VEMF 2k8: 50,000 kickdrums

(Photo by Davey B.  Further pics by Davin here)

I had a pretty darn good weekend at the 2008 edition of the Victoria Electronic Music Festival, thank you very much.  Highlights included:

Greenlaw:  I’d always missed seeing this live D&B pair before, so I was really happy to catch them playing an opening slot with lots of verve and lots of acoustic instruments – flute, trumpet, bass guitar, and vox from both members.  Lovely, summery stuff, for the most part.

The Angry Samoan:  Keoni, playing a middle slot on the Saturday, just killed it, sliding around what I think of as his typical tribal / tech style in all kinds of different directions.
Kenzie Clarke & Nathan Jonson:  The nice part about VEMF weekend is that the lousy club opening slots aren’t lousy, because the clubs are full from 10:15.  On opening duties at Sugar, Kenzie & Nathan proved that no one adds sass to techno quite the way they do.
AFK:  Our very own progressive house legend played some positively demolishing tunes, and took home the award for both MOST MELODIES and BEST MELODIES with consummate ease.

Gobe:  One of the problems with dubstep is that you really do need speakers that can shake the earth.  Gobe went up one side of the Sunset Room speaker system and down the other during an utterly exacting set of the stuff that was a fantastic way to close out my weekend.

My set with Matt went well – some tricks worked especially well, some were iffy.  I learnt how to work my EFX with the new Pioneer mixer, managed to accidentially stop the music 5 minutes too early, and we basically picked everyone up by the scruff of their collective necks and got them dancing.  Llllllook out for our next show at Hush on September 13th, for both our birthdays, with Davey B on opening patrol.

Lastly, I can’t that the VEMF team enough:  Bruce, Davin, Adam, Derrick, Chelsie, etc, etc, etc:  you’re all grand and I really appreciate the time you spend on this shindig.