DEMF Full Report

It's amazing that gray skies against the stark backdrop of downtown Detroit could produce the makings for a great weekend, but that is what Memorial day weekend 2001 was, fucking great! That weekend members of the lesmoothiere rumpshaker project, the Cashigan Burningman Camp, and friends all converged at the Renaissance Center for the second annual Detroit Electronic Music Festival. 3 days, 4 stages, 70 artists, and Corn all contained in Hart Plaza. The weekend began at the Motor Lounge in Hamtramck on Friday night, where we caught the likes of booty acts The Detroit Grandpubas and DJ Godfather. The Pubah's gave us a metal version of the Lesmoothiere favorite "Sandwiches." DJ Godfather stole the show with his DJ skills and the ass shakin' beats that helped to inspire the brillianta.

The most memorable moment, and possibly one of the worst things I have ever heard said, came from the Pubah's Paris the Black Fu. He addressed a heckler by saying "Man you look like a twelve year old boy, and I'm a pedophile."

The festival started out proper on Saturday at noon. I arrived at 1:00 to catch Francisco Mora's Outerzone band. They are a spin off of Carl Craig's Innerzone Orchestra that included jazz pianist Craig Taiborne. It was some of the most unique music of the festival as they joined techno with free jazz producing sounds that would of made Sun Ra proud. As the day continued, our troops arrived in mass, we checked in to the hotel, and proceeded to the festival. Highlights of the festival that day included the hard driving techno of the Kooky Scientist, the experimental rock of Tortoise, and the crowd bonding antics of the Static Revenger. After the show, it was time to go back to the Hotel.

The hotel was a trip in itself. The Ren Cen was wall to wall with club kids. People were having a great time and just loving the music and being at the party. Just walking around you met people from all over the country and the world. The reconstruction left very few working elevators, which created long waits and a crowd waiting to get to their rooms. It could take up to an hour. Once we all grouped it was time for the after parties. Saturday's winner was the Omoa music kick off party. Much of the Ann Arbor old school crowd was there. It was like a reunion. The party was at the Contemporary Art Gallery on Rosa Parks blvd. It was in a totally desolate place, providing a backdrop of the emptiness in Detroit. Anywho, the party and the music there was great. Notable standout was Ayro who produced some great live electronic music.

Check out some of the free MP3s at omoamusic.com Sunday proved to be more fun in the rain. This time we were treated to lots of the hip-hop that the kids are so crazy about. Most people were excited to see De La Soul and Mix Master Mike, but the best performances came from local act Binary Star, and spoken word artist Saul Williams. Binary Star gave some great open-minded rhymes while wearing oven mitts on their right hands to represent Michigan. They are true heroes. Saul Williams came on to a crowd that wanted to dance to some of the electronic music. He started with a 10 minute Spoken word piece that was powerful and just enraptured the thousands of people listening to him. He then proceeded to put his words to music with his band. They covered the musical landscape from Drum n' Bass to Metal. They also made me a fan of the heavy metal cello.

Monday started out beautiful and then became some of the harshest weather of the festival. It should have been a warning when it started raining hard during Random Noise Generation forcing them to end early. The crowd was great though. When the rain started to come they were just more excited. When the evening came, it was time to pay respect to the elder statesmen of Detroit Techno. First up was inner city featuring Kevin Saunderson, most well known for their early 80s dance hit Goodlife. They provided some great RB flavored dance beats that took it back today. I especially liked the background dancers. Then came Juan Atkins who provided us with a history lesson. Starting with Kraftwerk's Trans' Europe Express, moving to his early Detroit classic No UFO's and bringing it to more modern tracks, Juan kept the crowd moving. Unfortunately, his set was cut short by rain. Then came the hail.

Those of us with raincoats moved to cover up poor Pete who for some reason only had a T-shirt. Then the hail was followed by more rain and lightning. What was probably the most beautiful thing that happened over the weekend was that the people didn't leave. There were still around ten thousand people standing around in the pouring rain waiting to see Detroit legend Derrick May take the decks. While standing around there were rallies of cheers for Derrick May and in support of Carl Craig. It lasted for 40 minutes until Derrick May came on and told everyone to go home. "The last thing I want to do is ask you to leave but it is out of my hands."…"I know you want to dance nekid in the rain and hail, but you gonna get fried and the city of Detroit ain't gonna pay your doctor bills." With that Carl Craig came on gave a few words of thank you and it was over.

Detroit stood up for a weekend and stated its worth to the world. Despite a down pour, the people came and listened. The people loved the music, and the city earned a little of the cash (I heard some one say around 84 million). For those of you the have been following the news there was some political nastiness that went on before the festival. Carl Craig, who is the inspiration behind DEMF, and a major force in the Detroit sound was fired from his roll as creative director of DEMF. All weekend long people were warring things to support Carl Craig. It included "I support Carl Craig" stickers, and shirts that said "Carl was Framed" or "Carl got Played." The Lesmoothiere Rumpshaker project supports Carl Craig, and all he has done for the city of Detroit and its Music. Please read more about it and state your opinions at laresistancedetroit.com Hope you all can join us and the other million fans in 2002!

-bs

the_schivitz@yahoo.com

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