Tuesday 19 May 2009

everybody's Free / camera phone - part 1

first remix all-nighter in quite a while, my first time clubbing at Matter in the O2, and so i could report back my findings i thought i'd take a few pics of the night, it's just a shame that i couldn't fit my camera into the pockets of my skinny fit jeans

so i present to you a dual part, dual purpose post - to give a brief recap of the night and also to realy test the quality of my camera phone

it's a Sony Ericson, it's a Cyber-shot, does that mean it should be a little bit super-duper for capturing the moment as the adverts suggest?

i'll let you judge for yourself from some, erm, rather amazing live shots of the bands...




Arriving at the O2 at around about midnight-ish and making our way into Matter, we were greeted by some friendly doorstaff, a friendly name-taker for the mailing list and the news that due to unforeseen circumstances (low ticket sales?) Room 2 would be closed, it seemed that an experience similar to stumbling around exploring/getting lost in sister club Fabric would not be on the cards tonight

in contrast, Fabric usualy has a queue around the block by half ten, Matter at midnight just didn't come close tonight with an almost empty dance-floor, but given half an hour it had filled a little and there was general skanking to the dub-steppy goodness of N-type and Youngsta's set.

Did the sudden appearance of a stage in Room 1 surprise any other Mater virgins? we'd been wondering where the performances would take place before getting distracted by dancing, what i mistook for a wall were in fact black curtains, pulled back to reveal Freeland...



making a fair racket by enlisting a live band and recording a new album, Adam Freeland is something of a Remix legend so it's only right that his tour should cross paths with the all-nighter, the man himself behind synths and knobs and a laptop, joined by a guitarist and a drummer to work through a live set heavily weighted to promote forthcoming 'Cope' before closing with the classic 'We Want Your Soul'



after a DJ set from Herve, next up were New York duo, Shy Child, managing to shake the crowd up with only a keytar and a drumkit and leaving their signature track 'Drop The Phone' reverberating in my mind for most of the next day, keeping things multicultural were French DJs/producers The Shoes with a quick set before the third live band of the, erm, morning took to the stage.



half three in the AM and Trip and his band play for a slightly depleted audience but he still performs with gusto, it's just a shame that too much of his vocals were lost in the music, none of the songs came across loud and clear but radio botherer 'River Phoenix' was still recognisable with it's Mike Skinner meets the Arctic Moneys indie scamp swagger.

4 o'clock came and went and Remix head honcho, Eddy TM, took to the decks, but our alcohol reserves were running low by this point and the daunting prospect of a long journey home ahead of us we made a move for the night buses

Overall, a bloody good night, as much about the live acts as it was the DJs, a balance that gave the event focus, and the closing of Room 2 perhaps helped to keep the all-nighter fluid and well paced as the concentrated bill ran to schedule and the atmosphere never showed any signs of being as tired as i had every right to be

we didn't last til 6 in the morn but i think we showed definite staying power and may have stuck around long enough for first trains if the Jubilee Line was actualy running on Saturday



and my camera-phone's performance? pah, pretty pathetic realy, judge for yourself above as you try to make out which colourful blobs are which bands.

but the night wasn't quite over, and neither was the camera phone fun, but i'll leave that til the next post

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