Sonar in London

25 Chalk Farm Rd, London, NW1 8AG

As I wrote once in this blog before, one of the issues I had no clue before coming to London is electronic music. Extending my trainee period in this matter a bit more, last lesson was a little piece of taste of what is according to quite a lot of people one of the best electronic music festivals in the world: Sonar in Barcelona. Before that big event some of the bands/DJs performing there did an appetizer show in London, in the Roundhouse, Camden.

The roundhouse is a former engine shed reopened three years ago as an arts hub. This is a New Labour project –even while the theatre existed quite a lot of years before - owned by the local council and this means that you will not be ripped off for gigs that otherwise might be terribly expensive, as it could be the case of the gig I’m writing about now. A fairly big space for about 3,000 people, the building is a little piece of art with all its columns, its iron work and its vibe. In three words: A Fantastaic Venue.

That specific day, I have to say that decoration was very good, with quite a lot of psychedelic stuff, lights and all the business as usual Ibiza paraphernalia. The only flaw I could spot was that the music came from the stage only, as they didn’t set any speakers in the back side of the venue. That wasn’t a real problem, and can be even considered a positive point as the place wasn’t too packed: you could go to the stage border line if you wanted to, or you could step back in order to have a chat with someone while enjoying a drink.

Talking about drinks, 3.50 for a pint of Becks is a fair price given the bands playing and the quality of the venue. No complains about that, at least from my side.

The first guy to perform was Angel Molina, a DJ from Barcelona fairly famous for experimenting with different sounds and trends. He developed a fairly progressive session, starting very chilled out and ending a bit more energetic. The problem of his show was pretty obvious, though: it started at 20:00, so no more than 20 people were attending from the very beginning – I was one of them – and no more than 100 at the end. Obviously, you can do whatever it is in your hands, but in such an empty place it is very difficult to generate the party mood that this type of music requires. So I’ll spare this one as his failure, as it really was the audience’s – or lack of- one.



Second one was Jeff Mills – more about here in this post-, and obviously, that is a completely different story. The place got completely packed for his session, and he didn’t deceive at all. He started the session with fairly innovative sounds and images on the big screen – yes, there was a massive screen – that lasted about 15-20 minutes, and after that he just played what he knows how to do better: pure Detroit techno. You could see the faces of everybody on the front line enjoying the experience really a lot, and it was real and healthy enjoyment at that point, as it was still 22.00 and not enough time to get hammered had passed yet. The vibe was incredible at that point. Obviously the classic queues in the toilets you get in these gigs were present, but I don’t think people were more fucked up that in any club any weekend.

Anyway, Mr. Mills session ended with a flash experience – we were literally flashed from two big flashes that appeared in two gaps in the middle of the screen – and everybody dancing and enjoying good techno. My lack of expertise in the matter does not allow me to give a more precise description of the music, but that is not what this post is about, you can always go to somewhere else if you want to check that.



After Mills it was time for Plaid DJ. A guy that comes up to the stage just with a Mac is not very promising- how are you mixing music then: pushing ctrl+F2? Fuck off!!!. Anyway, sort of cheese drum and bass that I didn’t particularly liked at all. A good chance to have some drinks and chat up a bit, though.

After that, my personal discovery of the night: Moderat. Those German guys know what their racket is, and they know it well. They covered the stage with DJ sets, screens, visual effects and all sort of junk you may imagine, but, at the end of the day, their music was just great. The three guys altogether mixing sounds at the same time, they generated an experience that at some point remembered me Holy Fuck, but in a harder way – stronger beats and more revolutions.



Everybody went crazy at some point of the gig, and the guys were really friendly with the crowd, more like rock stars than the classic cliché about a DJ with his earphones and ‘this is my business’ pose. Greatly enjoyable, those guys, and a personal recommendation if for some reason they come around to your town.

Finally, Erol Alkan, a fellow Londoner DJ that became famous in The End playing electro, did a good electro session. At that point everybody was quite drunk – the Moderat experience pushed us to do it -, so my opinions about it may not be very precise. I enjoyed it, that’s all I can say.


And finally, at 3.00, curfew. A great band they were… :). This is just a joke between Vlad and myself, as I asked what curfew played, and, well, if you check in your dictionary what curfew means as I did, you’ll get the meaning to the joke – and by the way, you’ll feel as depressed as I did about how many fucking different words are in this in the other hand lovely language.

Tyla and Dogs d'Amour at Bull and Gate

389 kentish town, NW5 london

Some times there are gigs you go just for the sake of doing something that day, instead of staying in your place, or maybe to keep someone company. Typically on those you have no real interest in the band playing, and the real motivation is the night out and the beers that come with it. And also typically those are great nights, even the best ones.

Dogs D’Amour last Saturday was one of them, and , I can say, one of the best gigs I’ve been in London. The one to praise for the chance was Cesar, who loves Hard Rock, no matter how out of fashion it may be.

The band has more than 25 years history on the stages. To be accurate, the singer and frontman, Tyla, has been on the stages for that time, as he is the only remaining member of the original band. He always was the core of it, though, and he proved why well enough that night.
Their music is pure hard rock with some glamm dosis, something between Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones, if you want. Just a video to show what I’m talking about…



The gig had basically three parts. Within the first one they rocked some of their more famous hits, and they showed off as a pretty compact and solid band, with a particularly outstanding bass player and a drummer and guitarist that did their work alright. After several hits, the drummer and the bass went to have some drugs to the dressing room and Tyla and the guitarist stayed for performing some unplugged staff, with acoustic guitars both. Here they mixed some of their classics with Tylas more recent solo songs, and even they performed a new single that apparently is going to be released in his new solo album. The concert at this point became certainly touching, as you can see someone who used to fill big venues -3,000 to 5,000 people – playing for a band of guys no bigger than 200 or 300, and at that point you realize that even while that music is not trendy any more, it is still great music that has its public and fans. The songs remembered me some of the acoustic albums of Bruce Springsteen, but with a classic British ironic wink .

The last part of the gig came when one of the acoustic guitars proved to be out of tune, reason that Tyla cashed in on to get the band together again and play another handful of classic themes. They didn’t do any encores, but at that point, having paid just ten quid, everybody was more than satisfied.


The band playing before was not too remarkable: more hard rock, but lacking the quality that the main band naturally has. They did something completely unexpected, though: on their last 10 minutes melodic song an artistic dancer came with them and, dancing on her tiptoes a complex-to-define modern artistic dance, did at the same time a strip tease. As the song was good, the girl was awesome, her dancing was pretty suggestive and elegant at the same time, and her tits were just perfect, that was one of the highlights, if not THE highlight, of the night. Again, for 10 quid you usually don’t get a stripper working in London.

And about the venue, the Bull and Gate, the place is worth a post on the blog on its own. Located in one of my favourite areas in London, Kentish Town, the place is split in two main buildings: a venue room with space for about 200-250 people, and the main pub. The venue is ok, a square room with a fairly good acoustic that in this occasion was decorated with Tyla paintings – yes, he is a painter, and a poet with a couple of books published too. About the pub, I really like it. It is one of those old looking pubs with plenty of decoration, a central bar with an even distribution around it, including some sofas, tables and chairs, and most importantly, fairly prized beers starting at 3,10 the Carling. The atmosphere before gigs obviously depends of the band playing that night, but as the range they cover is always rock-related, you may expect the classic leather-attired chaps completely covered by tattoos in every single skin gap. Good mood everywhere. My friend Vlad says that those days that no band’s playing it is much quieter, and he is a guy to be trusted. Even being quiet I reckon it is a very good option, though.