I’ve heard some of North’s parties in Bristol have been some of their best yet, so I headed down to the South West to check it out for myself. I arrived at Lakota just before 11.00pm and had a relaxed search by the security. Security on the night were laid back and nobody had any problems with them, which was good to see. The first room you come into was the main arena which held about 700 people and was hosting the Technology arena, busting out banging hard trance all night. There was a stage at the front of the dancefloor and a balcony overlooking the arena, which was nice in case people needed to have a breather but could still enjoy the music. Overall I liked Lakota, could do with a new lick of paint and was a bit dingy, but it had a good underground feel to the place. Upstairs was the Radical room, which was hosting hardcore techno and gabba all night and where I planned to spend most of my time. This room was quite small and held about 200 people. To be honest I would have thought the Radical room would have been bigger being a North event, so I was a bit disappointed by that. But still the room reminded me like the old Technodrome at Skelter. Low ceiling, sweaty atmosphere, minimal lighting, loud sound system, up for it crowd……perfect surrounding for tekno if you ask me :) Actually the sound systems in both rooms were good and had been recently upgraded. Rage was the first set I saw, laying down some banging hardcore techno. He didn’t play as hard as I’ve heard from him in the past, not much speedcore from him this time, but it was still tough and intense. That’s what I love about North, the music is hard and fast from the off, no warm up business here. Next up on the decks was the old warhorse Scorpio. First class tuneage from the man, nice hard stomping stuff clocking on around the 230-240 bpm mark. His mixing ability, well lets just says its not the best, but his tune selection made up for it. The room was packed when he was on, so looks as though Scorps has still got the pulling power after all these years. It was now 1.00am, so I headed back downstairs to the main arena to catch Vortex + Steve Land’s set. Good set by these two, lots of hard German and Italian trance was on offer. But also a fair bit of techno was thrown in to the mix it up a bit more, which was nice to hear. The legendary Ribbzy was on the mic floating around on stage and doing what he does best. Producer was next on upstairs and I didn’t want to miss this as he’s always top draw. He didn’t disappoint, playing some new Deathchant, Rebel Scum, Social Parasite tuneage and putting Scorpio to shame in terms of displaying technical ability. Again the crowd were proper having it and bouncing off the walls. It seemed a lot of Northerners had travelled down for this event to join forces with the South West massive on the dancefloor. The atmosphere was really good throughout, I personally didn’t see any attitude all night and everyone seemed to be there to enjoy the music. DJ Randy from Italy followed on next in the Radical arena and he was excellent, set of the night for me. Started off with dark nu style gabba and then progressed into some banging hardcore techno as the set built up. Really enjoyed stomping to his set, I hope I get to see him play out again. He’s a sound guy too, I was chatting to him after his set and seemed to really appreciate the ravers and the scene in the UK. I fancied a bit of breather so I decided to chill out, which there were plenty of places to do so. Thrashed the pants of my mate at pool and was ready to take on all comers who dared challenge me. But I could hear DJ Dolphin calling on the dancefloor :) Dolphin was pretty good and played a nice mid paced set. He started off reasonably slowly, nicely building up the bpms taking the crowd with him. I love the way so many hardcore techno jocks, don’t stick to the same bpm and gradually pace their mix. MC Buzz was on form on the mic busting out the lyrics. For the last hour I ventured back to the main arena to catch Mark EG who was outstanding. Tough banging acid trance was the order of the day and went down a storm. The main arena was full until the end and I don’t think many people wanted to leave either. Overall another top quality North event. Once again the music was superb and I thoroughly enjoyed every single one of the sets I heard on the night, which doesn’t always happen when I go out raving. Just raw unrelenting underground in your face rave music. The crowd and atmosphere were proper up for it and everyone seemed to be hungry for more. Yeah, if you’ve never been to North or checked out a hardcore techno night before, open your mind up and go to one, I recommend it. Shouts to: Chedda, Conrad (old timer), Rich + Deb, Jctekno9999, Buzz, JD, Dave Enigma, Alarm, SFX, Strike, Walrus, Ludd (South West legend)
