Dj Disasters: Zombie Nation

When it all goes wrong...

Clash recently streamed German producer Zombie Nation's 'RGB' album (hear it HERE) but today we thought we'd ask about less triumphant times for the latest in our series of Dj Disasters.

"A few years back I played a show in Oostende at the Belgian North Sea coast. It was a festival hall with about 4000 people. My live-setup at the time was centered around a huge Akai MPC 4000, which I used to drag around in one of these big Samsonite cases, padded in foam. While having a few drawbacks, once the machine stands on stage it was just the best thing to play with.

I think it was about half an hour into my set, I was enjoying it, everybody was really into it. Out of nowhere Steve, the drummer of Soulwax, appears on stage with an entourage of girls. They were dancing erratically, headbanging and chasing each other across the big stages. Not long after their mysterious appaerance, it made a it made a loud 'click'. The music was off completely. It took a few seconds to realize that one of the expressive dancers had tripped over a power cable that was not secured properly. My machines were off and I knew immediately that this was not good. Reloading 200 MB on the MPC 4000 … well it takes forever.

From back when I used to do warehouse parties I know that short power outages can elevate the mood and help enhance the party mood. But this was different – the break was too long, and it was terrible.

I could not stay on stage looking at the load progress bar creeping forward in slow motion. So I went behind the curtain, sweating cold and cursing constantly. My life flashed in front of my eyes. And then there are these thousand little voices. You hear just the blabering of thousands of people and you know they talk about you. I mean they talk about whatever and maybe the situation or who is going to get a beer. But you think they all talk about you messing up. You feel like an idiot if you can´t pull of jokes, sing or play acoustic guitar to bridge the break. Your art is worth nothing without electricity.

After what seemed like the longest 13 minutes of my life, I went back on stage and continued the rest of the show. It was OK, and even though the spirit never reached the heights of before the break, it still turned out to be a nice show after all.  

I spent the following full month to transfer my set to the newer and more travel friendly MPC 1000, reducing loading time to exactly one minute and eleven seconds."

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