Ah well. Ellum took down the video claiming copyright infringement. The video was a recording of Maceo Plex playing the track at WMC. Just imagine if every live performance video was taken down off YouTube. But rules are rules. The law is the law. Gotta respect.
When I heard Electric Pickle closed on April 1st, I thought it was possibly an April fools joke. But it's just another example of Sillerman paying off city officials to run competition out of business by enforcing the 3am Liquor License in Wynwood. Now that Tony Goldman died, he's not around to politically protect Wynwood.
In it's last year, the city singled out Electric Pickle for all sorts of violations. They were forced to shut down the backyard. The Pickle was forced to have a Fire Marshall on duty to enforce capacity. It drove Pickle into in the Red. Therefore a required $25,000 3am liquor license wasn't in the budget.
Frankly It's amazing Pickle got away with so much as long as they did. It's a great spot, so hopefully someone can come in and run it within regulations. Those backyard outdoor parties were awesome. Really disappointed Get Lost was moved this year. Although I have a new appreciation for Ice Palace.
Overall the music wasn't impressive this year. Several people share the the same view. I didn't really hear any tracks that wowed me. Plus several events got shut down by the city (Dirtybird/Villa 221, Pickle, etc.).
A few DJs that stood out
DJs that didn't delver
Get Trapped at sea with Douches and Awful music for (3) days straight. That's what the Groove Cruise offers up each and every year. 2013 is no different. A washed up lineup with painfully stale acts like Sander Van Doorn, Cato K, Darude, Boris (DJ NY Douchebag), Donald Glaude, and George Acosta. I couldn't think of a lamer party to be at.
Holy Ship is the way to go.
Buy Tickets:
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?431518
I arrived at 12 am. Didn't expect the door to be swarmed so early but it was. The nice door girl from Link recognized me and got me in quick. It was packed. The people didn't look like they were there for Magda. Seemed like they were there just to be at the new hot venue in Miami. Not a douchebag fake showoff crowd like I expected. Everyone was mostly cool and respectful.
Overall the venue is good. Lighting was on point and pretty over the top to some degree with about 50-100 moving heads. I've never seen so much staff at a venue. Staff was mostly keeping traffic from bottlenecking in stairs and entrances/exits. So many sweepers too. They kept the dance floor spotless all night long. Around 4am they dumped large pieces of confetti. The dance floor was covered and I was sure it would be a mess the rest of the night. In no time at all the sweeper guys cleared every last piece. It was crazy. It was like Disney theme parks clean.
My only complaint about the venue is the sound which was average. Not sure why they used Infinity Speakers in the club. Infinity is not known for Pro Audio and there's a reason. It sounded decent only in the center of the dance floor. I stayed in the sweet spot most of the night. They need to get some Dynacords or 8th Day Sound. People say Funktion One is best, but I have yet to hear a Funktion One system that sounds awesome. Doesn't sound right at Mansion.
Catz and Dogz played a great opener set. Magda wasn't that great. She played pretty dark techno with little or no vocals. It wasn't bad, but I'm surprised people didn't clear the dance floor. The dance floor was full until close.
Still curious to see how long they'll bring quality djs to this venue.
The recent trend of Internationally Respected DJs getting kicked off the decks (Some simply at the request of enormous ego vip patrons) has demonstrated that the U.S. is just not ready for the futuristic underground sounds the rest of the world enjoys. The Majority of U.S. doesn't like to hear anything new that isn't on mainstream radio. They just want to hear the same stupid song over and over again.
The mainstream clubs and promoters that booked these artists made the mistake. I'll give them credit if they were trying to experiment. But the bottom line is these clubs attract nothing more than showoffs that know nothing about dance music, and are just there to flash their wealth and enormous egos. I understand it's a business and they have to make money by selling out. So why not exploit American greed and suckers that will pay millions for a vip table just to show off.
Around 2011 One-Hit-Wonder Bob Sinclair and a group opened up Amnesia. They were quickly ran out of town by LIV. LIV barred them from booking the mainstream artists needed to make the large space successful. Shortly thereafter David Grutman of LIV took over Amnesia and reopened it as Story. In December of 2012 it seemed as if he was building momentum into Amnesia, and shifting away from LIV. Case and point, the last week of December Story had Steve Angello, Axwell, Avicci and Sebastian Ingrosso. for NYE he had Calvin Harris at LIV, and then Kaskade at Story.
Made sense to me. Then I heard that story was going to shift towards the underground on Saturdays. I was sure it was a b.s. rumor. Then I see Link and Miami Rebels doing Dubfire there. I was like, not super underground, but I'll check it out. Then I see they're doing a string of Saturdays including Magda, Catz n Dogz, Martin Buttrich, Anja Shneider, etc.
She was showcased on the Carl Cox Stage at last year's Ultra Music Festival. However, Like many artists, she's just doesn't have a lot of fans in the U.S. I personally only know (3) Tiesto fans. I'm glad I don't know more.
Despite rumored statistics from Beatport showing music is shifting away from Electro + DubStep and moving towards Deep House, I see this failing after the 2nd month. I predict more Internationally respected DJs getting kicked off the decks, more bad press and embarrassment for Miami and the U.S.
Fine with me. I prefer the smaller venues where people aren't fake and obsessed with greed and envy. It's nice having small venues like Electric Pickle, Villa 221, and Treehouse to enjoy new sounds with cool people. If I can have that in a big venue, that's great too. Just not likely in the U.S. right now.
What's Club Space doing to compete? The same thing they've been doing for years - Nothing new (Chus & Ceballos, Blah-zardi, Patrick M.). It's a formula that still works because Miami, and the U.S. is full of sluts that are happy with a fake yuppy lifestyle surrounded by stale overplayed sounds.
I hated Mansion for Years especially due to the horrible layout (VIP consuming the dancefloor). They fixed this and remodeled in 2011. Then they started booking quality artists on Thursday in 2012 such as Subb-an, Lee Curtiss, Lee Burridge, etc. I was a pretty strong supporter of the Minimax Thursday event. But had to stop going because I was deeply offended by the outrageous price for drinks.
It's not that I'm I'm a broke ass, I'm just not a sucker.
I respect what the promoters were trying to do. It's cool that they got us hooked up with vip and free bottles most of the time. But overall, its' a waste of time at this greedy Opium venue. Mansion is purely venue for showoffs flashing money, throwing respected DJs off the decks, and nothing more. Exactly what Opium Group is pushing.
