22 October 2017

ADE Sunday: The Grand Finale Part I

ADE 2017

Suddenly you wake up and it's ADE Sunday. I've been looking forward to this day (and night) for so long. A big bunch of my flatmates will join me tonight for DJ Harvey's all nighter at Marktkantine. In the early afternoon we are dancin' to some discobeats in our common kitchen and everybody seems totally dancefloor ready. I have my own plan, earlier this year I went to see Aurora Halal and Avalon Emerson (several times) already and De School puts them b2b today.

https://imgur.com/0ehARtW.jpg With my sister I head for a fancy coffee close to Rozengracht, on my way to De School I took a picture.

I planned to be arriving at School around 3pm because Avalon and Aurora play at 5pm. Now it's time to tell you about my biggest error of the whole event. Like I wrote earlier I thought they'd be playing Het Muzieklokaal. For some reason I totally misread the schedule De School published some weeks ago. It was quite the document, fb images compressed it too much for it to be readable even. It wasn't until I had been dancing for quite a bit with Young Marco that I discovered Tom Trago sneaking up on him. At first I just thought Tom was there to hang out. And have some Grey Goose and tomato juice. But then there were headphones coming out of his bag. What's going on here!

Young Marco turns out as one of my unexpected heroes of ADE 2017. I keep walking into him, Thursday at his private Lux party with Palms Trax, Friday at his Sexyland BBQ where I see Interstellar Funk play and meet Elena Colombi. His session at Het Muzieklokaal takes us straight to the rainforest, and later Africa, but even this trancy old monster gets the crowd going like mad.

I walked back to the light where De School had printed out a huge version of the schedule at the wall. There it was. Aurora and Avalon playing the garden. De Tuin if you will. But when passing the garden earlier (without entering) I didn't even hear any music? What's up there...I went in to check. There they are on the couch. It's not freezing but when in shorts, it kinda is. The volume is quite low and everybody is chatting like crazy. So Tom Trago is playing Het Muzieklokaal and here I am standing in the cold next to the guy selling lasagna.

The darkness downstairs

Expecting heat I undressed immediately after coming in. Green shorts, orange laces. I met this great tall blonde guy (later on he might turn up as Mr. Fashion in this story) wearing a purple scarf and matching glasses (and sweatpants). He tells his friend tongue-in-cheek that nowadays the techno scene is all fashion. "People commenting on how people dance (badly) standing at the side lines themselves."

But yeah now that the garden session is there and I was looking forward to this b2b for so long, I'll switch back to my jeans. And sweater! I came back to the garden in style. But wait I forgot to tell you something about the basement. When I walked in somewhere before 4pm I went downstairs to see what was going on. Well, I used the wrong words there. Because see is only possible when there is light of which there was none. Now you must know I'm used to the basement. But today was something else. There was so much smoke that walking the stairs or going from the bar to the booth was a pretty dangerous experiment. I used my hands to survive, I could hardly see my own fingers...

Onto the garden. Avalon and Aurora sitting down chatting with a friend, playing some tunes. Dancin' by myself, dedicated. Slowly they raise the volume. From ambient we head into more tempo. When Aurora plays Sing And Here With Me (Original Mix) I look over the CDJ but I cannot seem to find this song anywhere, maybe I didn't look correctly. In the end I just asked Aurora and she helped me out: Omar-S.

I see a new friend walking by, we met earlier this week. We dance together for a bit which is nice, but her leather skirt is the only object protecting her against the cold a little bit and it's not nearly enough. Alone again I continue. More and more people start dancing around me, probably also to warm up, and the volume is still going up. With Avalon playing One Day the garden session ends.

Mission completed. Different than expected but that's all me not using my eyes. I danced at De School with my sweater on and my toes got very cold while doing so, it's a new experience definitely! Seeing some of my favorite DJs up close in the daylight eating lasagna and drinking prosecco is part of the good ADE life too. 7pm and I start to feel hungry. Of course seeing all these people eat doesn't really help.

Why not try to get my feet warm again, I go for a walk around the block meaning visiting Tom Trago at Het Muzieklokaal where I meet the new friend who was also looking for some warmth front left. It looks like somebody is trying to get her warm, she slaps him in the face twice in the short time that I'm there. This makes me curious so I'm trying to find out what's up. The young mister is hoping to get into some three way action tonight (or tomorrow?) but appears to only accept two girls at his side. Guys not welcome. How lame.

Mr. Fashion

Behind me I notice Mr. Fashion in action. We dance fiery to the beats of the Trago, and the blonde tells me I'm just the dancer who he thought I would be. I'll take that compliment, it's easy though when you're surrounded with good vibes! It's easy to never leave a clubber's paradise like this, but I have a different plan. A lot of flatmates including my sister are joining me elsewhere tonight. Sometimes I need to force myself to get moving, without thinking about it too much.

Mr. Fitness

Only one step out of Het Muzieklokaal I walk into Mr. Fitness. We haven't been to a party together in ages. My UK friend is staying at his house and walks right behind him. They just picked up some plates of lasagna, most of Mr. Fitness' crew has been to John Talabot at Marktkantine last night and it shows on their faces. A completely different weekend compared to mine but still we are lucky enough to meet up by accident. We are in the hallway next to Muzieklokaal/Garden when I spot Aurora and Avalon walk past.

I hush to stand up and say Hi to Avalon, I feel the need to tell her about my huge error thinking she'd play Het Muzieklokaal. Now that I think of it more clearly it would also be a strange move by Luc's; Aurora Halal played at De Club last night, as Avalon who will close the basement tonight. To then have them rock Het Muzieklokaal b2b in the afternoon would've been overkill. To me it seemed perfect because it fit my schedule. Yeah, that's not how ADE ticks.

Trying to say good bye to my friends it's obvious they just don't understand how I'm leaving. I wish them all the best, they are in safe hands here. They had maybe an hour of queueing on them, the lasagna helps them warm up. I walk to the entrance to get my stuff. Before walking out I check my phone to see what's up in the world. The WhatsApp group has been very active during my offline time dancin'. I see a screenshot taken from Nina Kraviz' Instagram. What?!

Nina *** Kraviz

This is the same Nina that Avalon was just telling me about earlier. Only I wasn't listening, what! Powered with my jacket and my backpack in my hands I walk down the stairs where the most smoky hours seem to be have passed. We can see again. I take the shortcut on the left coming in right at the booth and I see Nina eager to take over from the guys. Jasper & Maarten have been at it all day, I heard some good tracks earlier when it was still pitch black in here.

OK, so now I'm downstairs wearing a sweater, holding on to a backpack that doesn't want to be here. Not looking at any clocks tonight. As soon as Nina starts she is like a smart savage to the sound system. Asking attention from the sound guy who is only looking at his panels I pat him on the back so he can look sideways and listen his new boss. It's very clear who is in charge of this basement now.

Aurora Halal

I catch up Aurora Halal for a second too, asking her about the weekend so far. She tells me a bit about her set last night. This sound system is very powerful but also able to produce so much depth thanks to all the different frequencies being reached. It makes her rediscover her own music. This might be the best club ever, she says. I can only guess as to how many clubs she has been playing over the past years. But coming from somebody that will play the Berghain this weekend, this is pretty huge.

Thanks to me walking around with all my stuff including my phone, quite the oddity but yeah, I receive a message from my UK buddy. Come down see Nina! It says. Haha, if he only knew. Mid front, says the next message. Off I go into the madness. Even standing right beside my friend I couldn't see him, he starts waving his phone around which upsets quite a few neighbors within seconds. Luckily that also draws my attention, and thus we are here dancing to the Nina. If somebody told me this on Friday when he flew in from London I would've laughed in your face.

Though now we get to the point where I start wondering. Am I going to put my backpack somewhere safe, and leaving my friends alone who are heading to Marktkantine? Or is it time to shut this late afternoon down, and save some energy? Lover of energy management as I'd like to call it, I opt to move out. We hug, I wish him lots of acid greatness and I find my way back to the light.

https://imgur.com/bL7uadK.jpg

Soon you can read about the last dancing hours of ADE 2017 at Marktkantine with the one and only DJ Harvey.

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Nachtsnuiver ADE 2017

Wednesday: The report on Wednesday is here
Thursday: Still in beta!
Friday: Click here!
Saturday: Coming up soon.
Sunday: You just read Part I. Part II on the way.
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Gastbijdrage ADE 2017 (Dutch)

Lees wat een Nachtsnuiver schreef over zijn ADE. Rush Hour, Rolling Rock Kitchen, De School, Tolhuistuin, hij was erbij.

Tambourine

Every third Sunday of the month in Oost. Foo