- It was an interesting start to the evening. Mother Nature decided to be difficult and throw in a last minute snowstorm, making the task of finding a cab -- and hence getting to Sound-Bar -- all the more challenging. Nonetheless, I was motivated and not willing to miss the opportunity of seeing DJ Hyper in action. To be honest, I can’t say that I’m much of a breaks fanatic since my tastes definitely lean towards progressive house, however variety is the spice of life and it had been a while since I last attended a breaks gig so I figured, why not?
The venue was Sound-Bar; one of Chicago's premiere nightspots with an outstanding sound system. The night was once again put on by the promotional group Purefuture (the guys responsible for all the big parties in Chicago who bring in names such as Digweed, Cattaneo, Howells, Hawtin, Sasha, Warren, Deep Dish, etc). They do a great job in ensuring that Chicago dance lovers are given quality music, week in week out, with variety.
I arrived at Sound-Bar close to midnight. After a few drinks in the downstairs lounge with some friends I headed upstairs to the main room, where I caught the last ten minutes of Tolgar's set before Hyper graced the decks. But actually, it wasn’t even the decks he was gracing - he played a live set using his apple mac.
Hyper opened with heavy artillery and took over from Tolgar at around 1am. He wasted no time in grooving his way into the night and threw down heavy beats right from the start. Hyper’s selections leaned towards edgy electro breaks and slammin’ progressive breaks. His cuts were fresh and you could definitely feel the ‘live’ element. The crowd loved it. You could tell that the majority of the people were really getting into the music and I got the feeling that everyone was out for a good time. Sound-Bar wasn’t too crowded, but at the same time there were a solid amount of people for a snowy Friday evening.
All in all it was a solid night. Hyper was a little too heavy for my tastes but I could tell that the people who knew their breaks were having a great time. I'm all about a scene that pushes quality music that spans across different genres, so I was definitely pleased to see a breaks DJ like Hyper being given a standing ovation.