Category: Clubbing

On the 14th of August, held the Street Parade in Zürich with the many love mobiles and techno music. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very great with a few rains from time to time. I didn’t find it very crowded at first but then people started to arrive. All in all an excellent event as usual.

So there I was again on the 5th of December to see Armin mixing at She Discoteca in Vilassar de Mar.

For the review, just read the previous one I did last year. It’s almost exactly the same except it took place on a cold night of December, but the place was just as crowded. Warmup was done by Blake Jarrell and was quite good. Armin showed up at 3:00, just like last year but this time he started with more punch. It was closer to hard trance than trance. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. A funny thing is that the visuals were synchronized to the music as you can see on the video (Sharon den Adel singing in In and Out of Love). Pretty neat VJ feature.

I didn’t check the hip hop room this year. Why people would go in that room when there’s such an event is beyond me 🙂

Here’s the video I took and edited to give an idea of the whole event. The sound is not perfect, blame Nokia.

The party ended at 6:00. And that damn train again on the way back.

Sonar 2007

So there was I at the Sonar. Actually it reminded me a lot of Energy 2006, Sonic 7 or Infinity 2006 except it was even bigger and there was an open air area, which is great. The organization was good except you had to take silly tickets instead of being able to pay directly to bars.. well perhaps it’s quicker that way, I don’t know but it seems lot of events are doing it that way now.

Very good set by Damian Schwartz vs Tadeo, which are DJs I didn’t know. But afterwards the music style completely changed in all rooms. Instead of separating the rooms by music style it seems artists are randomly showing up in all of them. Well, so no music I liked during 1.5 hour. Later on, started Jeff Mills in the biggest room, which unfortunatly had no lasers! There must be something wrong in Spain regarding lasers and is one of the few reason I might go back to Switzerland a few times. They add so much to the visual effects, I’ll probably get one for my flat 🙂

Then there was Dave Clarke and.. wow. His set was perfect technically. There was no single glitch or anything, wonderful. That made me last until the end where he left quite abruptly.

There was a bus service to reach the center of the city. Very useful and pretty fast too. All in all a pretty good event but it misses some more music style separation between rooms, and lasers !

On the 1st of June, Armin van Buuren was announced at the She Discoteca so I thought it would be a good idea to go there.

The She Discoteca is located in Vilassar de Mar, which is about 30 km away from the Barcelona city. The only way to go there, other than using a car, is by train, which is an awfully painful process. Not only it’s a mess to find which one is the proper train (basically you have to ask around) but they also have some silly schedules (where you also have to ask around). The trip takes about 30 minutes as the train stops every 3 minutes.

I met some people in the train who were going to the same place and asked around where the club was. Turns out we still had to walk a little bit more. Finally, there I was and I took an entry ticket (18 € including a drink). The club wasn’t too crowded yet and a DJ was trying to warm up the room with an average set, quite boring.

The She Discoteca, despite its silly name, is a good place and reminds me a lot of the clubs in Ibiza. The lights were good but unfortunately no lasers to be seen. Dammit! There was a VIP area above which was empty. When will they understand that such area is not needed for trance events?

Armin arrived at 3:00 and started to warm up the room with some progressive sets. I found it a bit slow.. took about one hour to really become trancy. The area was pretty crowded by then. While going to the bathroom I noticed an “hip hop” room with about 10 people in it, funny.

The party ended at 6:00. All in all, it was good. Damn, and the train again on the way back.

By popular demand, here’s some recommendation about clubs in Barcelona.

 

Located near the Ramblas, it’s actually okish with a few dancefloor with different styles and one chill out area. The club isn’t too big though so expect it to get crowded during busy hours. You can get in for free before 2:00 if you find the proper flyers.

This one is in Poble Nou, take the L1 line, exit at Marina and follow the people around 🙂 I think this is the biggest club I ever saw, because unlike some (like Ibiza’s Privilege), they actually open most rooms. There’s the main hall with most concerts taking place here, a chill out area, a terrace, 2 electro rooms, and probably more. Definitely worth checking out.

This is the kind of club to go to if you like Ibiza-style dancefloors. There’s only 2 rooms but they’re big enough. The price is a little bit higher though but most of the time there’s famous DJs mixing there. Recommended if you like house sessions. Lot of tourists too.

This club is located near the Ramblas. The entry is quite cheap (8 €) but you don’t get a drink. The place is small and there’s 2 rooms. This is not the place to go if you don’t like crowded areas.

Located in parallel. This club is great. There are 2 rooms but you can’t change once you get in so chose carefully. I recommend the ‘A’ room which has electro music. There are 2 floors so you can always chill out upstairs. There’s no place to sit down though. Entry is 13 € with a drink included.

Ok, that was just a small sample of what’s available. Have fun!

So there, I’m back from Ibiza again (went twice this year) and as the plane’s cabin chief member said: “Welcome back to Geneva and to reality” it’s time to get back to reality.

As usual it was wonderful, if one likes clubbing I guess.. So which were the coolest parties to go to?

meganite by Mauro Picotto each wednesday in Privilege which is supposed to be the biggest club in the world. Actually it can hold about 10000 people but most of the time they make it smaller by closing extra areas which don’t really make it the biggest club in the end. Who cares, the meganite sessions by Mauro Picotto and the other DJs was great and that’s what count. The club also has a cool outdoor area when you can chill out and meet people. They should just add a bit more seats. Entry price was decent.

Next there was Armin van Buuren and its Armada crew each tuesday at Amnesia. Those were wonderful and Armin was doing great sets as usual. Entry price was decent as well. The only problem in the Amnesia is that the chill out zone is quite small so you might not be able to sit down, and the main hall is smaller than the “terrace” one which is weird. They definitely should extend the main hall. Thankfully the Armada nights weren’t overcrowded.

Also at the Amnesia there were the Cream parties each thursday. Great stuff too but quite clearly overcrowded, especially the last one were I ended up leaving the main hall for a while. Far too many people..

Had 2 parties at Space, one of which sucked (Gorgeous). We were 3 people dancing in the electro room! And the main room had sucky music. I think it was the first time I left before the closure. The other party (We Love Space) was much better. Starts at 8 in the morning and continues until the next night, 7 in the morning or so (I forgot :)). The club is huge but one area still managed to get overcrowded. At least you can still chill out upstairs and on the entry room. Definitely one of the best club around, it could do with a few lasers which are lacking (only Amnesia has one I think).

Next is El Divino and the Azuli party which was okish. The club could be much better if they would shut down that silly “VIP” zone with 5 people in them. They have a great location with a beautiful view of the sea and the inside is good albeit a bit small. The music was great even though the DJs seemed to have problems with the Scratch live software crashing. Good that I use Final Scratch myself 🙂

Finally went to Eden which is a smaller club that I quite like nevertheless. There’s a great chill out area upstairs with beds and one of the room features the astonishing ElectricSex theme with Andy G and Ryan O’Gorman.

Oh and of course there was Bora Bora in Playa d’En Bossa. Great stuff.

I also managed to go a few times to the beaches and even enjoy the sun a bit, and not from only watching the sun rising as I was coming back from clubbing to crash into bed 🙂

The food sucked bigtime. I only know of 2 good restaurants in San Antonio (one in front of the Escalo Playa and the other being Kanya). We completely failed to find a descent one in Playa d’En Bossa. Why do they all cater for that silly kind of premade food? I just don’t get it.

I’m more tired now than I was when I flew there, strange isn’t it? Not really, this is Ibiza after all. Definitely going there again next year.