grip on the faders. 3 CDJ-1000 + 2 Technics and the EFX-500. I was quite sure Pete Tong wouldn't use the technics as almost all DJs are on CDs now. The set-up was one of the nicest set-ups I've ever seen- mainly due to the RED RED WALLS enclosing the place. Tested the sound, seemed OK, even if the decibel count was kinda low.
It's all gone Pete Tong.. no it hasn't.. yes it has.. no.. yes.. Interview? A debate was on if we were going to interview Pete Tong when he arrived at the Beirut airport at 8:30pm. I had to be at the venue at 9:00pm, but at the same time due the radio interview with da man at the same time. We did it, Tongy gave us tips as to what to look out for the rest of the year (Bob Sinclar's new track mainly).
Got to BIEL again after the radio interview to re-meet Pete Tong (first time since 2004) and get ready for the warm-up set. by 10pm the place was filling up and FAST. I tried to keep it a bit minimal and down tempo, but the crowd started moving and moving.
Thanks to MC Stretch for taking this pic:
So just played some of my favorite new tracks and the crowd response was big, then bigger then huge! Wow, by 11:45 looked like a good 3,000 people showed up, and the door was packed with more people coming in. All was going & flowing except one of the brand new CDJ-1000MKIIs. This machine had issues with me, I don't know why. I didn't do anything wrong to it, but it just didn't want to cue up my tracks properly. So while I was playing one of the tracks.. I gave it a bang out of my anger... to my surprise it just STOPPED and so did the 3,000+ people that showed up. DAMN! luckily I had the next track cued and ready to run.
That really put my mood into a different dimension as that's probably the first serious technical Fu*k up I've had in about 5 years. As the bible says "Evil begets Evil. The player was being mean to me, so I gave it a bang.. and it stopped playing the track. Sh*t happens!
Tong was supposed to take over at 12:30, but the promoters came up to me and claimed he wont start until 1am. No problem! I'll just keep going... I've been getting lucky as the last gig I did (Steve Lawler) the next DJ was also late. Probably my fav track of the night was Mad8- Work this Pussy, even if not everyone liked it, I saw a specific group in the middle-left section of the crowd that was loving it! Whoever they were, thank them for me!
Anyone in these pics?? Anyone ID?
Pete Tong In The Mix:
Tong took over and played all new stuff (as expected, he is the ESSENTIAL MAN!)
Same Man is going to be one of the biggest tracks of the year- got a touch of funk, electro, and female disco vocals all in one 7 minute track. Be sure to listen into it all summer!
Had a good time mingling with Lebos all over- I realized I have fewer and fewer friends from school and college days left in Beirut, but made plenty of new friends on the night. The Lebanese crowd is so blunt about their emotions- they don't hold or reserve any of their energy- they let it all out! That energy is passed right onto the DJs that play to them, and hence leaves me with a cheek cramp from all smiling! It's like "wow, they're enjoying it" or "they agree with me that this track is good!" Big-up yourselves in Lebanon- ya'll just keep getting better!
Took pictures with a bunch of random people, packed my stuff and off to bed as 4 hours later I had to be back at the airport to get back to Dubai.
Now back to work, and already 3 days into April- not much happening this week since I didn't get that visa to Moscow, but am def looking forward to the next string of bookings- specific gigs: Paul Van Dyk @ Peppermint, Carl Cox@ Peppermint and of course Carl Cox in Beirut the following night.
I think my next post wont be as LONG, but hopefully didn't bore you with some of the details!
