It is an ugly after-Easter Monday today. It’s gray and it’s rainy.
I just woke up from my very little sleep after the White Party which went on yesterday all night and inside of me I feel a slightly little sensation of sadness/disappointment. I try to reason myself because all in all the party was fantastic; the production was impressive; the organization was very professional; it was rammed packed; everything was good basically, but I still feel strange about the whole night.
I know, and I have to admit it, that I may have been spoiled with Montreal by playing at Aria all the time (last 4 times I played here was at Aria) because it’s an amazing club and it’s smaller than a 10 000 people event (like the White Party is) so I feel closer to the people and, especially, because when I play there I play longer sets.
But, still, if I really have to think properly about what’s bothering me I can’t really say that it was the party in itself, nor the people’s reaction because I felt LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF LOVE from the crowd once again and lots of pride too.
What disappoints me is the way the line-up was set up.
I understand the idea behind wanting to make everyone happy, so the line-up went like this: Progressive (Mark Oliver), Techno (Misstress Barbara), Trance (Armin Van Buuren) and House (Barbara Brown, Couch Potatoes LIVE, Roger Sanchez and Junior Vasquez). I also understand that such variety of talent and style WILL sell out!! I can understand this if I put myself in the promoter’s head and mentality.
But I am not a promoter.
I am an artist who was on the line-up…. twice!
Misstress Barbara and Barbara Brown are like two different persons. Respectively, one plays Techno and the other one plays House. So each one does a different set, and each one needs, like anyone else, the minimum amount of time any artist needs to build up something at least…. decent! And that’s without even talking about the chance of building up something better than decent, like GOOD maybe?…
Misstress Barbara has had one and a half hour to play and Barbara Brown has had the same amount of time to play later on.
I felt very discouraged to say the least…
Not only because one and a half hour is simply NOT ENOUGH TIME (no matter who’s the artist or what style he/she plays), but also because both sets have been placed in very, very odd times of the night.
Misstress Barbara has played in the beginning, after Mark Oliver whom opening set was very good but, poor him, he mostly played for an empty room and he caught all the typical little sound adjustments/problems that every big party has during the first set of the night.
When I played as MB I was still kind of warming up as the room was still filling, and the sound wasn’t at its peak yet. It all went well, don’t get me wrong.. I think people liked it. I have seen the whole place with hands in the air numerous times during my set and all, but inside of me I was very sad knowing that I had to rush my set because of such short time (23:30 till 01:00).
Also, when you have such short time and when you’re placed SO early to play a Techno set, you kinda have no choice but to play music that is “big” and “effective” in itself, which ends up being a “commercial techno set”. I don’t know if I am making myself clear, but a GOOD REAL Techno set is the one which is made by a few “hits” and more “tracks”, which the DJ has to work in a way that it will all make sense and result as a massive proper HUGE set after a 3-4 hours set. If you play minimal stuff in one and a half hour though, you do nothing else than bore people by the linear sound of Techno, which is what Techno is after all.
So to make sure I’d please people I played stuff like the Luke Slater’s remix of The Horn Track, Smith & Selways’s remix of Step Back, Smith & Selway’s remix of Flash, Misstress Barbara’s Ouch My Liver! and more effective music like that.
What else can you do…
After MB, Armin Van Buuren plays. He gets two and a half hours to play. Lucky him! The crowd was on fire by the end of my set, so he must have had the time of his life because people really love him here and he had plenty of time to start deep and go high (as he did) and to properly tell a story.
After him, 150 BPM, Trance, Barbara Brown walks in. BB plays house. Latin house, disco house, funky and vocal stuff, etc. Almost anywhere, that kind of House works! Well, Barbara Brown had to stop Armin’s last record and start the night all over again. She had to do an intro, but she had one and a half hour only to get to the point. And when you do an intro, to then go higher, you need much longer than that. I don’t know if you can imagine how hard it is to play 126-128 (130 MAX) BPM House Music after a set like the one before… It’s not only not easy, but it’s non-sense. Nevertheless I did it, as I had to do it, and I think it went fine, but every successful result (like screams and hands in the air) took longer to make it happen and was harder to make it possible.
Do people really know how bad of a transition it is to put House Music after Epic Trance? Do they realize that it’s just an almost impossible of a transition to make?
Would have I had 3-4 hours to play of course that it would have been much easier, because you just stop the music of the guy before you, you do your little intro and by half hour later everyone forgot what kind of music was been played before you and they’re all jammin’ on yours as it’s like a brand new thing. But I only had that VLADI one and a half hour! So the people probably felt that way (forgetting what was going on before me) by the time the next DJ’s after me played…
I felt rushed, and discouraged (once again) to say the least…
And I felt upset.
I felt like I was filling holes all night and setting up things for the bigger names, twice! Once for Armin, and after that for all the ones in the second half of the night.
Couch Potatoes are amazing. I know it, everyone knows it. But did anyone notice their 20 minutes live set? They were behind the DJ stage, so I don’t think anyone could see them properly, and they played for a VERY short time. It’s a shame, as I would have loved to hear them more..
Because Couch Potatoes LIVE act almost passed as an incognito set unfortunately, Roger (who played after) kinda had to re-start the whole vibe again. It’s always like that when you have to play after live bands in a big party anyway. But at least Roger had over 3 hours to do what he had to do, say what he had to say… So it must have been fine for him..
So. This was the WHITE PARTY for me.
Did I enjoy it?
Personally, no. Not that much.
I really appreciate the support that the whole organization gave me by asking me to mix the official CD as Barbara Brown, whom no one really knows yet, as it is really a huge sign of trust!
And it felt really good to play in Montreal again, especially for a massive event with massive line-up and promotion, as the last big party I did here was Celebration 2001 (whatever…!).
But, I am being honest as always, yesterday night has been more a disappointing experience from an artistic point of view, than a joy for me.
I have been REALLY impressed by HOW PROFESSIONAL and tight the whole organization was. Rarely have I seen this, except at PROPER parties like IMPULZ or I LOVE TECHNO. And it was even better! It was the TOP! I was really amazingly looked after, had my private VIP room and a personal Security Guy standing by me and following me the whole time. The whole room was gorgeous, it was really an impressive event. All was fine, really, so I absolutely want to make sure that what I tried to express in this post is clear: that it is only from an artistic point of view that I felt disappointed and nothing else.
As I didn’t get the chance (the time) to express much through BOTH of my short sets, and for having had such short sets nor have I been placed smartly in the line-up. In my head, if you have to play short sets, you have to be placed in spots where the party is already on fire. Like, for instance, you play a short House set but you play it after a House DJ. Or, you play a short Techno set but you play it after the room is already trashing. You cannot play short sets if, on top of that, YOU HAVE TO BE THE ONE who has to set up the style and the vibe for the following couple of hours!
I think, anyway.
So that’s that.
The only thing I have left to say is that I truly hope people had fun no matter the amount of times the night went start-stop start-stop start-stop and that all I am saying/feeling is partly created by my typical paranoia and that nothing seemed as bad as it felt for me after all.
I really look forward to play back home (Aria) on May 18th!
The night before (May 17th) I play another big event in Quebec City. I hope I’ll get to play a proper set there (nothing less than 2 hours), and I hope it will be good because usually in Quebec I play at Dagobert which is a club I adore because of its smaller size, which I like! So we’ll see… But I am sure May 18th at Aria will make me feel good again, though it’s in a month, and that’s long! 🙁
Alright, I also hope the sun will come out soon…. that may help!
Happy belated Easter!
Barbara