Kinetik Fest Phase 1 recap | Montreal

[DJ Saint]

Hello all!

Thought it would be kind of cool to do a day by day recap of the festival for those interested. So here goes...

Elektrosonik and I left Detroit rather early for a 5:50 a.m. (ouch) train departure from Windsor. Train ride was 11 hours (Double ouch!!!)

The train is a nice way to go as it's a bit cheaper than flying.

Got into Montreal around 5pm and proceeded to the hotel (Embassy Suites). Very nice hotel thats a bit too nice for the week. But every now and then one must spoil themselves right? I recdommend this hotel for anyone coming to the festival.

Headed to the venue Usine C with Elektrosonik a bit early. Montreals subway system making it very easy with two stops then a transfer.

We headed out of the subway at our destination and started walking a block the wrong way looking for the street the venue is on. While walking we run into Yone and Marco from Decoded Feedback (old friends) who also happen to be hanging out with Claus Larsen of Leaetherstrip. Stop and chat for a bit and get our directions correct on where the venue is.

Walk a couple of blocks and finally arrive at Usine C. This place is impressive to say the least. A converted old factory building - it's HUGE. The inside has been fixed up and reminds me of the old Industry club in Pontiac. The layout of the place is perfect. Vendors on 2 floors, a downstairs bar/dj area, an outside garden (for the smokers), an area where they are BBQ'ing. All very nice and open. The spot where the bands perform is one of the largest performance spaces I've ever seen. About the size of an aiport hanger. GINORMOUS!

Check out the merch booths which are an assortment of CD, Clothing and more vendors. The CD tables are enough to make the credit cards cry (and mine soon will be)

One of the nicest things for me about these festivals is the opportunity it provides to catch up with friends who I may not have seen for several years. Couldn't go more than 10 steps without running into someone and saying hello. Name dropping here; Jen from Ayria, Matt from Caustic, DJ Pathogen (Chicago), Matt from TERRORFAKT, DJ Achtung, Rik from FGFC820, and one of my musical heros - Dirk Ivens from Klinik, Dive (Guess who turned into a total fan boy!!!??. And then there were throngs of people you get introduced to as well. The social aspects of festivals like this are very fun.

Beers, beers and more beers

Ascii.Disko took the stage a little after 9pm. One guy with a laptop, mixer and effects. Really like his blend of techno which has been heavily influenced by the old ebm guys like Nitzer Ebb. An interesting and restrained set. Expected at any minute for the bass drums to really open up and kick in on several tracks but instead the vibe he created remained very driving, analog heavy and machine-like. New CD is fresh out and look forward to hearing how some of the newer live tracks sound in relation to the live versions.

More beers and more beers and caught little bits and pieces of DJ Jordan Dare. Good stuff but I wasn't focused in on his whole set.

David Caretta hit the stage next and got the crowd going. His set was filled with electro-techno goodness but proceeded to last wayyyyy to long. At one point I left to go have another look at the merch booth, came back a good while later and it sounded like he was playing a remix of a track from earlier in his set. And oh yeah he was rockign the 70's Porn star mustache big time! (LOL)

Fixmer/McCarthy was tonights headliners. Absolutely great show. The energy that the two of them brought got me dancing, fist pumping and singing right along. McCarthy (of Nitzer Ebb fame) is a charasmatic frontman, stomping and strutting across the stage while singing the lyrics to a track such as "Like Voodoo" or growling through 3 Nitzer Ebb reworkings of "Join in The Chant", "Murderous" and "Control I'm Here". Expected the crowd to be into them a bit more but seeing as how this was day one and a lot of people had travelled from afar peoples energy levels were running close to empty. The crowd for the Fixmer/McCarthy Detroit show last year was closer to a riot, but I expect the upcoming nights to rile the crowds up even more so.

After Fixmer/McCarthy it was back to the hotel. A good mile walk as the subways stop running at 1:am but not bad.

Today is Phase 2 (of 5). Bands on stage today include: Left Side Neighbor, Gothsicles, Alter Der Ruine, Left Spine Down, Chemlab, 16 Volt, T-Faktor, Imperative Reaction, Tyske Ludder, Leaetherstrip, Vomito Negro, and Cautic.

Will do my best to do a write up of Phase 2 and focus on just reporting on the bands versus the additional things.

Wish a few Detroit-area friends were here.

More to come. Be well everyone.

[Simon Bar Sinister]

[DJ Nocker]

Yep...hate you.

[elektrosonik]

Everyone should start saving their pennies now for the Triton festival in NYC during Labor Day weekend. Detroiters will take over the place. :-)

[Eevee]

Wow...that's so cool!

It'd be totally awesome to go to that at some point in my life...haha! At least once

[phee]

*smiles, then cries silently in the corner*