- Five million Finnish people spend Independence Day in front of TV watching the high society of their country at a very reserved party. However “Renegade”, the longest running club night in Helsinki and who have been in the business for over 10 years had a better idea. They decided to bring 2 of the world's premier DJs together in Helsinki to celebrate this national holiday.
The centrally located “Helsinki Club” was the venue for what was easily one of the best club nights the Finnish calendar had to offer and personally one the best nights I’ve had in a club.
The Finnish winter is supposedly a dark and depressing time for its citizens but this assumption was all but shattered. Even with minus 4 degrees outside, the Helsinki Club is one of the warmest clubs I’ve been to in Europe thanks to friendly staff (who enjoying giving customers free Finnish lessons), remarkably helpful bouncers and a crowd who were here for one thing only --- to dance all night to a night of quality techno.
Resident DJ, Elliot Ness did the warm up for this event and he skilfully worked through some tough house and into some classic records to set the standard high for the DJs to follow.
At 11 o’clock, Marco Bailey took over and quickly moved things up another gear. His style is not easy to label but for over 2 hours there was non-stop flawless mixing as he moved through many sub genres of techno. Standout tracks played were Dominik Eulberg’s "Die Wildschweinsuhle” and Trentemoller's "Polar Shift”, easily one of the best tracks of 2005.
Bailey’s track selection is spot on and he clearly knows how to keep a dancefloor busy. He has earned a big reputation throughout Europe and tonight he proved that most things said about him are true, further enhancing his reputation in Finland. Around 1 o’clock, Bailey handed control of a very crowded and boisterous dancefloor to Dave Clarke.
Dave Clarke stamped his own unique style on the Helsinki crowd within minutes of starting. His hip hop approach to mixing breathes so much energy into any club and tonight was no different. He brought the dancefloor to new levels and with such songs like Ortin Cam's "Freak of Nature”, a song which sounds like it was written especially for him.
We also were lucky enough to hear some of the tracks that made it onto his "World Service 2” compilation such as Terence Fixmer and Douglas McCarthy's amazing "Between the Devil” remixed by Clarke himself. Three hours of Dave Clarke goes by all too fast but he allowed the crowd to celebrate Independence Day in a different way for a change and give us an insight into the songs from 2005 which have excited him. Lets hope the Finnish government invites these two guys to next years official Independence Day party.