- Friday August 3. Meatpacking District, New York. Cielo is New York's jewelbox of a nightclub coveted for its superior sound system, and tonight the line outside was massive. The NYC edition of Superfreq was certainly highly anticipated, with out of towners from Philadelphia, DC and Florida even making it up to hear Mr. C. As soon as I walked in, I spotted the usual culprits of New York's electronic industry, and to my surprise, even some Spanish clubbers from Sonar who were in town for the weekend.
Adultnapper started the night off with an exuberant performance. The co-producer of Overboard, one of the city's most memorable club nights, Adultnapper is a staple of New York's tech house scene. His set reminded me of one of those high energy tech house sets that were once a driving force in New York, built around tech-house basslines but interweaved with some extra spunk and a few familiar minimal tracks. The club was packed, and already (it was only midnight) most of the crowd was on Cielo's dancefloor. He had injected a surge of energy into the club with tribal interludes and the crowd was loving it.
Then came Mr. C. Before he came on, we chatted outside on Cielo's smoking patio, where every few minutes someone would accost him and mention his smash hit 'Ebeneezer Goode'. At first, he was amused, but by the afterhours, when people were running up to him and singing it in his face, he'd quite rightly had enough. "Get over it, people!"
His set was a far cry from anything commercial or nostalgic from the nineties. The co-owner of London's The End club was instead breaking new ground, dabbling from one end of global techno to the other. The high point of the night was when he mixed in Marc Antona's spellbinding 'One More Sugar." By this time, the entire club was engaged, dancing, cheering and reacting more like this was a live concert than a DJ set. Mr. C's magnetic charm was all too apparent, and when his set finished he joined his fans and brought his charisma onto the dancefloor.
Things wrapped up at Cielo's official closing time of 4 a.m., however this party was just starting. A few blocks away, Minimoo DJ and producer Memek and his crew were setting up for an all-night affair of post Made Event clubbers, early risers and of course a star performance from Mr C. As Cielo's lights went on, we made our way outside and followed the crowd. It was quite a treat to actually go to an official afterhours in the city, at a venue that wasn't seedy, totally illegal or someone's backyard. Bar 13 is an actual club with a killer sound system and rooftop. The catch: There was no alcohol served, but at that time, it didn't matter to anyone. We were psyched to keep dancing, and after a thirty minute walk, we joined the line outside Bar 13. By 5 a.m., over 200 people were dancing to DJ Memek's beats – a mix of experimental heavy synth tracks broken up with some uptempo beats.
Although I was out the door when the sun began to rise, this shindig kept strong and went on into the late hours of the morning. An excellent indication that New York's high energy, after hours scene is slowly making a comeback.