Words by

The Reykjavík Grapevine

@rvkgrapevine

Everybody makes
mistakes and I guess that really applies to everyone, even the Icelandic
music-moguls of Jón Jónsson. But what was it that made this concert so gut-wrenchingly,
heart-turningly, face-smashingly horrible? The DJ’s were good, the venue looked
alright so, what went wrong? I’ve narrowed my conclusion down to a mixture of
two things:

1. Way too many heinous substances. Techno and mind altering chemicals go together like peas and carrots but this gig took that cocktail to the extreme. From the guy sitting at the table next to you screaming: “Why are you calling me on this phone?! Don’t you know we’re being monitored?!,” to the angry young men threatening each other at the bar, to the three people on the dance floor with pupils the size of saucers strengthening the eternal stereotype that white people can’t dance.
2. Bad timing. The incredible surge of interest in all electronic and dance music following the “Nu-Rave” explosion in early-mid 2007 has temporarily receded. Techno has had too much coverage and now all but the most hardcore of fans are drifting away in a search for the next big thing. Hardcore Techno is moving back to the underground which in turn meant that the large Tunglið dance floor never quite filled up the way it should have.

These two points
really go hand in hand, seeing as how the less popular the parties, the more
noticeable the drugs, which in turn makes the parties less popular until after
a few months when people have forgotten how uncomfortable being surrounded by
pill-poppers is. Conclusion: Although Mike himself was very good at what he
did, all he did was give this straight out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
scene a good soundtrack.