I went to see digweed last night at the Mayan. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. Having read some mixed reviews of the tour up to this point, I felt like the best I could expect was for digweed to start spinning aroung 12:30 or 1am and apparently lay down some dark pounding grooves from the first track on. I had to reread the liner notes for Digweed in LA GU just to remember why I was going at all. To top it all off, I had had some really really bad experiences seeing DJ's for the last year, as I was dating a girl who was simply crazy, and pretty much ruined every night out I had at a club since moving to LA a year ago.
But this time was different. I had invited this wonderful girl that I recently met, who had never even heard of John Digweed. "Are you excited to see John?" she asked? "Well, if he is inspirational to you, then I would love to go with you to see him." What a classy girl! So we arrive at 11:10, in this seemingly deserted area which is called downtown LA. There is no traffic, no people. Are we in the right place? As we pull up closer, we see a long line of people, stretched around the corner. We park right there, and get out and get into line. I check out the crowd, and to my suprise/pleasure I don't see any of the typical Hollywood pretentious as fuck crowd that usually creeps in to the other LA clubs. Either because it was a wednesday night or because the Mayan is far from any other club, the crowd seemed like people who were ready for some Digweed, and ready to hear some really good music. Now don't get me wrong, even though there were plenty of people wearing just jeans and a T-Shirt, and comfortable shoes for dancing, there were plenty of people dressed nicely as well, but for some reason they didn't give off the air of the seedy Hollywood crowd of coke head/self centered people that I've come to detest.
We waited in the long slow moving line for almost an hour, and then finally we were in! The place looked really nice inside. Lots of Aztec or Mayan type carvings in the walls, and a big balcony near the front where, just as we entered, digweed was standing. There was a bar in the back, underneath a big balcony, then, down some stairs was the dance floor. There seemed to be a higher level dance floor up closer (maybe the stage during regular performances?) Then up in the front on a balcony was Digweed spinning. I got a quick drink from the bar for me and my lady-friend, then went to the bathroom. We sat regaining our energy from the long day (read: doting) and then decided to hit the dance floor.
Man was that music hot!!!!! From the second I stepped out there, I couldn't stop moving! The beats were bouncing aroung 130bpm I would guess, and it was just amazing! The sound system was awesome, I could hear everything pretty clearly and the bass was very loud and overall there was a very full aspect to the sound system which was just right. Man, when that bass kicked in after a breakdown, it was on!! Digweed was playing stuff I have never heard before, and have a really hard time trying to describe. It was extremely danceable, with crazy awesome low synth rhythms. It wasn't like airy synths, or synth basslines, but somewhere in between, and it was just rockin! He was building the songs up perfectly, bringing in the next song which perfectly complemented the first, and building upon it. He was in top top form. Man, was he ever. I have seen Digweed twice by himself in Chicago, once with Sasha in Chicago, and on NYE in LA, and this was the most danceable I have ever seen him. After about an hour of this music which basically sounded like one hour long mind blowing song, we took a 10 minute break. Then, back on to the floor for more. It was amazing, at about 1:15, I looked around and every damn person on the place was on their feet dancing, I swear!! We were dancing our asses off, and loving it. I just couldn't stop smiling, this music was so good. Even the people on the balcony were dancing. I've never seen anything like it before. The vibe was amazing in there. So many friendly laid back people just having so much fun. I've never seen such a high percentage of people dancing. Heard some chable remix that has been mentioned, but other than that didn't recognize anything. At about 1:30, he threw down some more tribal sounding beats, but kept with some killer melodies. Then I had to leave at 2:05. As I was leaving, I heard this breakdown that just had a bass tone which just sustained for like 16 measures.. It was so hard to leave, but I did.