[Dynagroove] House music is alive and well in Paris and London!

[Amy Ricketts]

Bonjour!  My trip to Europe was... unbelievable.  There are simply no
words (in English) to describe my experience.  En francais, je dit,
"Paris!  C'est Formidable!!!" I seriously don't think two Americans have
EVER had as much fun in Paris and London as we did.

While in Paris, we went to the (in)famous Rex Club, former home of
resident DJ Laurent Garnier in the height of the Golden 1990's.  My friend
April (who is my best friend from Detroit) and I had NO idea what to
expect, as we didn't recognize either of the names of the DJs (both were
from France)  we had no idea what to wear, since Parisians dress way
fancier than we do, (it's a girl thing, we like to be appropriately
dressed.), and we had no idea when to show up, since Europeans seem to get
started a little later than we do.

But we took the Metro to the club and got there around 12:30 to find a
(short) line to get in, usually a good sign... we were pleased and
surprised that there was no cover.  This club is literally underground, as
it is in the basement of a movie theatre. This small club with low
ceilings and minimal lighting really felt like "home" to us.  Musicwise, I
couldn't believe my ears.  If I closed my eyes, I could have sworn it was
1996 and I was at a Plus 8 party in the D (Richie Hawtin's label, for all
you house snobs;)  I NEVER get to hear that kind of stuff in LA, so it
really was a treat.  I was bummed to find that the heels I wore, thinking
that the parisians would be dressed all fancy, were totally unnecessary
and killed my feet.  So we only lasted until about 3:30.  I say "only"
because people were still showing up as we were leaving.   The only
negative thing about this club was the price of drinks.  A corona was 7.5
euros, roughly $9.  Yikes.  The kids in the club were super fun, but
honestly not the best dancers I've ever seen.

We also attempted to go to the Ed Banger costume party on a boat docked on
the river Seine, but when we arrived at 10:00, the place was PACKED and
they weren't really letting more people on board. I was SUPER impressed by
the elaborate costumes people had put together.  The parking lot was just
as much a party as the boat itself, since so many people had showed up.
The music on the boat was very "hipster electronic," if you know what I
mean.  Definitely not house. Kinda fun, but not really my thing.  So we
hung out with the kids in the parking lot for about an hour, took some
great pictures, practiced our French, and then headed home.

We found that the rumor that Parisians treat Americans poorly to be
totally false.  The parisians, as a whole, were incredibly kind and
helpful to us.  April and I both speak a little French, and although my
french grammar sucks, I have been told that I do a decent job of
pronouncing French phonemes correctly. Perhaps these facts contributed to
the French people's positive attitudes toward us.  Who knows.  All I know
is that I adored the French people.  I found them to be incredibly "cute".
 So don't believe the hype about Parisians treating Americans poorly.

In London, we fanagled (sp?) 2 tickets to a sold out boat party on the
river Thames.  The 250 people on board were super friendly and lots of
fun.  The music was fantastic. It started out with more mellow, vocally
house, and slowly got a little more "jackin" as the night progressed. The
guys who threw the party were expecting us, and told us they were going to
 play Cajmere's "Brighter Days" just for us, since it is the song on my
MySpace page.  They were too sweet.  The boat ride was awesome as it took
us right through the middle of the city, past some incredible modern
buildings, as well as past some historical ones as well (Parliament, Big
Ben, Westminster Abby, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.) They were
really cool to see at night.

After the boat party we went to the afterparty at Ministry of Sound for
"Strictly Rhythm" night with Osunlade and Kenny Dope.  I have heard many
stories about this historic club and was excited to see it.  WOW. It's
CRAZY.  It's in the hood in South London and is MASSIVE.  It's REALLY nice
inside, with 4 rooms:  "the bar", "the Lounge", "the Box" (which is the
main room) and the "Baby Box."  Each room had a different DJ, and much to
my delight, all four rooms played totally danceable house music all night
long.  We couldn't decide which room to stay in!  How often does THAT
happen?  Usually I find myself wandering from room to room hoping to find
one that is worth staying in.  But that night, we just kept forcing
ourselves to move around so that we wouldn't miss anything in the other
rooms.

And the SOUND!  Whoa.  Upon entering the main room, there's a big sign
warning "Excessive Sound Levels."    "Excessive" is definitely the right
word.  It made the sound at the Vanguard seem amateur.  The Baby box had
about 15 differently sized disco balls and was very fancy.  The guys from
the boat party played in there and really  had the  crowd going.  We
stayed as late as we could but dancing in heels is really rough on the
feet. Since we were only in London for 2 days of our week long trip, we
didn't get to go out again. But just as in Paris, the people were super
kind to us.

A funny note:  I found that in the club in Paris, being from Detroit gave
us more street cred than being from LA. but in London, the opposite was
true.  Those Londoners are obsessed with Hollywood.

For this list, I will limit this post to the club stuff. If you're
interested in reading about the non-dance stuff, check out my blog at
www.europeanmadness.com  Right now, it's currently under review, i guess i
did something illegal?  But hopefully it will work soon.  If not, I'll
start a new one and post URL here again.

Thanks to the many people from this list who gave me advice about paris
and london.  It was very helpful!

Au revoir!
Amy Ricketts