Trying to decide what parties to attend at ADE is really a daunting experience. With hundreds of events where you know most of the names on every lineup, it can be really tempting to stick with something or someone you’ve seen before. I mean, why not? You are ensured a good show, you can say that you’ve seen someone you love again and again! In an effort to break from that, and after talking to a few friendly promoters, we decided on Defected in the House for our Friday night at ADE, even though it would mean we would go back to AIR (despite trying to be different!).
It’s amazing what difference one night makes. AIR was still the same in the interior, but the vibe was definitely a house vibe. People were gently dancing (I say gently because there was no room to do more!) in a wall-to-wall packed venue. EVERYTHING was packed. Red D (of Belgian house production duo FCL) was on the decks, we discovered, when we got closer to the stage (where we ended up most of the rest of the night). Surprise surprise, he was actually mixing vinyl in with his CDJs, and had up to 3 of the 4 decks on at once at times. It was a sheer pleasure to watch this man spin, and dance gently with the very polite, but very close quarters crowd. It’s always nice to see a veteran spin (Red D has been spinning all over the EU since the early 90s), especially one that works the crowd and masters the decks like he did, without the norm “hands to the sky” poses or fist pumps.
It seemed strange at first that he was set up on the very far right of stage (I could have easily snatched his drink), but then I realized that the stage was set up for the enormous set that was to be Hercules and Love Affair. There was literally a wall of synths and controllers that stretched more than halfway across the stage that would end up being the mission control for the night.
I managed to make my way backstage right before they made it to the stage. Tonight they were a 4 piece, of a rotating collaborative project. At the forefront, and behind the wall of synths, was leader Andy Butler along with John Grant. Rouge Mary and Gustaph were the voice and the hype men for the night, perfectly bouncing harmonies off each other with the music, and hopping and swaying around the stage. The enthusiastic crowd was gently hopping and singing along, and from my view, it seemed like everyone knew all of the words. My video footage itself was probably a little bouncy from wanting to dance and trying to be still, especially when they dropped “My House,” a song that I totally forgot that they did. When they hopped off the stage at around 3am, we were beat. Dancing, then standing like a fat flamingo backstage, hot, and thirsty, our plans to drop by another party (as lots of then ran to 5 or so am) were squished, and we Uber-ed off to find a shwarma in the night.
Check out our gallery from the Defected night’s shenanigans here:
Journalist/blogger since 2009 and music lover since 1980. Bex now travels the world and writes and takes photos of dance events, creates art in various media, sings quietly to her cat in the shower, and occasionally builds something that tends to involve a blowtorch. She can usually be seen hiding behind some sort of camera rig.
