Viva Tour: A weird night in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Viva Tour: A weird night in Albuquerque, New Mexico

29 October, 2008 | 1.15PM

• Written by: Industry Boy
• Filed under: Music News: audiofly, tiefschwarz

Imagine walking down the street of a small city in the middle of America on a Tuesday night.

You see a shitty looking bar called the Moonlight Lounge with black plastic bags over the windows and a few teenagers wearing baseball caps smoking outside.

Across the quiet, yellow windswept street you hear the faintest sounds of music, a deep thumping bass and an occasional hi hat that blows over the wind.

‘Hell, might as well have a beer there,’ you think. Seems as good a place as any.

At the door, there’s a guy sitting down on a stool. “$15 to get in buddy,” he says.

‘Shit,’ you think.’ What’s all the fuss about? I only want a beer.’

Still, there are some young girls hanging around so this place has got to be good for something.

You hand over the dough and head inside.

Immediately you find yourself in a cloud, with blue and red lights scanning through the fog like prison camp searchlights looking for escapees.

The music is deafening, a kind of weird-ass electronic-based marching song with nothing but drums and bleeps.

There are two strange guys behind some turntables dancing and playing records. They look German or French - European looking, anyways.

Somebody says they’re known as Tiefschwarz.

You head to the bar and ask the bar girl for a beer.

“Nah honey, no alcohol here, you gotta go next door,” she says.

‘Shiiiit, what kinda bar is this anyway?’

Next door you find a beer and about 100 or so people hanging around drinking and laughing.

There’s some girls here, too. Not bad.

“You here for Steve Lawler?” some kid asks you. He’s got some of those light sticks in his hand, the kind oil men use to see in the dark caves.

“I don’t know no Steve Lawler,” you say.

“He’s from En-ger-land,” the kid says. “One of the best DJs about there is. He ain’t never played in New Mexico before.”

You go back into the disco room to see what all the noise is about.

Them two German looking guys are pressing all these flashing buttons on a big mixing desk and putting CDs into these big players.

Out in front of them is some girl spinning a hula hoop around her waist, and a few more kids waving light sticks and shining LED torches in each other’s faces.

The music is real loud and monotonous, and the crowd get excited every time the music goes a bit quiet, putting their hands in the air and shouting stuff like “Fuck yeah!” at the two guys.

Every one in here seems a little mad you think, like something ain’t working in their brains properly.

Just as you’re about to turn and leave to go grab another beer, this new rhythm comes through real loud and it sounds quite tribal, more intense than before.

You feet start tapping along unexpectedly.

This shit ain’t so bad after all, you think. It’s got a nice beat to it.

You head further into the crowd to hear the music a bit clearer.

“Hey it’s Steve Lawler!” shouts that kid you met before at the bar.

“Check him out man, he’s the baddest fucking DJ around!”

You see this Lawler man plugging some headphones into the mixer, and then typing something into a laptop computer.

The music gets quiet again, and these nice chords come in that remind you a little bit of church music.

The music starts to get louder and louder and the kids with lights in their hands get real excited.

Suddenly this booming bass comes in and you feel it right it your gut.

It makes you dance harder than you were dancing before, and you start moving along to the rhythm, putting your hands in the air when it goes quiet just like the rest of the folks in here.

You feel a strange association to these strangers, like you understand what they’re feeling.

You feel quite stupid, getting pleasure from something so simple.

You meet a woman on the dancefloor who’s older and smells good.

Her name is Debbie and she keeps talking about some place called Ibizer in Europe somewhere.

Supposed to have good dance parties, like this, only much bigger she says.

Debbie is drunk.

You notice she’s wearing a white top with ‘Amnesia’ written on the back.

The music is getting faster and faster and you find it hard to keep up with it.

But you keep moving, because stopping feels strange.

You don’t recognize any of the music that’s being played, but the people around you seem to know the tracks.

At about 1.30am Steve Lawler plays this song that has this sad melody in it that grips your heart.

It’s really depressing and powerful, like nothing you’ve heard before.

It makes you want to close your eyes, so you do.

Click here to get Steve Lawler ‘Femme Fatale’ (Ovum Recordings)

You feel like you’re in a dream for a second, like nothing around you is real.

Debbie starts smiling at you and says, “Now you get it.”

The music stops at 1.45am and you see Steve Lawler signing CDs for some of the kids up front.

You head home, and in the morning, wondering what the hell last night was about you search for ‘Steve Lawler Viva Tour’ in Google, something you saw written on a flyer in the bar.

You find a link to this story, written about you.

Your life is changed forever, in the tiniest of ways.

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