Avalon on a "Clifton High"

Shanghai'd in Hollywood!

Well, my friend stiffed me for the avalon gig last Saturday night, leaving me high and dry for companionship; my bro wasn't into it, my other 'clubbing friends' weren't either, as they had all been out on friday night and, as those who know, know, a night at the Avalon is something that requires a certain degree of preparation and conditioning... so i went with 2 tickets, hoping to pawn one off on a walk-up, and got there so early that the only other people there were guest list! Well, there was also a dude flyering for a show by Ima Robot: "Ima Robot this Thursday night (gee, it sounds weird when I say that, doesn't it?" Whatev, dude.

Anyway, there was a live gig by Esthero in the club before the Avaland thing got started, so we had to stand around for awhile before the club was emptied and they began letting the Nick Warren crowd in. His tour bus and immense trailer pulled up in front of the awning, creating a nifty closed space into which to bellow bus exhaust for about 20 minutes, which was none too comfortable. Soon enough, it was over and i was inside, listening to "Kazell", a local star who opens for just about everyone. And he was amazing. Twisted the vibe around and again fantastically, going from cool dance music into these swaying half-time-seeming heavy electronic jams - like an electronic "Sabotage" or something. There was a huge
white curtain/screen hung filling the opening of the stage for his set, which was lifted when Luke Fair, the opener, came on for a few hours. behind the screen was additional floor space and the stage.

Fair was excellent. He's currently promoting his new cd on digweed's bedrock label, 'original series os 0.3'. Good disc, great set. Bravo. And what a fine complement to the headliner. After hearing how well Sander K.'s opener's set matched his own, I've gotta hand it to these guys and the promoters for putting together the kind of bills that Sunset Strip rock promoters long ago lost the art of creating, namely, a solid evening of the stuff you want to hear, the way you want it. Why show up for one guy when you can go for 3 and get a triple-dose, and you know it'll get better and better leading up to the headliner, after all?

When Warren came on, a huge matrix of what appeared to be vertical fluorescent tube lights suspended on a backdrop was lowered onto the wall behind him; turns out each tube was really comprised of 5 or so individual spotlights, all of which had multi-color capabilities and were being run by a computer. The effect was that of a gargantuan lite-brite being driven like the "visuals" program in itunes. Wow. Like a church stained-glass window or something.

But he gave the game away that the evening was going to be a special one by wearing a black "Motorhead" logo t-shirt. Classic.

His set was again so transcendant it practically brought tears to one's eyes -- like the set he and wisternoff threw down at that way out west gig with Omi last July, although I have to say that this was even better. He brought in everything from "I feel love" by Donna Summer, "She sells sanctuary" by The Cult (!) and some of the great stuff he's played on some of his other mix cd's, including a peaking "Glimmer of Dope", all put together in such an excellent way...

Midway through the set, the lighting backdrop was raised out of view and the lights came down a bit, making way for some of the greasiest disco and hardest house sounds to hit the hallowed halls of Avaland in its short but storied lifespan. Just as the sweatiness of the floor's trancers and the euphoric liberation of the music was taking us all to higher heights of ecstatic rumblings, the backdrop snuck back down the wall and Nick subtly changed gears yet again, into the third stage of the rocket ride he was directing from his Houstonian mission control onstage.

Before I had left the house earlier that night, I spun a few rockers like "Unglued" by STP and "Where the freaks go" by Dust for Life, followed by the just-released 12" on vinyl only "w.o.w.'s clifton high remix" of "DFM", hoping Warren would spin the latter. Sure enough, I could see it coming a mile away in his set (I may have been the only one there who knew the track) and then, there it was! In fact, he spun an unreleased dub version of the clifton high mix (which in itself is radically different than the album version of the track).

As for the new GU mix set, Nick is at it again, possibly besting the Icelandic masterpiece he put together a couple of years ago. The big jams of the night made it onto the album, including an old Hardfloor 303 jam from a decade plus ago and the aforementioned "Don't Forget Me" dub. The tune that's currently bunching my panties is something called "Pillow" by a group whose name escapes me at the moment. Nice, touching melancholy with a killer groove.

Saturday night was one of the best shows i've ever been to, without a doubt. I didn't regret going alone for a minute; in fact, there's a handful of folks who were offered the extra ticket and couldn't do it for whatever reason, who do have regrets now that they know what they missed, including my scheduling-impaired friend who blew this companionship crisis up in my lap on saturday afternoon, my "dude, we've gotta start going to clubs together; just call me, I'm down for it anytime" friend that waits three days to return my calls when I leave word offering him a ticket like this one (and we've all got one of those, haven't we?), among others. No hard feelings; in fact, better them than me! This was one of those "I'll never miss one of his shows" kind of events for me personally. After having been thrown out of a club (well, my friend was, but I left with him out of friendular courtesy) on a similar type of evening - one of my favorite dj's was in town and we got punted b/c my friend passed out about an hour before the headliner arrived (and I spent the following 3 hours watching and listening as my friend dry-heaved into a trash can behind the club) - I was kind of relieved to be able to go and hang for as long as I could take it, which in this case was until about 4:30 a.m. A good time was definitely had by all who were hip and fortunate enough to be at the Avalon for the Nick Warren mindbender!