BCN - Slow Bar

"Mañana" We were told by our promoter, that is the first word we got to learn in Spain. It means "tomorrow". This is the excuse why the post is one day late! I only did what I was told :)

On Friday, I visited Barcelona for my Spain debut!
The venue´s name, where DJ Apocryf invited me to play at his Insoulent Rec. Label lounch, was Slow. It has a fantastic LED lightning system, have a look at the pic. It was crowded and Apocryf did a warm up, that totally matched my taste, playing Belleruche, Zebra Baby, CLP...!
The cocktails were great, no wonder; the Barkeeper was European Champion in mixing Cocktails.I love the atmosphere of Barcelona but unfortunately we only had a little time for sightseeing, so Apocryf took us on a ride through the city, breaking all kind of traffic rules just to make sure, that we would see as many places as possible.
We will return!

Live Shows Part 6 //// Bottrop (D) //// 31.10.10

Kay Shanghai from Hotel Shanghai in Essen had the crazy idea to put up an outdoor festival at the end of October!
Today he invited a couple of artists to Schloss Beck, a fun park for children, very old fashioned and nice.I played along side acts like Aeroplane, Jimmy Edgar, The Juan MacLean, Freakatronic and many more!
Next to the music the second highlight were the joyrides. There was sun all day and I enjoyed the roller-coaster, water-slides etc. and went to the backstage in the heart of the old castle. Take a look at the pics and get an idea of the fun we had and see Grappy and his pony.

Live Shows Part 5 //// Dortmund (D) //// 20.06.09

This day, I was about to write history. 

At least a bit, 

though only 50 people might remember.

I was the first act to ever play the newly build and not even finished FZW in Dortmund. I knew the old FZW and thought it would be app. the same venue size, but I was wrong. We arrived early and I was really impressed. The ceiling was about 10 meters from the ground in the hall I was about to play, with enough space to cover 1300 people and there were two other floors and a beer garden. The whole FZW was still bare brickwork, but the soundsystem and lightning looked good to me. (have a look at this link) The backstage was very comfortable and we shared ours with Freakatronic, which always means lots of fun. The other act on the bill was Mediengruppe Telekommander, I saw them playing sever

al times already but never with a drummer, so I was looking forward to this. Soundcheck was rather short and not really promising. And it proofed to be true, when I entered stage, (on time 21.30h) I faced about five seconds reverberation. 

This made the stage sound appear as if the beats only consisted of wobbling bass sounds. And the concrete walls added a scary screaming sound that build up through most of my songs. Not really perfect condition, but I truly enjoyed it for some reason. 

And the people liked it too, at least some bought my records afterwards. But maybe just to check what my music sounds like played normally. We partied with Freakatronic and took a ride back home together. Another great night has come to its end.

Live Shows Part 4 //// Berlin (D) //// 30.05.09

Berlin, Berlin. It was German Football Cup and we were expecting lots of traffic jam. If there was any traffic jam, we must have missed it.

So far, so good. This time Crocke, our good mate, accompanied us for one and a half nice days in Berlin. He just returned from New York City, and two of his travel mates were kept in quarantine because they got the swine flu.  

Yes, obviously I was a bit afraid driving with him for 5 hours in a car, sleeping in a room and again driving 5 hours, especially as I found out both of his ankles were swollen and hurt with out any reason.

 But you know, no risk, no fun.

We arrived at our lovely hotel called "Hotel Fortuna" and indeed we were lucky to have such a nice place to sleep. The venue "Villa" (yep, it is an old brewery mansion indeed) was not too far so we drove there for a little soundcheck. If you ever come to Berlin and you are into street art go and visit the Villa, lots of nice graffiti from the outside. After the soundcheck we had lots of time because my performance was scheduled 04:45h in the morning. (And it even got later, of course) Lots of time to meet some of the nice people we performed with that night. Just to mention two, that are worth checking out, Boom Monk Ben who start to perform after I finished at 5:40h and Schlachthof Bronx from Munich. Check their webspace. Before the night, I was excited to see Thunderheist perform, but the club was so packed and hot, I was not able to enjoy their whole set. I got a nice chat with Chris de Luca from CLP, and when it was time for my performance I was not as exhausted as I thought I might be. 

The whole room was fogged (have a look at the pic) 

and water was running down the laptop screen. But after several tries it switched on and we were ready to rock.

It was a fun gig and a fun night, and when we left the Villa we were "blinded by the lights". (Mike Skinner gonna see you soon! Yeah!) After a bit of sleep we enjoyed our stay while having brunch at a small garden cafe in the sun. Felt like holidays. So one more time I arrived in Essen, healthy and happy. EMMA : Swine Flu - 1:0.

Here is some mix for your next 5h drive: Boom Monk Ben - Benny Boom turn that Bass up louder (mp3)

Live Shows Part 3 //// Solingen (D) //// 23.05.09

When ever you guys are planning on driving to Solingen, be aware there are two central stations. One old and one new. And no, they are not next to each other.

On the 23rd of may, thanks to Dome, I played at the Cobra in Solingen. The Cobra is close to the central station, but not to the one we ended up driving around. We had to ask for the way and I am not sure what the guy was thinking of who explained the way to us on the basis of bus routes instead of streets. We decided not to wait till a bus arrives which we could follow but to find the way on our own. We finally made it and still had time for a quick sound check. 

Now let me take the chance to introduce Marco to you (its the guy who I am talking to on the pic). He mastered my vinyl tracks at "Skyline Tonfabrik". I am verry happy with what he did to the tracks. After discussing the pros an cons of vegetarian lifestyle it was show time. I just recovered from a cold that day, so I didn't fell that good performing. And afterwards we had to leave rather quick, accompanied by one of my all time favourite songs, Funkytown. I am just into cowbells. Aiming for our beds we were caught by a speed camera. Still waiting for that ticket.

Have a good start into the week and don't get caught speeding,

EMMA 

Live Shows Part 2 //// Luedenscheid (D) //// 25.04.09

Time to keep my promise. It is nearly two month in the past, but I wanna let you know about some of my gigs and share some pics. On April the 25th I was invited by TiniundTus to play at the venue Alte Druckerei in Luedenscheid. Electro Ferris from Deichkind was headlining the night. I wanna be honest with you, when we arrived in Luedenscheid and saw the people on the street where the club was at, we were a bit afraid of the audience (groundless as we found out later). We were going to play with another band called Susanne Blech, which are really kind people with a highly funny & energetic show. After we arrived in the backstage and had a little snack, the worst thing that could ever happen happened. 

There was no champagne at the backstage. 

As I was thinking about how I could possibly manage a show without my sparkling wine;-), the promoter (who might have been a bit afraid) showed up with three bottles. You can tell how happy I was by having a look at the first pic. (By the way, having a look at the Open Source shirt I am wearing on the pic, don't miss this years Open Source Festival w/ EMMA, The Streets, Prefuse 73, CLP and many more) I was scheduled to play at 10pm. I couldn't believe anyone would show up this early, but when I left the backstage at 10.30 the club was packed. 

It was a great show, the crowd was very nice and seemed to enjoy my music a lot. Another bonus was Bilderwilderer our lovely VJ, who joined us again. As he can't attend all of my concerts this is always a great extra to the performance.

Afterwards we had some good talks and  relaxed a bit (have a look at the other pic. homelike.) before we drove back home. 

Live Shows Part 1 //// Duesseldorf (D) //// 16.01.09

As I already promised, I am trying to give a short review on every gig I played.

Please feel free to send pics, vids and write about your impressions.

I am going to start with the Familia Electronica party at the Rotkompot in Duesseldorf.

It was the opening party of this fresh monthly club night.

As part of the Rich Kidz collective, I was invited to play.

Opening Parties are fun. The promoters thought the venue owns turntables and vice versa.

So we ended up driving around hiring turntables from another venue. (Thanks to the Zakk)

Due to this, soundcheck was rather short.

But the venue started getting packed soon (have a look at the pic) and we ended up having lots of fun.