DJ T. tour blog: Week 9 & 10

DJ T. tour blog: Week 9 & 10

17 September, 2009 | 8.40AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: dj t, dj t blog, get physical

Now nine weeks deep into his relentless world tour, DJ T. updates the Beatportal community from life on the road, in between disco stops at Butan club in Wuppertal, Prinzip Club in Munich, and Decadance in Ghent.

With Get Physical Music currently celebrating its 7th anniversary, the don has also put together a special retrospective chart of his label, which happens to coincide with the release of his new single ‘Shine On’ (there’s a new mix from DJ T. himself, plus a Motor City Drum Ensemble mix). Listen in after the jump.

Monday, 7th of September, Munich

Hello screensters,

Immediacy and instantaneous communication are where the Internet comes into its own, but this time around, you’ll have to bear with me and Beatportal – due to some pragmatic scheduling issues, you won’t be able to read this missive until September 17th. 

Right now, it’s early September and early afternoon: I’m perched on the patio of my Munich hotel’s restaurant, enjoying the verdant lusciousness of the surrounding park and soaking up a few more rays before my next flight. Sometimes, I actually think I might be physically ‘recharging’ in the sun, like a battery waiting for its fix and reconnection to the grid.

So, it can never really be too hot for me or my imaginary solar panels – bring it on, sun! And knowing the fickleness of German summers, this might even be the last chance to catch a double dose, who knows?

Enlightened by this bright energiser, I was struck by another flash of thought. Take a look around you, and it’s blindingly obvious – among German cities, Munich boasts the highest quality of life, at least measured in traditional terms like stunning nature and beautiful vistas within easy reach, outstanding gastronomy (well, by German standards) and a pleasant climate. Yeah, I know – I keep saying that I couldn’t envisage living anywhere in Germany but Berlin anymore, but I guess I could definitely cope with a few years right here in the south, although it would mean giving up on a few other essentials – you know what I mean.

But let’s rewind this weekend to its very start. On Friday, I was booked to play one of my favourite cities in Europe – Ghent in Belgium. For the first time, I didn’t follow the siren call of the annual ’10 Days Off Festival’, but another first-rate clubbing staple, a venue I had already heard a lot about over the last few years.

Decadance is one of Belgium’s most venerable clubbing institutions – one of those seminal, intimate 300-capacity venues that almost feel like a living room. Plenty of legends surround this venue. According to one, Green Velvet stopped by in the 1990s for a spontaneous set after his festival PA, and fell head-over-heels in love with the place.

Apparently, Mr. Curtis Jones aka Cajmere aka Green Velvet now tries to slot Decadance into his touring schedule whenever possible and graced the stage a mere week ago, or so someone told me at dinner. Now a bona fide born-again Christian, the white-clad figure floated into the club and bid his disciples to join him in worship, true to his non-ironic mySpace page motto – “spread love – no nudity/profanity please.” Well, looks like the guy took the ‘born again’ tag seriously and decided to really reinvent himself, shedding his former image as a flamboyant, green-feathered party master on the way.

Don’t get me wrong – I will always worship him for his music; tracks like ‘La La Land’, ‘Flash’, ‘The Stalker’, ‘Preacherman’ are genius and untouchable. Jones has created his very own sound universe, way ahead and above the rabble. Btw – according to some sources, ‘La La Land’ is actually a homage to the spirit of Decadance …

My own evening started with an excellent dinner at the famous Café Theatre together with my host Maxim Lany and a few up-and-coming Belgian DJ youngsters. Followed by the inevitable question – should I sneak off for a quick post-dinner nap or seek some alternative distraction until my own gig?

Lately, I usually opt for the latter because even the most tempting slumber often leaves me even more exhausted and not exactly in a party mood. So, off to Decadance, which totally matched my expectations and exuded its own rich party history. Before my gig, I had a brief chat with Bart – one of the venue’s three promoters – who manned the door and welcomed most of his young guests by name, what a nice touch! Let’s just say – it was a great party …

The next day, I took the Thalys train to Cologne (via Brussels) and then switched to the road for my last stretch to Wuppertal and yet another ‘historical’ venue: Butan.

Imagine a place suffused with the spirit of an old school techno temple, where time ground to a halt a good 10 years ago and where the uncompromising energy of 1990s techno seems to have been preserved for eternity; a dark, cavernous vault with twitching lights and a huge, banging sound; a place dedicated to feeling the beat, populated by an audience willing to follow the DJ absolutely anywhere long as the flow feels right; a no-nonsense party crowd that screams to high heaven when things go wild … voila, meet Butan, its real-life incarnation.

I had immense fun tweaking my playlist to the spirit of this place and picking the hardest possible set from the contents of my DJ bag.

The following day, i. e. yesterday, I crossed the ‘white sausage equator ‘ once again, and returned to lovely Munich. When promoters become friends, playing gigs is twice as much fun. My hosts for the night, Munich’s enterprising club couple Dafne Van Der Zee and Daniel Mraz, run their own, private party hell, the Prinzip Club, in the former basement of an Irish pub on Maximilianstraße, just a stone’s throw away from Munich’s favourite purveyor of fried potatoes to the chi-chi crowd for over two decades, Schumann’s, or – by Munich’s own reckoning – “the best-known bar in the world”.

Unfortunately, this time around, Munich froze me out and put a spanner in the works of the planned ‘Kaiserwetter’ (= great weather) event. Instead of the promised blue skies and sunshine, a measly 17 degrees brought around 100 hardy and hardcore fans to the open-air bash on the Volksgarten terrace.

I was scheduled to play after one my longest-standing DJ friends in town, Domenic D’Agnelli. A quick reminder to those in the area - Domenic and his partner Tini Barrientos will open the Chaka Chaka Club next weekend (well, I guess by the time you read this, it has already happened!), so there’s yet another reason to revisit the city’s revamped nightlife.

After years of stagnation, Munich’s club scene has finally returned to international glory and now offers more new locations than any other German city besides Berlin. At my own gig, I received no chilled reception, but a warm welcome from the sparse, but enthusiastic crowd. I guess there’s something to be said for weeding out the wimps after all ;-)\

DJ T.’s Get Physical Music 7th Anniversary Chart

DJ T. - The Inner Jukebox Worldtour 2009

September
16.09.09 - Get Physical@Watergate, Berlin (DE)
18.09.09 - Electrosanne Festival, Lausanne (CH)
19.09.09 - Hive, Zürich (CH)
25.09.09 - Lux, Lissabon (PT)
26.09.09 - Inox, Tolouse (FR)
27.09.09 - Rechenzentrum, Berlin (DE)

October
02.10.09 - Glow in the dark, Guayaquil (EC)
03.10.09 - Superclub, Lima (PE)
08.10.09 - Extravaganza, Santiago (CL)
10.10.09 - Space of Sound, Rio de Janeiro (BR)
16.10.09 - Aura, Monterrey (MX)
17.10.09 - Vertigo, Costa Rica (CR)
22.10.09 - Bar Americas, Guadalajara (MX)
23.10.09 - Fever, Mexico City (MX)
24.10.09 - Hardpop, Juarez (MX)
29.10.09 - Parking, Montreal (CA)
30.10.09 - Smart Bar, Chicago (USA)
31.10.09 - Sullivan Room, New York (USA)

November
06.11.09 - Avalon, Los Angeles (USA)
10.11.09 - Tapas, Newport Beach (USA)
12.11.09 - Habitat, Calgary (CA)
13.11.09 - Migthy, San Francisco (USA)
14.11.09 - Lotus Sound Lounge, Vancouver (CA)
20.11.09 - Rise, Boston (USA)
27.11.09 - Gallery, Washington (USA)
28.11.09 - Asylum Afterhours, Honululu (USA)

December/January
04.12.09 - Zouk, Singapore (SG)
05.12.09 - Stereosonic@F4, Melbourne (AU)
06.12.09 - Sneaker Peeps, Brisbane (AU)
11.12.09 - Ink, Auckland (NZ)
18.12.09 - Pang, Canberra (AU)
19.12.09 - Chinese Laundry, Sydney (AU)
25.12.09 - Club Heaven,Seoul (SK)
26.12.09 - Warehouse, Tokyo (JP)
31.12.09 - Rythm & Wine Festival, Gisborne (NZ)

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