As usual, John Digweed again did his New Year's Eve gig in Los Angeles. I didn't go and I'm glad I didn't because I'm too old for the
masses of people that showed up to hear the entire line up at Together as One, including David Guetta, Sander Kleinenberg, Dubfire and Digweed. It just doesn't seem worth it when you want to see only one of the performers and they only end up playing a couple of hours. In addition, I've already seen Digweed on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles: for 9 hours, on his own and in a club way back in 2003. Thus, there's very little chance I'll see Digweed again on New Year's Eve unless a commensurate event surfaces in the next few years.
However, a few weeks before the last day of the decade, I noticed that Digweed was going to be headlining a few shows after the Los Angeles event, including Seattle on New Year's Day and Ruby Skye in San Francisco on the 2nd. It was then time to dust of the Digweed shoes and plan for a night out.
Since moving to the Bay Area from Manhattan in 2005, I've now had a chance to catch Digweed on three occasions and this third visit was by far the icing on the cake. My friends and I arrived at Ruby Skye around 11pm, found our reserved table on the second floor and enjoyed the sounds of the veteran Kazell. Like Jimmy Van M of the Twilo days, Kazell is an experienced opener who always establishes an excellent foundation from which Digweed can not only build upon but move in any direction he may see fit. Kazell's set was a good one and wrapped up around midnight. On came Digweed to a multitude of roars, cheers and rants. The night had officially began.
It was surprising how many vocals Digweed played in the first hour or so but soon after, the music got aggressive and then stayed aggressive almost the entire night. From about 2am until 4am, the music wasn't melodic and it wasn't housey nor was it minimal. The music was just god damn mesmerizing and absolutely insane. From recent remixes of classics like Saints and Sinners "Pushing Too Hard",
Tone Depth's "Rumblefish", Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" to the newly minted
"Come Home" by Yousef, Digweed played at an astonishing high level and the San Franciscan crowd was all the more happier to urge him upward. On two separate occasions my friends and I thought the night might've been winding down and Digweed might transition into more disjointed sounds but we were wrong both times as Digweed incessantly hammered us with big room drama in the form of absolutely annihilating progressive house. To say the least it was a phenomenal night of music and one I was glad I got up for as my days of clubbing are indeed waning. I'm now convinced though that my limited nights out have to be worth it and the only way I can somewhat guarantee myself an excellent night out is to catch Digweed when he's in San Francisco. Uncompromising music leads to uncompromising nights out so I'll definitely be looking forward to Digweed's return to the west coast.
