sasha + john digweed at plush

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On Wednesday night we went over to meet up with Craig and Erica for dinner in Vancouver. We went to a stylish place in downtown Vancouver called Chambar – it’s a Belgian Restaurant. Anand and his friend happened to also be hanging out there by complete fluke so we exchanged some wit (?) and ate a fine dinner. It was very good and even though the service was weak at best, I’d recommend it for the food and atmosphere. And by way of some good fortune and hard work, we were all going to go see Sasha, John Digweed and Kazell. So off to Plush we went..
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This is Kazell pictured above. He played a really good opening set – stoked the fires well and was a pleasure to talk to after his set. Nice to put a face to a name of course – and he gave me a CD that I’m looking forward to listening to.
For the most part the lighting was too poor to take photos without a flash, so I did a few with the flash but I didn’t like them – it washed out the atmosphere of the club and the visuals which had been imported from Québec. I saw a lot of people I knew there – but I didn’t manage to get very many people shots. Nonetheless I am happy with the ones below.
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At 11 PM, John Digweed came on to take over the decks. He moved things up several notches before Sasha came along to join in. This part was somewhat disappointing as Sasha seemed to be intent on playing the same song over and over again. It seemed like he had found a white noise patch, a filter, a sidechain compressor and some tribal loops, and that was going to be his performance for the night. I was not particularly impressed with what Sasha played, but John Digweed more than made up for it. I enjoyed the show but I do feel like Sasha is capable of much more than what we saw last night. In any case it was enjoyable to see a well-attended show in a big club with a big sound system and music that was made to suit.
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We left Vancouver this morning – so it was a quick trip and a rather unusual one since it was in the middle of the week. There’s something a bit surreal about being on the PCL in the middle of the day, watching everyone else do their daily thing as you relax inside the tinted windows of the coach, slightly sleep deprived but utterly satisfied from the whole experience that left you this way. Even though there were disappointments at the restaurant and club we went to, it was not such a big deal. To me, the important part was to be with some friends that shared a common interest – we were all where we wanted to be last night. It was great.

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4 Comments

  1. That sounds like an awesome time. I wish I had gone. I’m pretty much 100% sold for next time they come this way.
    What’s with that “download duplicate” t-shirt that everyone seems to be wearing?

  2. Excellent news, it would be great to have you along with us for next time.
    The “download duplicate destroy” shirt is a campaign shirt that John Digweed has been selling for promoting ethical digital downloads. It has the word “destroy” struck through though, which leaves the messaging a bit ambiguous. From a communications point of view I think the shirt fails – it is very confusing regardless of the noble intent. Does he want us to duplicate and never destroy? Easy to misinterpret and I think they should be a bit more careful when telling people how to think about digital media.

  3. I agree. The t-shirts are intriguing, but pretty ambiguous about their message. I figured it was something to do with digital media downloads, but was unsure of what they are trying to say. Maybe if the shirt back had a simple URL to a website about the message, that would be enough (because the front does get me interested).
    Nice photos btw, as always :).

  4. yesh!
    Great time, great to see you guys. Yes, other than some oops, I think the whole experience was fan-friggin’-tastic!
    BTW – the t-shirt campaign, I think it’s more what’s going on than what everyone should be doing. Dunno – we should ask Mr. Moppy! We’re back in Calgary now – snow’s still here. Too bad we couldn’t find jobs and a house yesterday.

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