Every DJ has one. A night when everything that can possibly go wrong does – and it does so in spectacular fashion.
ClashMusic brings you DJ Disasters, featuring some of the most respected figures in the dance world reminiscing about those moments when it all went badly wrong.
Mt. Wolf have always been open about their love of electronics. The band fuse a sense of the pastoral with an awareness of the power machines can carry, matching the darker aspects of traditional songwriting to the wide open space of the future. Yet this doesn't make them immune from the odd mis-hap. Invited to DJ in the United States, Mt. Wolf couldn't turn down the opportunity – with far reaching ramifications.
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Last May we had one of the most testing but also amazing DJing experiences of our lives. We're not sure when anything will come this close to complete meltdown again…
We had just played our first US show at Symbiosis Gathering festival in the Nevada Desert, having arrived the night before after a long but very beautiful journey from San Francisco. We survived the night, shook off the scorpions and started what we had come to do. We couldn't stop gawping at the scenery; unable to believe where we were – on stage, planted next to the vast Pyramid Lake at sunset, 4,000 feet above sea level. We were staying in teepees. There were crazy hippies everywhere. It was breath-taking and totally weird.
But during the live show and by the time we had launched into our DJ set, the entire valley had been engulfed in an apocalyptic sand storm. It was like the end of a futuristic world, to which we were desperately trying to provide the soundtrack, whilst also ejecting, to varying degrees of success, high volumes of sand from our eyes.
We were squinting out to all these barely-visible ravers below, throwing yogic shapes in their industrial-strength eye protection, desert boots and full body suits… We had just turned up, these pale English kids with no clue and dressed for a week on the Costa del Sol. Pretty much all our equipment became instantaneously coated in a thick layer of sand. Because we'd travelled so far to get there we were borrowing lots of little bits from other artists and one guy in particular started freaking out, jumping on stage and dismantling our set up around us as we tried to negotiate him leaving us with some essential items mid-rave. By the end we were left with the bare minimum.
The effects of all this were, and have continued to be, felt by all. Kate had decided to slap Vaseline on her face to try and combat the dryness of the air but ended up having to spend the next 3 days with a makeshift bandage on, cowering in the tiny bit of shade on site due to some pretty fetching sunburn she obviously acquired. Because it's a desert and Vaseline is petroleum jelly. Bassy has only just managed to individually massage all the sand out of the pads on his Maschine. Stevie and Alex still find sand in their guitar case and SPDSX respectively.
We had been well and truly taken down by the whole thing and Nevada absolutely showed us who is boss. But it was still one of the best gigs we have ever done.
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Mt. Wolf are fresh from the release of new EP 'Life Size Ghosts'. Find the band on Facebook HERE.
Photo Credit: Paul Bence
