Trentemøller and Tiger Stripes are two very different DJs; the former has been on top of his game for the past few years, producing some wonderful remixes and being sought after by artists around the world. Tiger Stripes is a relatively recent arrival on the scene but no less impressive. It was time for the Swede to take the top deck and the Dane to lay out the beats in the main arena of the Family for a night of driving techno.
Making our way upstairs we started the night in Uncle and caught Worth DJ laying done some obese beats that already had the night kicked off with heady enthusiasm, the podiums were never empty and it was clear the crowd in Uncle were going to be up for it.Chris Wilson was making his mark on the main stage and doing a good job of keeping the punters dancing until he made way for Audun who kept the momentum up and started filling out the spaces left on the floor.
Coming on earlier than billed, Trentemøller took to the booth to a somewhat muted reception but as soon as his set started up the crowd responded in kind. The playlist for the night was certainly set to ‘random’ as he doled out some 80s reworkings and some more recent offerings. Kicking off the night was a nice instrumental edit of *The Cure*’sLullaby that led into a very effects-driven Go by Moby, one of Trentemøller’s choicest remix. It might have been dropped a little too early in the night as the previous enthusiasm began to wane, however the suggestions of a certain Richard D Jamestrack was seeping in and out of the set more fluidly than a greased up fox, and when the Trentemøller alias Run Jeremey remix of Windowlicker was finally given a going over, the crowd, the Easter Duracell Bunny, and the dancing girls all went crazy. He’d been dropping hints of it for about an hour and it was very much appreciated when the track finally hit.
All of this good work however was almost undone when Smells Like Teen Spirit blasted out of the speakers. I’m not quite sure what the explanation is for the repeated use of this by house DJs but it can grate when everyone from the Scratch Perverts to Trentemøller insist on including it in a set. Thankfully the very popular Moan made up for the previous indiscretion and we were back on track, especially when a tasty breaks modeling of The Boss’s State Trooper.
The rest of the set was taken up with some 80s classics like *Joy Division*’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and *The Eurythmics*’ Sweet Dreams, which he ended on. Before Annie Lennox’s last breath had even left the speaker, Trentemøller had his coat on and was out the door and people didn’t have a chance to catch their breath before Jason Morley & Habebe took to the decks. It was just enough time to go back to Uncle and catch the rest of Tiger Stripes, who’d successfully whipped the crowd into a frenzy with his stomping house tunes.
The energy hadn’t depleted since leaving Uncle during Trentemøller; the mini strobes and smoke were put to good use and Stripes had managed to master a big club sound with an expansive sounding set in the relatively intimate setting of Uncle. Where Trentemøller had gone for the big names, and the recognisable tracks that got a rise out of most but at times irritated others who knew what he was really capable of, Tiger Strips was all about the music for music’s sake. The piano and synth driven goodness of his techno is plain to hear and so when he asks RUFeelingMe, you respond with your feet.
Aside from the usual number of toe-crushingly hilariously tanned trotters that block the stairwells and will writhe up against anything with a pulse, the Family crowd on this particular Saturday night were surprisingly warm and receptive. The night went off well; the floors were packed, the Duracell Bunny was hopping to the beats, the dancing girls were dancing, and the music was pumping, though it could have pumped a little louder.
