Well folks, Sonar 07 has thoroughly rocked Barcelona once again, and this time I was here to witness the scene first hand, rather than read about it on the Rhythmism messageboards. Some of it, anyway.
During the day, I had the pleasure of hearing/feeling the reverberating muffled bass during the afternoon at work, while staring out the window and seeing a bunch of happy tourists mill around, drinking beer and/or smoking joints in public view. Degenerates!
During the evening, the festival featured concerts at a (as I found out during daylight) massive industrial park outside of Bcn, with at least 5 interconnected venues. My friend and I arrived at around 3, just as Spanish chica rapper Mala Rodriguez was finishing up. We were just in time for an intense dose of techno from the legendary Jeff Mills. I was pretty revved up to just let myself go and become a man-machine, reverting back to the instinctual fort/da nature of childhood pleasure. After pounding the masses into willing submission, Mills handed things over to Dave Clarke, but we were pretty techno-d out by then (to stay any longer dancing like I was would've required chemical stimulation).
Then we moved over for the finale of the evening, Miss Kitten, passing some poppy and mostly bad trance along the way (though it was singable and "fun," which my friend liked). MK went on around 5 and finished up her encore by 7.30ish, and thousands of young people were getting down. Her set was tons of fun, not to mention the fact that it was outside, which is noteworthy because sunrise can really invigorate a set. It’s so much fun to see clearly the faces of the tons of colorful (mostly drugged) people you’ve been dancing with and around for hours. People in costumes, smudged makeup, dirty clothing, drugged-out eyes, sweat everywhere, and everyone dancing and whooping in anarchic harmony-- yes, this is my idea of a good time. (One of them, anyway.)
Miss Kitten maybe did a bit too much singing toward the end of her set (I think she was having trouble cueing one of her records, actually), but it was wonderful all the same. She's incredibly talented, knows how to play to the crowd and just when to drop a beat. She even came out and danced a couple of times (she's kind of cute and weird looking, if that's possible). I gave Jeff Mills the edge in intensity (but then again…that’s the point of techno), while Miss Kitten was more fun and diverse in her set—though not as much fun as my friend would have liked. Being an electronic music neophyte, she wasn’t overly impressed with “hearing the same song for 2 hours.” Though she did dance a bit. And mostly she was a very good sport so I didn’t have to go alone, which would've been muy lame-o. Fair enough!
All in all, I had not been to a really big party like that for a very long time. After a daytrip to Parque Guell, the house party (see post), the Sonar party, and the hourlong journey home of walking, waiting, training, etc, we were exhausted at 9am when we got home. I think I woke up at 5pm, and had Ultimate practice on the beach at 6 (where I nearly puked for the first hour, but then adjusted). Swimming in the Mediterreanean at 8pm set me straight though. Then we were all set to return to the city and watch Barcelona blow the 2007 Liga (Fuck Espanyol, fuck Tamudo, and fuck Mallorca).
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