Back From The Chi

Back From The Chi

Part II

It took me a minute to finally get to writing part 2 of our time in Chicago for Arc Music Festival, because writing about a festival is very much like going to a festival. Once you’re in it you’re in it, and whatever happens, happens. So, you just gotta go with it.

My two trips to Chicago are as much an example of this fact as any, and as I saw time and time again with this year’s edition, the city will ask more than you expected and it’s up to you to either respond, or not. With Day One it seems everybody responded. I mean, everybody.

From the minute we got to Union Park you could feel a different energy than the year before. Not as much anxiety coming out of quarantine, as the 2021 edition was the first festival back for many of us, and the tension was everywhere. Like, learning to walk again, last year was filled with apprehension that was replaced by excitement this year.

People weren’t as afraid, or self-conscious, or reserved this time. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that Day 1 of Arc Music festival went just about as hard as any Day 3 of a festival I have ever been to.

House and Techno FAM came to party in 2022, and it was a celebration of this city as well as one of the fact that we were finally starting to get some proper festivals of our own.

Day 1 started, strangely enough, nice and slow for my rave pal and I. We took our time recovering from what Pan-Pot did to everybody at Spybar the night before, and as the gates opened to the festival, we still remained in bed, eating Spaghetti together from our favorite spot in Chicago, Portillo’s.

It’s a secret pleasure of this traveling life that with every place you go, you also taste their local and favorite restaurants, and sometimes, those are what you miss the most when it’s time go.

As much as we loved the DJ’s playing to start day one, none of them could compare to our joy in finally eating that Spaghetti again. My only regret is not getting ribs too.

After taking our time, we finally felt fed and ready enough to enjoy the music, and as we boarded the green line, the energy was already building.

One of the huge advantages of this festival are the Subway lines of Chicago, which take you all around and back again, with this one dropping you right at the front door of the festival itself, causing Ubers to be secondary for a weekend.

We finally managed to get ourselves into the festival and facing the mainstage known as the Grid, dead on as Nora En Pure played that sultry smooth sound she seems to have such a skill at adapting to any stage she plays.

We have seen Nora at many spots in many different settings, and yet she always seems to know exactly how to adjust her sound to fit the dancefloor.

We didn’t stay long, though, as our priority was the Expansion stage, as Day 1 was dedicated to techno all day long. We barely missed Pan-Pot, but felt comforted by the fact that we saw them the night before, and found ourselves right at the beginning of a block that would consume both the majority of our day one at the festival but also our night at the afterparty.

Sama’ Abdulhadi, a Palestinian DJ once arrested during an event in her home country, started a heavy and authentic style of Techno that you could feel, and a perfect example of the sound she’s been spreading all around the world.

The weather was beautiful, with an overcast and cool weather, and the music was amazing, as Brazilian powerhouse Anna followed right after, continuing the energy and unity you always seem to feel from the Techno FAM, no matter where they’re from.

Techno is about us all being there collectively together, and enjoying this sound that has gone all around the world and back again.

Very much like House music, Techno was made in America but embraced in all corners of the world and these two DJs were such a good example of that as their ability and power could be felt at every drop of the beat.

Techno is Universal. Even Chicago knows that.

As Anna played with the Sunset and brought the crowd of techno freaks to an emotional peak, then the last DJ of the expansion stage came on. Richie Hawtin.

I’ve written many words and traveled many distances to see Richie Hawtin and every time has been outrageous in its own way.

Whether it’s in New York, or Detroit, or Los Angeles, or even here in Albuquerque that one time, Richie Hawtin seems to bring something a little different every time, while still staying true to that sound he’s championed for so long now.

Still though, even with saying that, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard Richie play the way he did that night to close out the stage. He seems to always be trying to prove something, and with this one Richie went hard. So hard. He had the sound system blasting and the entire crowd dancing with joy.

There’s this secret of Techno that if it’s really loud, really fast, and really heavy, it causes the people listening to go insane and happy. Richie did that to everybody that night.

We just danced and enjoyed how good he really sounded, and every now and then all I could do was muster the same words I always seem to say when I see Richie Hawtin:

“Fuckin Richie.”

We managed to pull ourselves away from Richie just in time to finish the night at the Elrow stage where Chris Lake was controlling the beat in the way only he can, and true to its from, Elrow was as colorful and outrageous as you’d expect it to be.

Chris Lake is one of my favorite producers and DJ’s, and perhaps one of the very few that would justify me leaving Richie Hawtin, but needless to say, seeing Chris at the Elrow stage is an experience I knew I couldn’t miss, and by all standards he did exactly what he always does.

There was even a moment, near the end, where he actually did what any good DJ seems to know how to do. He pulled at our emotions, this time, playing Innerbloom, by Rufus Du Sol, but only the chorus, only enough to hurt just a little.

Only to get your attention long enough just to drop right into his own track, ‘Turn off the lights’, which caused everyone to go crazy, and sing along in unison as the confetti flew and everybody was dancing.

From there Chris finished with the Bob Sinclair track ‘World, Hold On,’ which samples the classing Frankie Knuckles song ‘The Whistle Song,’ and you could feel how insanely wild night one really was.

Starting in one place and ending in another. Going crazy to techno with Richie Hawtin and then singing our hearts out with Chris Lake. Chicago asked everything of us for day one, and in return House and Techno FAM gave everything back. I mean, everything.

As the silence carried over, and we all made our way out of the festival grounds, I just kept thinking one amazing fact that will always represent the day for me.

“Holy shit, Sonya. That was only day One.”

And that’s not even including, the afterparty.