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11/12/2006 Entry: "Paul Van Dyk in Mexico City"
On Friday night I went to the concert of the “other No 1 DJ in the world” (ranking also claimed by DJ Tiesto), Paul Van Dyk at the Roots Magic Club.
I can’t imagine a more “Mexican” night than that one! The guy who was supposed to buy the tickets turned up late and came up with a lame excuse and our money back, but no tickets of course. So we had to queue to buy some last minute tickets, in a joyful mess that thankfully did not take too long.
The Roots used to be called La Boom in a past era, and I was one of the many regular visitors of that “antro”, committing there various youthful sins that are locked up in the same dusty cupboards as my personal collection of skeletons. It is quite obvious that the new owners have invested vast sums of money in an extensive refurbishment of the building, which looks quite awesome today, a jewel nestled in an eye-sore area of Mexico City.
In the late 90’s, La Boom possessed one of the best sound systems of any disco in the capital, and the Roots has remained true to this tradition, testimony the fact that 36 hours after the concert I’m still half-deaf. The light effects, laser included, were also stunning, on a par with the better discos in Europe. Cold ice showers were a welcome respite to the heat – it seems that Roots is a “Green Disco” bent on energy saving schemes, in particular with respect to air conditioning.
Somehow the organizers of the concert managed to pack 3000 to 4000 people in the building and by 11PM it was impossible to find a place where you wouldn’t enjoy the exotic bodily smells of your neighbors. Going to the toilets became an adventure equal to the best Indiana Jones movies (“take that tunnel, jump over the ledge, shove a few stragglers away and finally relieve yourself”).
Our esteemed Paul Van Dyk himself wasn’t immune to the grid-locked traffic of a Friday night in Mexico City – due to appear on stage at 11PM, he finally showed up at 2AM when I had already totally exhausted my jumping energy! Nevertheless, he threw in a few masterful adrenalin pumping tunes that had the crowd roaring with pleasure and the floor nearly collapsing under so much non-earthquake induced stress.
Techno is amazingly popular in Mexico based on what I saw on Friday night. Many famous DJs will organize concerts in the capital in the next few weeks, including Armin Van Buuren and DJ Tiesto. Having been contaminated by techno during many years in the UK, I can only applaud that ascendance of Mexico City as a magnet for great electronic music events. Well done!
Replies: 2 comments
Are you learning spanish?
Posted by Udoka @ 12/04/2006 07:14 PM MEX
Sounds like such a fun evening. Before being called La Boom it was called "Magic" in the early 90s and friends would typically deliberate on where to go Friday nights by saying stuff like: ¿Vamos al Mah-yick o al Pasach (Passage)? I know...no comment
Posted by L'ombre d'une vague @ 11/14/2006 09:41 AM MEX
