Back from the Chi

Part 1

Just got back from the Chi and my ears are still ringing, my feet are still tapping, and my head is still flyin’.

No city in the world could give me the weekend of House and Techno that Chicago just gave me and how could any of it have been real?

From Spybar to Smartbar, as complete a trip as we’d ever experience through the heart and soul of what we now call House and Techno.

But where one starts the other ends, and sometimes on the road to the party you bought a ticket for, you’ll often find the one you never knew existed in the first place.

What the city offered me this time was a redo, not just with Arc Music Festival, taking place at Union Park Sept 3rd-5th, but also with a place I often dreamed of, perhaps more than any other city in the world, and yet this time it would be so much more.

My dreams could never be,
the reality, that I would see,
in the windy
city.

Our original plan was to fly in a day later than we actually did, but the trip changed so we simply adapted like we always do. A subtle secret of the road is that you have to prepare for things to go wrong, or at the least, change, and you have to be ready to work around them.

In this case it was a good change, as we had somehow managed to get two tickets to the sold out Arc pre party at Spybar with the German Techno duo known all around the world as Pan-Pot.

No matter what city I’ve seen them in, or what time slot they play, I’ve found them to be absolutely world class with both their sound and their energy.

Pan-Pot is the type of act that you change your plans for, so we did.

We arrived in the early evening just before Sunset and as a friend from New Mexico on the same flight began to sing, you could tell the vibe of the city had already overtaken us again,

“I’m drunk, I’m high, and I’m in Chicago.”

We sang along as we wandered through the airport and found our way back to the life that’s spent in Airports and Hotels, Dancefloors and Warehouses. The House and Techno Life.

There aren’t very many of us that believe in this lifestyle, and yet somehow, we still manage to find each other on the same roads to the same places.

The two friends we departed with alone we had seen in Detroit, New York, and even the year before in Chicago.

It would start a theme of the weekend for us as we’d spend the entire time reconnecting with friends we met throughout our travels for this music. Chicago this year would be as much about love as it would be about music. I suppose we knew that, though.

After saying goodbye to our friends, we took the Orange line straight into the heart of Chicago, and began focusing immediately on the night ahead.

If House music was what brought us to this city, Techno would be what would help us survive it, in one way or the other.

Spybar had been a place friends had told us about for years, and it always had the reputation of being a small, yet solid place to hear the best DJ’s up close and personal in a very unique and direct way.

What I liked is that it was about four blocks from our hotel, causing it to be the easiest trip to an afterparty we’d make all weekend long in the crazy city that is known as Chicago.

After wandering the streets in confusion for a few minutes we finally stumbled upon the front door of the club, which was in an alleyway that you probably wouldn’t even notice walking by.

The club itself was in the basement and it very much gave me a déjà vu of the week before when we were in the BASEMENT in NY, but unlike there this club definitely had the big stage touch to it.

The crowd was grooving and bouncing to the sounds of Chicago’s own DJ Hyperactive as we walked in, and you could already feel the Techno fam take over the city a little bit.

It would be a true balance we’d struggle with all weekend long. We love the funk of House, but still here we are, on a Thursday, in a basement, listening to Techno.

Sometimes you just are who you are.

The club itself was very hip and low-key. You could walk right up to the DJ if it wasn’t too crowded, and you could hang back in the darkness if that’s your thing too.

It offered something you don’t see in many clubs, and I feel so grateful to have spent this one night with DJ Hyperactive and Pan Pot as the ones in charge of the music.

I suppose the highlight of the night for me would have been a little bit into the night, hearing DJ Hyperactive play a very much loved Donna Summer song, mixed over heavy beats.

I couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that we were having such a moment. We could have been anywhere, and yet we chose to be there, enjoying that exact one. It was a great one to have, and also one of the last ones I’d remember of the night after that.

After that Pan-Pot came on, and what’s so great about them is that their sound is so powerful and overwhelming that it kind of just blanks out the night for you.

I can remember them playing, and us dancing, and seeing friends from L.A., and some more from New Mexico, and we even made some new ones we’d see all weekend. It was just a whirlwind of fun and techno. Kinda always the way it goes, if I’m being honest.

We even went outside for a minute to enjoy the air, surrounded by the humidity Chicago would have all weekend, and it was truly amazing to feel. Sitting there, under the Chicago skyline, while all the world slept and prepared for the workday ahead; We, the lovers of techno, found a place to have that feeling again.

By the time the last track was played I assume they must have played for maybe 2-3 hours and yet again, I remember little else other than smoke, and fog, and strong drinks, and some other stuff, and the hard hitting European Techno that you could only hear in Chicago on that night.

We celebrated and clapped and made our way up the stairs, spilling out into the morning that used to be night, and as everybody else waited for their Uber’s and their Taxis, we simply strolled away, leaving Spybar, and what we felt, behind.

From there we’d stumble through the streets, finding spots to kiss and enjoy the night just a little while more, before finally finding our hotel room where we, for a moment, marveled at one simple fact. This wasn’t even day one. This was just the pre party.

The madness wasn’t supposed to start until we woke up, but the only problem with that, was that we weren’t done dreaming yet.

End of part 1