When I first heard the advertisement for the upcoming Udar, I was puzzled. The name had changed (instead of the already familiar “Vostochny Udar,” the fashionable newUDAR.MUSIC), and a drum and bass arena had been added. My curiosity became more cautious. Then the lineup appeared. In principle, it brought no particular surprises, except, perhaps,Jenna G. Apparently, the pleasure I experienced back in the day while listening to the super-hit by the groupUn-cut“Midnight” was still lingering somewhere in the corners of my subconscious, and, when Jenna G appeared in the lineup, burst out into the open. In general, it is not often that Saint Petersburg raves can seriously interest me these days.
If a theatre begins with its cloakroom, then any rave or club outing begins with the entrance (security, personal searches, face control). Standing out in the October downpour was extremely uncomfortable, but there was nothing to be done about it: the weather was beyond the organisers’ control. In principle, we got inside fairly quickly. There were no cloakrooms left, though, but I had hardly dared to hope for one. Non-smokers were probably grateful to the organisers that smoking was prohibited in the permanent toilets. As a result, the familiar “swamps” did not form, and visibility, in the absence of smoke, improved from arm’s length to normal. However, people who need nicotine, I think (judging by myself), were not thrilled at having to squeeze through two narrow passages into a damp enclosure where there were so many people that you could not turn around. In general, I don’t know—maybe it was for the best—but they could at least have put up some sort of roof against the rain. By the way, once in the VIP area, a security guard also approached me and demanded that I stop smoking at the table. He said there were bins by the VIP-area exit and that smoking was allowed only there. This raised two questions for me: why were there ashtrays on every table, and what was the point of smoking practically in the main arena? No answer followed. One of the final drawbacks was the absence of spirits in all the bars. Yes, it was good that there was at least canned beer of reasonably acceptable varieties. A whisky tasting helped to some extent. But a bartender’s excuse that they had no licence looked rather unserious. All right. That concludes the organisational drawbacks. Let’s move on to the music itself.
Perhaps, after the whole event, there is only one thing I personally can regret. According to the schedule,Jenna Gwas supposed to perform withZincbut in reality it turned out that she performed withSSinstead. During Zinc’s set, it wasSSentertaining the crowd with a microphone in hand—which was amusing ;). Perhaps some people will find my opinion too subjective, but in my view the best set belonged toZinc. Maybe it was because we had already heard the other guests more than once, or maybe it was because he has [Zinc] simply FANTASTIC technique. I probably hadn’t danced at raves for about three years. And then—would you believe it—I was jumping around like a madman. I suppose that if I had heard Jenna G’s magnificent vocals at that moment, the euphoria might have swept me away for the rest of my life. Right, now for the others.
Raidenarrived without his beloved Final Scratch this time, which, generally speaking, did not have much effect on the quality of his set. Probably the best option for keeping the dancefloor going in the morning.
Shy FX, in my opinion, overused the old hits. Although the crowd was having fun. Well, consider this the opinion of an old-timer who heard some of the tracks from this set as many as five years ago.
SSperformed as always—at a high level. The dancefloor was going wild, and the strobes were pounding.
I would also like to add a couple of words about the event as a whole. For some reason, it seemed to me that there were not as many people as at other similar events. That is, there were plenty, of course, but there was none of that unjustified crush (except, perhaps, in the smoking areas), which was unquestionably a good thing. I hope this did not hurt the organisers financially. Distributing the sound across the dancefloor was a wise decision. It was only unclear why the speaker stacks on the main arena were enclosed by railings, while those on the DnB arena were not. Some, ahem, deranged people were practically throwing themselves at them. Honestly, I was afraid they would knock them over. In general, the sound was not bad, but unpleasant artefacts did break through from time to time (especially at low frequencies).
Personally, and on behalf of my friends, I would like to thank Contrforce for such a wonderful event. I would not dare give it a specific rating, but I will put it this way: it was the best rave of the past three years. At least, it was the best one for me. I hope the next one will be even better! ;)
Author: Zolba
