Luxemburg / I Love Techno 11/12-11-2005

[lloyd]

Wow, just got home from a looong 4 days of Underworld live.
2 x tilburg, then drove down to luxemburg and from there to Gent for ILT.

First of all, Thanks to the band ofcourse. Thanks also the spotlightman, cameraman, busdriver and all technical crew for bringing this great tour.
Thanks also the nutty dirties that went with me on this crazy rollercoaster ride and saw all 4 (or 3 or 2) of the shows, we had a great time. I'm never gonna forget this tour.
Standup comedians at a chippie in Melle without them even knowing being funny. Very nice policeman that didn't give us a ticket when we where driving through the touristy pedestrian area of Gent. The really helpfull people pointing us in the right directions. Driving those hills up and down in Belgium and Lux. Powerdriving Dutch style to get in the right lane. The amazing maze Gent is, getting in is bad, getting out was even worse. Belgium roadsign designers and people who place them have the best job in the world (*sarcasm warning*). The guy who draw the layout of the hotel in Gent was inspired by the people who draw the road layout in the city. Thanks Raz for letting me stay in his hotelroom in Lux.
Big shoutout to a really great DJ at the Elevator in luxemburg, fab gig! We were not impressed by the smokemachine there without having a laser waving through the smoke Jason, it was nice to see you again. People if you want a pet partyanimal, buy a Jason.. man can he party!
Lots and lots more stories about lost memorycards, forgotten MDplayers, roadsigns, drinks, sweat, heat, flying cameras, ILT running out of cold water, best venue ever for a UW gig L'atelier in Lux, afterparties, afterafterparties..... etc

The gigs... well, we'll surely be rambling on about those in the coming days when people do get back home to Holland, Belgium, the UK and NY USA!

[Leon]

Well I was happy to be part of at least one of the gigs It was nice meeting you all again.

[lloyd]

Yeah, nice to talk to you too again Leon. And some others we saw again after we saw them at the HMH gig for the first time.

[Dj Foolproof]

Hey Lloyd

I'm the Dj who played in the elevator after the Underworld gig in Luxembourg.
It's good to hear that people enjoy the music I play! :-)

Hope to see you again at the elevator! Even if Underworld are not playing next door!

[lloyd]

Hello
Yeah, you kept the vibe we were in going, that was great. It was a great club for the afterparty. People, if you're ever in luxemburgcity, go there..
Greetings from Holland!

http://www.theelevatorbar.com/

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by Dj Foolproof

Hey Lloyd

I'm the Dj who played in the elevator after the Underworld gig in Luxembourg.
It's good to hear that people enjoy the music I play! :-)

Hope to see you again at the elevator! Even if Underworld are not playing next door!

Hope to see YOU at I Love Techno next year, instead of Marco Bailey. Great set, (although I was too knackered that night to dance as much as I wanted), and fantastic to hear Cafe Del Mar dropped so beautifully as a finale. Thanks, man, you did us proud!

[Geo]

It were 4 nights/5 days that I will never ever forget.

I think I even changed.
I never felt so positive.
Neither do I regret that the trip is over.
It was just amazing, and I feel honored that I was able to live this experience
of enjoying and dancing and partying during four gigs of Underworld,
from which each one was simply better than the previous.
But I can't pick out the best, as every gig has its own special memories.
The first 013 gig, for giving me goose bumps when Spikee came out of nowhere;
The second 013 gig, because my dearest (girl)friend went there with me;
Luxemburg, for standing so close to the stage, and b/c I shook hands with Rick
And finally ILT, as it was a nice closure of the weekend in Gent, with the Dirts that I travelled with, for four days.

Janie and Raz, thank you so much, for driving the car all tru the Benelux,
and allowing me to be some kind of co-pilot.

It was so nice to meet all kinds of people, from all over the world,
like the Polish girl at the elevator, and another Jason, who came all the way
from Chicago to see Underworld in Tilburg and at I Love Techno.
And of course the Dirts, that I met at all the gigs!
We are Party Animals, capital P; capital A!
And above all, a group of amazingly nice people.
I hope I can call you all friends of mine

Over the last five days we took a lot of pictures and made a lot of movies,
which I collected on a mobile hard drive.

Underneath, you can find some of the pictures,
with a few lame comments from me, so you know what's going on and where they were taken

Enjoy!

http://users.telenet.be/geospot/dirtybeneluxtour/

[BeautifulBurnout]

Phew!

Day 1. Tilburg 10/11/05

After much shenanigans finding the hotel, we arrive to find Karl and Darren in reception, chatting to some guys! They are on their way out to a meeting, but they take the time to stop and talk to us for a good 5-10 mins. or so, about the new sounds, underworldlive.com, the tour, the upcoming Electraglide cd... what an amazing start to an amazing weekend.

That evening we all met up in a bar that played terrible music, but we were so pleased to be together we hardly noticed. The gig itself was great (don't ask me for setlists - I really can't remember what was played on what night). Three hours of awesomeness, but all of us too tired for an afterparty that night.

Day 2. - Luxemburg 11/11/05

Meet Stimps in Tilburg, drive down to pick Geo up, then the long road to Luxemburg (which would have been shorter had be not missed a turning on the motorway - Belgian sign-posts... pffff! ). Eventually find the city and our hotel, Lloyd and Jason waiting for us. Pre-gig drink in the Elevator, a little bar/club next door to the venue.

The gig was the best I have ever been to in my life. Small venue, amazing to be so close to the stage, seeing every expression on the guys' faces as they played a fantastic set. Met up with A Lot of Poissons and Goatsucker too. The ambiance was fabulous, aside from one or two extremely drunk guys getting annoying with their moshing, but that got sorted. Oh, and the nazi security guard who tried to stop you taking too many photos!

And lager, lager, lager! Luxembourgeois beer that was absolute gut-rot, as some of us discovered in the wee small hours.

The guys so close they were able to shake hands with lots of people in the crowd at the end, which was lovely too.

The afterparty in Elevator was also awesome, with a really good DJ (see above) and a fantastic atmosphere (although a smidge too heavy on the smoke machine *cough splutter wheeze*). The driving had knackered me, but I was able to find somewhere to sit and dance in my chair towards the end of the night.
..............

[BeautifulBurnout]

Day 3. - Gent, I Love Techno

Crawled out of bed so late I missed breakfast in the hotel, but managed to meet up with the others for brunch in a nearby cafe. Last leg of the journey to Gent was tiring, with one of our party more than a little worse for wear. (No names no pack drill). After managing to get so lost in Gent that I ended up driving through a pedestrian precinct (!), we find our hotel, which was absolutely awesome! (Sofitel Belfort, Gent, if ever you are there.)

Everyone crashes out completely in the afternoon, recovering from the madness thus far. Jason and Cej make it to the Dirty Meet rendezvous about two hours before we do (sorry guys!!)

We meet in the Rotonde restaurant/bar and eat good food ready for the onslaught of I Love Techno. The free tram service from the station to the venue is an absolute scream, just jam packed full of people ready to party, singing, shouting, banging on windows. Amazing.

ILT itself is incredible. Somewhere around 30,000 people in a huge exhibition centre with 6 colour-coded rooms plus a central "tent". We head for the Yellow Room where UW are headlining at midnight. The place is jam-packed and too hot for words - even Rick took his jacket off on stage! But the set was banging - I guess you would call it a "greatest hits", festival style, with one or two of the new tracks slipped in. I was a happy bunny cos they played Pearl's Girl, which is still my all-time favourite.

And at the end of the set, Karl gave a shout out to Dirty, which rounded off the series beautifully. (Lloyd and I holding the banner upside down, but, hey... they had seen it on three previous nights so they knew it was us).

Having sworn blind I was leaving at the end of the gig, I ended up seeing a bit of Richie Hawtin's set, and was on my third wind by the time Nathan Fake came on at about 3.15, so we didn't get away til about 4.30am, leaving Jason and Cej still partying.

Day 4. Gent - SLEEEEEEEP!

Got up for breakfast at 10.00, ate, then went back to sleep again. Room invaded by Geo and Stimps, watching Belgian infomercials and reading the papers. Eventually managed to find Raz, went out for a nice quiet lunch (Stoveriy met fritjes and huisgemaakte chocolademousse, Geo - I'm learning! ). Geo and Stimps get the train home, Raz and I decide to move the hire-car to the hotel car-park, only to find that the Police have very kindly moved it for us, to the car pound! Still, what kind of a road trip would it be without some sort of brush with the law? So tired I can't even worry about it. Early to bed.

Day 5. - Coming Home

250 euros worse off thanks to the intriguing Belgian parking rules. But, the one benefit of having to get a taxi to the car pound meant that we didn't have to try and negotiate our way round Gent and its cobbled one-way pedestrianised random streets again, and found the motorway straight away. Arrived early at the airport - time to rest, reflect and remember the fantastic time I have had.

Big love and thanks to all the Dirts I partied with, but with extra special love and thanks to Raz for being my travelling companion, to Lloyd for being the world's best translator and guide for all things dutch, to Geo for his navigational skills, to Jason for being such a wild party animal, to Leon for thinking he could spend the night at the Police station, and to Stimps for... well, just being Stimps.

And an extra extra special thank you to Rick, Karl and Darren for making this one of the most memorable trips of my life. Ever.

[King of Snake]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

Day 3. - Gent, I Love Techno
Big love and thanks to all the Dirts I partied with, but with extra special love and thanks to Raz for being my travelling companion, to Lloyd for being the world's best translator and guide for all things dutch, to Geo for his navigational skills, to Jason for being such a wild party animal, to Leon for thinking he could spend the night at the Police station, and to Stimps for... well, just being Stimps.

aren't you forgetting someone...?




okay, I wasn't at Lux or ILT, but I was there in Tilburg!
Kinda sad we didn't get to spend more time together this time. I'll sure be coming over when they play in England though!