tINI & Guti at Factory7, Shoreditch

Posted

tINI was one of my heroes of 2012, with her weekly radio show in Ibiza and amazing, fresh underground house music and her free parties, she was my number 1 recent discovery. Twice I was supposed to see her for the first time last year, both in Ibiza and fabric, but both times for stupid reasons I didn’t make it.

I was massively excited all last week, especially given how it was 9 weeks since I had been on a dancefloor and the cravings were overwhelming.

I just about managed to not get wasted on Friday night and even had a few hours sleep. However it all started to go wrong from Saturday morning, pre-party plans were cancelled, my dancing partner advised she was unlikely to make it so I didn’t know whether to try to find someone else, go by myself or just not bother, I couldn’t find anywhere to watch the football (Hull City is not exactly a massive crowd-puller in the pubs of Reading especially when competing with that shite egg-chasing), we lost, I received £200 of bills which I cannot afford and I just managed to work myself into a foul mood.

We’ve both come close to cancelling on each other at the last minute, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I have done all-nighters the night before a big night, but thankfully this wasn’t going to be the first time, though by time we met up neither of us were in the mood but the show must go on and all those kind of sayings.

We didn’t have to queue too long to get in, the venue I mostly liked (Factory7 in Shoreditch), a fairly basic warehouse space which gave it an certain edginess, however the toilets would have been insufficient for an art gallery – certainly not suitable for a 1,000 ish person rave – space for 4 guys – my friend had to queue 30 minutes for the ladies, and there were not enough people behind the bar though in the end I chose to drink the absolute minimum so I didn’t have to use the disgusting toilets any more than absolutely necessary.

The crowd were ok, 50% cool, 50% twats – you know the sort, 18-year old chavs who think they have more right than anyone else to exist. To be expected nowadays given the popularity of house music, especially when even the likes of tINI are interviewed for The Sun. It is far from a niche thing nowadays. I even saw people with boxing gloves in there. Boxing gloves – house music? What is happening?

Generally the set-up and organization was good, to be expected from the reliable LWE outfit that run many events, lighting system was good though the sound-system was struggling at the beginning, far too quiet – however as soon as tINI came on the volume and sound quality stepped up several levels (I assume she was playing vinyl) and it went up several levels from flat to off the hook.

tINI was even better than I was expecting, I think she started later than expected, we struggled to get near enough to the front to be sure – well we did briefly but soon retreated with all the I’m-too-important idiots pushing to the front and dickheads smoking. Combining a few favourites from her radio shows with some more beefy sounding house music and on a punchy, clear sound-system, it was an exceptional DJ performance.

Around 2am, Guti came on for his live performance – I’m not a massive fans of live performances, sound quality was not as good, musically took a step into more relaxed territory. 1 hour is more than enough for me on a live performance – 2 hours was way too much. But even at 4am when tINI was due to start again, the music didn’t change, it was sounding increasingly flat and it didn’t sound as if tINI came back on. I read on her Facebook page that she was suffering from fever, perhaps that was the reason.

Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. Either way our hearts were not in it any more and we left at 5am to seek solace elsewhere.

A short walk to Hoxton ensued and we ended up at the brilliantly named, Dented Melons. More of a tech0house to techno vibe though nothing too full-on, with Guido Schneider headlining. Took a little bit of time to get into it but it was good – the venue, the Victorian Vaults, if I recall correctly, was more like what you would expect of Berlin – arty and purposely falling apart with a choice of about 3 different drinks behind the bar. Curiously with a Funktion One sound-system.  And enough toilets! My kind of place.

It was a nice and friendly crowd there and we hitched a lift with our new-found temporary friends to an after-party in Dalston, kind of deludedly hoping for it to be some mansion-house that was going off but instead was a small dingy smoky basement and we weren’t really feeling it so wandered around in the cold rain looking for a taxi, and ended up having to get a second taxi as we managed to get dropped off at the wrong place.

The main failing was expectations being too high and not being in the best frame of mind.

If I were to rate the night out right now I would give it a 4 out of 10. Ask me tomorrow when my comedown is in full effect, it might struggle to get a 1 out of 10. Ask me on Thursday, my most despised day of the year and I will punch you.

Ask me when the dust has settled next Saturday and I will likely appreciate it for the good fun it was and give it a 7 out of 10.

Next up is Nina Kraviz and several others at Secretsundaze on Easter Thursday. Though before then I have a couple of planned nights out in little old Reading which I am really looking forward to as they should both be well-attended by lots of my closest most-wonderful friends, a hell of a lot of fun, and a long-overdue catch up piss-up with my closest friend from my university days – nearly 15 years of friendship – typical northerners!

Would love to squeeze in a trip to fabric before however reality is that bills need to be paid first. Stupid austerity. Unless Ricardo is playing.

Not every night is perfect, not every night can meet my very high expectations and not every night I am on top form – but as the saying goes, it could have been worse.

tINI was sensational and I cannot wait to see her again.