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Martini Bros. DJ Lab (Berlin, Germany)
Let’s face it, I suck for waiting five months to write this review. I don’t know why I procrastinated so long with my European reviews, especially since these were some of the best shows I’d ever experienced in my entire life. My sincere apologies to you and the DJs and the publicists that had faith that I was a reputable journalist.
And since I’ve been so bad all I want to do is scream irrefutable praise about the Martini Bros. set at WMF. But the truth is they weren’t very good the first hour or two. I actually wanted to bail (even though it had taken a lot of effort to get there in the first place a tourist guide with the old WMF address is to blame). What I really wanted to do was go to Club Rio, an afterhours that Casey Spooner mentioned in a wonderful interview on ww.gothamist.com (seriously, the best interview EVER). I was so desperate to book that I made this random English guy who took a liking to me call his sleeping friend at home to find out if Club Rio was open that night. It didn’t pan out but by the time I heard the bad news it was actually good news because the Martini Bros. had switched from experimental techno, beatless house and lame trills on a one and a half octave keyboard to Unit 4’s Body Rub. I didn’t leave the dance floor again until I needed to sleep (about 07.00).
That one track was the turning point of the night for me. I didn’t care if Fischerspooner was debuting their third album at Club Rio and the SNL cast was in the audience, the Martini Bros had me, and the rest of the club, going off. It was part electrohouse, part electrobreak, sometimes techy, sometimes dreamy and twice they sang over top the records. I’m completely in love with Berlin so this one track, which sounded like a beefed-up version of Kraftwerk (who are German themselves), took me over the edge: At Alexanderplatz there’s a party going on dancing on the building blocks.
But I wasn’t the only one. Those Germans, or at least those Berliners really love to dance. Most of them just dance like jellyfish, just jiggling, abiding to no beat in particular and – it’s an odd thing – never changing their demeanor or tempo even if the DJ happens to mix minimal house into banging techno. But some kids, and it’s a higher percentage than I’ve seen elsewhere, go off so hard you think one of their limbs are going to fall off. It’s fucking awesome! Germans have a rep for many things and one of them is their calm and detached attitude. I’ve always known it was false but if there was any place to debunk this myth it was WMF.
When I left at 07.00 the dance floor was still packed. Not full but *packed*. The bar area and chill-out were fairly bare (never checked out the second room so can’t give you the details) but the dance floor was packed. And some of them were still going full throttle.
As I mentioned earlier, WMF had just switched locations (the week before had been their inaugural and Ellen Allien did the honours). For the summer they rented a space by the river. The bar and chill-out had no roof and you had to go up a short set of stairs to get to the covered dance floor. The wall that separated the dance area from the rest had massive glassless windows, each taken up and used to its full capacity by a clubber.
The place had an industrial yet posh feel to it. Same goes for the clubbers and, actually, Berlin as a whole. The kids all look so hot yet understated and unwashed and Berlin is dirty and in places it is decrepit but there’s an elegance that dominates everything.
The last track the Martini Bros. Played was Biggest Fan. They did a duet! I went nuts. First of all, I didn’t know they did the vocals on the track and second, I didn’t know anyone else sang on top of the music besides Miss Kittin. It was extra endearing that they were two middle-aged men singing (vs. a young woman). Brilliant, just like the sequined top one of them was wearing. After that moment of bliss Cl and Mike Vamp packed their stuff up and a chick came on. She played hard tech house. Like, HARD tech house. I would have stayed and enjoyed the banging but by that time the six-hour walking tour and five-hour dance marathon were taking their toll on me so I hobbled over to the U-bahn.
It was such a wicked night. From the doorman to the kids on the dance floor to the coat check girl everyone was just into having fun. There were no picking-up or fights and no one looked like they had consumed too much. It was brilliant, just like that sequined top (which unfortunately, you don’t get to see because I lost the CD with all my Berlin pics I’m such a winner).
http://www.maertinibroes.de/
http://www.wmfclub.de/
http://ellenallien.de/
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/03/28/casey_spooner_fischerspooner.php
http://www.misskittin.com
http://www.djvibe.com/news/news_details.php?topicid=285
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