If one were to judge a place by the standard of milkshake, New York ranks very high – the Charlie Brown shake available at Sacred Chow consists of bananas, peanut butter, chocolate and coconut milk. Delicious. (Thanks to Dave Shichman of Driven AM for taking me there!) And tis better to judge it by shakes than by clubs for despite being one of the best cities in the world, New York has a distinct lack of club venues suitable for dance music. And the spot I was supposed to play in had to be switched for another at the last minute due to licensing problems. But thankfully the word got out and we had a full house for the show at Drom, which was a lot of hot fun in the end.

Obligatory NY taxi shot.

At hotels, I could kinda understand..

At the Thompson Hotel, Lower East Side, La Dolce Vita plays on a constant loop in the elevator. It’s a great place to stay, right in the heart of the good stuff. Ya got ALife, Reed Space, New Era, Live Fast etc all within walking distance. Plus a vegan Italian eatery right next door (thats a plus in my book). One thing to bear in mind about the Thompson though – their room service menu is strictly sushi, a bold move and one which might not suit every traveler.

The view from my room at the Thompson Hotel. There's a naked dude in one of those windows.

Team Facelift. Spot the mannequin.

The colourful office space of my pal DB.

The best candy store.

]]> http://www.highlycontrasting.com/2011/04/24/hc-north-american-tour-2011-new-york-0204/feed/ 0 http://www.highlycontrasting.com/2009/08/25/v-for-victory/ http://www.highlycontrasting.com/2009/08/25/v-for-victory/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:23:04 +0000 High Contrast http://www.highlycontrasting.com/?p=215 A victorious weekend – played both V Festivals and have to say they are two of the best shows I’ve done this year. I arrived at the first on Saturday up in Stafford and wasn’t too sure about how it was going to pan out – not many people dancing and a subdued vibe but going out in the crowd I sensed people were ready for some action. The guy who was meant to go on before me didn’t show so they asked me to play half an hour extra/earlier. I took this as an opportunity to do the same trick I pulled at the Cargo gig the previous weekend. I went on and played some 4/4 bangers and immediately the crowd picked up. I think V attracts a more mainstream crowd in general so playing house seemed a good way to build up the crowd and the vibe before unleashing the jungle. So when I dropped the Show Me Love mashup I concocted the crowd were fully primed for detonation. I wondered whether dnb would hold a festival crowd like this for 90 mins but they were there the whole way, loving it. A great gig with so many happy faces in the house. I didn’t think the next days show at Chelmsford could possibly top it but… I think it did.

Got a bit caught up making my way to the fest and showtime got too close for comfort so I ended up being able to drive my car all the way through into the middle of the site, right to my stage, which is always a winner. I had to jump on with only ten mins to go. I did feel a bit sorry for the band on before me because the crowd were chanting my name during the few songs I heard. The crowd were gagging for the dnb. And when the first tune I played dropped, I think that’s the most kinetic reaction I’ve ever seen at a show – the place just erupted and it seemed like everybody just spontaneously threw their drinks into the air and at each other. If anyone has video of this please post it here, shit looked crazy. That crowd was LIVE. Even the security were brocking out, something you don’t normally see at fests. And at the end, think we had to do four one-more-tunes. Heavy gig.

UPDATE: Here’s a clip that conveys some of the mayhem at Chelmsford.

And the other victory this weekend was of course QT’s – Inglourious Basterds rocked straight to number one at all the major box offices and gave him the strongest opening weekend he’s ever had as well as the strongest opening ever for the date. A basterd’s work is never done – go see it again this weekend.

I didn't take any pictures at the V festivals so instead here's a guy I saw on the tube called Mark wearing a dress and a beleaguered smile.

Incidents of note:

1. At the Stafford V, whilst walking around the main site gauging the vibe, I heard a voice say ‘Excuse me’. It was frail and far too quiet for a festival. It came from a young woman sat on the ground with her legs crossed. She asked me something but I couldn’t hear her, so she repeated ‘Can I have a cigarette?’. I said I don’t smoke. She asked again, her voice cracking. I tried explaining the perils of smoking but she kept asking in more and more unintelligible tones, lowering her head until finally she started crying. I tried to ask what was wrong, could I help but she just sat on the floor crying. Quite an odd situation, the loud music and frivolity of the fest, this lone woman crying on the floor to a total stranger. Far too awkward for a Brit like me to handle but just as I was starting to wonder whether I’d have to, you know, reach out to another human being or something, another woman appeared who knew her and consoled her. Let’s just hope the jungle cheered her up.

2. The hotel I stayed at in Stafford was a pretty shabby Holiday Inn located at Wolverhampton race course. Nothing major to report about the hotel except for the fact that the walls were made of rice paper apparently – WAIFER THIN! So I just had to stand in the hall way, pretending to fumble with my keycard, and was treated to private conversations more entertaining than the telly, coming from all directions. One of these in particular just kinda blew my mind. Scene from a marriage.

WIFE: What the fuck were those marks on your body?

HUSBAND: Why the fuck would you wait until we’ve gone away on holiday to bring all this up?

W: You’re trying to tell me those marks were from when you fell down the stairs drunk at your work’s doo and not from having mad sex with that woman?!

H: I don’t know what you’re walking about!

W: I can’t believe you would do this to me. Not the love of my life. The father of my children. I thought you were different. But you’re just like every other man I’ve ever been with. I thought once we were married that was it, I’d never have to deal with this shit again. But you’re just like all the rest.

H: I have no idea what you’re talking about, where has all this come from?

I paraphrase, it would have been a step too far to actually record it and up it, no? But the whole thing went on for more than five minutes – so strange hearing this very private moment belted out through the corridors of the hotel, they clearly couldn’t be too bothered about privacy issues. I felt pangs of guilt eavesdropping but this shit was too good to pass up. They dropped all the old classic lines, it felt like a scene from a movie or maybe a soap. Perhaps people in a traumatic situation fall back on lines they’ve absorbed over the years from relentless media exposure. When I walked past their room a couple of hours later all was quiet except for the chatter of the TV. Maybe they found peace watching Eastenders.

The indoor garden. You might have to be there to appreciate fully.

Any hotel with a faux Guggenheim stairwell is A-OK in my book. Informal check-in procedure, five restaurants, an indoor garden, FREE mini bar selection. But where’s my industrial strip lighting above the bed?! Stayed here while in town to play at Cargo for the Next-Men’s album launch which was hella fun but hellishly hot too. I did a mash-up set, whatever that means – well, it meant I played half house / half dnb, which I thoroughly enjoyed. People didn’t know what to expect from my set going in but the room took to the housey/electro beats enthusiastically. However when I dropped the little Show Me Love – Robin S bootleg I knocked together (starting out as house and then speeding up to dnb) the whole place just erupted. The dnb beats kicking in really hit me and the crowd, total europhoria after the housey buildup of the first half of the set. House tunes just never drop as hard as dnb can.

Checking out the next day, the very helpful lady at reception had a chat with us about Tarantino re IB and she hit the nail on the head – “He does does seem a bit odd but I guess it takes strange people to make really good films.” Amen, sister! Amen.

Where's the Rothkos?

A trick played by many hotels is to make the lobby look as good as possible to lure you in and then once you’re checked in, they hit you with this…

You can’t see it here but there’s actually four rows of industrial lights on the ceiling. Now, I have a fetish for fluorescent strip lighting as much as the next guy but this really felt like some laboratory test room merely simulating living quarters. Like the coffee cups were glued down and the view out the window was just a painting.

It was kinda awesome really. Somehow they managed to make every element of the room completely clash with every other element.

And that’s an adjoining door to another room. Just as I was about to drift off to sleep at around 4am, I heard a roomful of guests arrive next door. I couldn’t help but hear their conversations which thankfully were rather amusing.

Voice 1: So, what do you wanna do? You wanna call some escorts? You want some pussy, man?

Voice 2: Nah, nah, man.

Voice 1: Come on, tell me what you want. You want some pussy in here?

Voice 2: Nah, I’m alright, man. I’ll just have another drink. They’re no good round here, I would only get some escorts if we were in Kazakhstan.

I’ve yet to see the official comparative study on the quality of international escort services but word on the street is Kazakhstan is the shiznit!