I heart DEMF

After many years of missing out on DEMF due to being broke and burnt out from WMC in Miami, I finally decided to pop my DEMF cherry this year.

I can basically sum up my experience in 3 words: DIRTY, FILTHY, TECHNO.

I basically came into this totally unprepared and didn’t know what to expect. My friends and I decided to drive up on Saturday afternoon and fly back on Monday evening. Yes, I know going home on Monday night was totally a noob move which ended up costing me my flight. More on that later. Our ride up to Detroit was a blast due to all the bumps on the road we encountered along the way. Thanks to Jimmy K for making it extra fun and JonnyDG for driving.

We pulled into Detroit around 11pm. My first impression of the city was that it was very depressing and it kept raining off and on. Everything had a dilapidated sheen to it. I started having second thoughts if it was such a good idea to come to DEMF after all. I shrugged off the gloom that was creeping into my stomach as we checked into the Holiday Express, where it seemed like the rest of Chicago were staying at as well. That cheered my spirits up a bit after seeing some familiar faces. We got settled in the hotel room and then left for the festival where we caught the last 45 minutes with Marco Carola closing up the Beatport tent. Not too bad of a start.

From there, we went back to our hotel room and got stuck there for a bit before we decided to check out the Ghostly International party. The bad news was the show was sold out and they were filled to capacity. Luckily, we had Gunnybunny in tow and she somehow managed to smooth talk them into letting us in. Audion was on and the place was slamming. Unfortunately we arrived a bit late and only caught 45 minutes of his set. The next DJ after him wasn’t that great so we decided to head to the Works for after hours. The place was packed. They had some driving minimal in the front room and some intense techno straight up in the back room. Some highlights were the craziness of the Acidpimps in the back room and Camea in the front room. We finally made it back to our hotel room in the wee hours of the morning for some much needed rest.

We dragged ourselves out of bed around 2pm, not wanting to miss the rest of the festival. Highlights of that day for me were D. Diggler banging it out on the main stage, the soothing sounds of Gui Borrato on the waterfront, the darkness of Mathew Jonson and the twisted bass lines of Steve Bug. After the festival, we went back to our hotel room to recalibrate and ended up getting stuck there once again before we decided to head out to the Mnus party at MOCAD. The party was in this huge open space that is the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. This event definitely felt more like an art exhibition than a dirty techno party. It was perhaps a bit too clean for my taste at this point. I guess Detroit started to rub off on me after all. It was still a very cool experience nonetheless. Once again, we had mismanaged our time and only caught the last 45 minutes of this show (Hhhhmmm…notice a recurring theme?). Somehow we were misinformed that the party would stop at 6am and it had closed at 4am instead. MOCAD is not located in an ideal spot to catch a cab. Luckily one of our friends lived nearby and he let us all chill out his pad while we ordered a few cabs. Thanks Kris! Once again it was back to the Works. This time Damian Lazarus was on the decks in the front room working his magic playing some tripped out spacey sounds. It was truly a treat.

The Works closed at 6am and we were still itching to party. A bunch of us headed back to our friend Kris’s place to wait for the next after hours to start at 7am at a venue called Old Miami. A group of us proceeded to walk to the after hours around 8am. As we got closer to the venue we could hear the faint beat of the music drown out the din of everyday life. It was such a fantastic experience to hear this twisted trippy techno blaring throughout the city blocks. As we are about to enter the venue, this old man walks buy with a look of disgust on his face and mutters “Damn Fools!” underneath his breath. Kid-M and I proceeded to bust out it in laughter. It was classic. Now this whole trip it felt like we were two steps behind showing up to all the best party when they were about to end. I am happy to report that we made it at the perfect time to the best party of DEMF. The venue was this old bar in full disarray but as soon as you walk out the back door it was like you were in someone’s huge backyard party for a BBQ. It was fuckin’ great. The sun was shining, the music was twisted and the vibe of the crowd was tight! Sety from Paris threw down an amazing minimal set. Butane and Troy Pierce rocked it. I finally understood Detroit at this party.

We were originally supposed to head back to the festival grounds by 2pm to catch Gaiser, but the party was too good at Old Miami that we couldn’t tear ourselves away from it. All good things must come to an end sadly, so around 3pm, or was it 4pm? My memory is a bit spotty at this point, we headed back to festival and caught a bit of Theo Parrish on the Detroit Stage and Damian Lazarus on the main stage.

Now remember how I mentioned earlier we were flying back on Monday night? You see, I bought my ticket before looking up what the the line-up for the night would be. Gaiser, Loco Dice, Digitaline, Luciano, & Ritchie Hawtin. Holy fuck! Luciano blew my mind with his 3 deck mastery. I can’t even begin to describe how amazing his set. It was truly something else. Ritchie played an incredible set as well. Needless to say I could not tear myself away from the Beatport tent and ended being stranded in Detroit. We caught Jeff Mills closing set on the main stage which was cool to see the whole crowd going off from a distance. I was pretty burnt out after partying for 36 hours straight and proceeded to barricade myself in my hotel room. I wasn’t coming out for anything unless I got a text message saying Luciano was playing at some after hours. Big thanks to Jenny, Booby and Pete for giving Gunnybunny and myself a ride back to Chicago the next day.

So to sum it all up: I Heart DEMF!

See you there next year!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!