Fresh from one of the most popular Ibiza dance parties ever, “F*** Me I’m Famous”, David Guetta was billed as one of the biggest French superstars Paris has to offer. Its been a while coming, but dance music has matured to the extent that French House Anthem for stadiums is a viable alternative to the original English version which soared in the early 1990s and has been a staple ever since. Crowd-warmer Shamus had the guests jumping up and down, literally, before the man arrived to an MC’d fanfare of photographers and hangers-on.
Looking like he just walked in from a beach on Ibiza, David was all blonde with that sort of French bowl haircut that is so daggy its cool. He started with a classic by the legendary Larry Levan, “This Is House”, which, so many renditions, was played without the beginning. Larry would be turning in his grave! Not that it mattered to the guests. This song wins the dance party wherever and whenever it is played. It is, after all, the song that created House Music. David Guetta continued in his stadium dj style whipping it up with all his groovy, infectious hits, Just a Little More Love” and “Just For One Day”, which, as if you didn’t know, is a rework of David Bowie’s “Heroes”.
The wild, uproarious Easter weekend crowd was almost drowned by the frighteningly loud volume. The main room at the Arthouse is big, but its not a stadium. The sound bounced around the cavernous, high-ceilinged hall with nowhere to go but into the guests ears. Usually an important frill of the live dance music party, there didn’t appear to be any lighting except for dimmers.
So we moved upstairs to my favourite Arthouse place, The Attic Room. In this soulful environment, Danny Bass was selecting live with a trumpeter, saxophonist and drummer jiving along in a Samba style, Samba Sound System. These beats were easy to move to. Val the Knife, Miss Jane from Hong Kong, Micky of the Royal Chinese Dynasty and his Brazilian girlfriend, immediately started dancing at the bar. Danny Bass is always entertaining with an innovative twist.
It’s uplifting to see such close interaction between traditional live instruments and the contemporary dj, in this case creating a stylish, soulful series of beats and rhythms that my ears found soulful, soothing and uplifting. Smily stuff.Many of the guests I spoke to were regular Kink-goers, although a couple had come out just for the Easter weekend.
The Arthouse was well-attended, tickets having sold out a few days earlier. The guests were varied, dressed-up, relaxed and wild all at the same time in the multiple areas of the Arthouse including the chill atrium, the Broke n Beats room and the place where the coolest hang, the capacious stair-landings every 50 steps or so at the back of Hotel.
