ario's digital detritus - U.R. drama

Seattle electronic music fans... I predict you'll be hearing a lot about this over the next few days.

Until last night, I had no idea what Detroit's Underground Resistance crew was about and boy was I ever quickly brought up to speed.

For those of you that were at Decibel this year on Sunday night, I can only describe it as the collective feeling we had on the dancefloor during Thomas Fehlmann's set.  If you weren't at that, just imagine experiencing something really rare and amazing, like seeing a solar eclipse for the first time.

We were like putty in Santiago's hands as he mixed together some of the finest dance music I've ever heard.  Along with the excellent track selection (showcasing mostly classic techno cuts alongside a few newer ones), each transition was unique and creative, using the mixer as an instrument, rather than just as a way to go from one track to the other.



In all senses of the word I was schooled as the only track I recognized was Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" which he layered with some other complimentary electro track that added a percussion sound in between each of the original song's drum sounds, completely kicking it up 10 notches.

All of this compounded the extreme wackness of how his set ended... with a security guard all up in Santiago's face getting him to stop for ex-local, Donald Glaude.  A bit of chaos ensued after that... lots of yelling, crowd jeers, and an extremely pissed off Santiago stopping the music with a harsh scratch, yelling "Go home!," and then collecting his stuff to make a quick exit.

The club representatives claimed that they had told him to stop playing way before by 2 am, but even if that was the case, that's just not the way to end a set that completely has the dancefloor at a fever pitch.  I'd also expect some amount of leeway given for someone here from such a respected crew, all the way from Detroit. 

No one was really sure who told the security guard to go and do that... might've been the club manager or Donald himself... either way, not cool.  The whole debacle basically sends a huge message of disrespect to the DJ and the crew he's representing, making Seattle look bad in the process.

Anyway, this minor bit of drama will be forgotten soon, but I hope the Element folks learn their lesson and we get UR and Santiago back to town for a properly promoted show, at a venue somewhere other than Element, and with all of you Seattle people there getting your minds blown.



update:

-- pics here.
-- dark video and audio of the final seconds of Santiago's set here.