Road Trip Horror: AK 44 / Giessen
Fact: AK 44 in Giessen is nothing less but a dirty, disgusting shithole of a venue. Sounds drastic but I can't find any warmer words for a place I really looked forward to play at, ready to bash ravers with a massive selection of Niche / 4x4 bangers which I hadn't played throughout our little tour yet. Plus: some ppl were - for what reason ever - saying really nice things about this place which turned out to be the biggest waste I've ever seen in 12+ years of deejaying and I still cannot understand what can be so difficult about setting up a very basic thing like a proper DJ-booth after getting a technical rider asking for
2x DJ-CD-players
2x Technics MK II turntables
1x Pioneer DJM 500 DJ-mixer (alternatively: DJM 600 / 800)
2x Ortofon Concorde styluses
1x DJ booth monitor,
things that aren't special but usual club standard and as well to be found in any, even the smallest DJ bar around.
But this is what we found:
2x DJ-CD-players
2x different, low quality MKII clones, one of them with massive feedback problems
1x shitty Omnitronic bedroom DJ-mixer not at all made for club use
2x Ortofon styluses
- no DJ booth monitor
plus
- a P.A. not able to provide any frequencies below approx. 100 Hz that even would've provided no or even shittier sound if Arnold of Juri Gagarin hadn't fixed it single-handedly
- no accomodation apart from one of the clubs rooms that was converted to our backstage with 2 dirty mattressess and 2 sofas for seven people - a reason why The Dance Inc. decided to book hotel rooms from their own money although the venue should've taken care of this
- no showers
- backstage toilets that were nothing but a pure mess
- and worst of all staff that weren't able or willing to change a thing about any of the mentioned problems
Due to all that and most of all the fact that the turntables weren't working for me there was no other option but to cancel my set on location although, as mentioned before, I've been looking forward to do the show. Furthermore there will be no second try for AK 44 no more as I'm never ever going back there again and if you're an artist or booking agency you're highly recommended to blacklist this venue immediately 'coze I think it's quite likely you''ll be experiencing same or similar problems.
But even this night, one of the darkest since I'm on the DJ-circuit had two highlights - Saskia our driver of the first ever Plutonium Pogo tour was dropping by from her hometown Korbach and I feel always blessed to have her rolling with the crew plus a very nice and long chat with a girl named Diana, which is as well working at AK 44 and seems to be the only staff member capable to understand why I was totally pissed off. She's defo not the one to blame and she knew it but was always apologizing for what happened that night.
2x DJ-CD-players
2x Technics MK II turntables
1x Pioneer DJM 500 DJ-mixer (alternatively: DJM 600 / 800)
2x Ortofon Concorde styluses
1x DJ booth monitor,
things that aren't special but usual club standard and as well to be found in any, even the smallest DJ bar around.
But this is what we found:
2x DJ-CD-players
2x different, low quality MKII clones, one of them with massive feedback problems
1x shitty Omnitronic bedroom DJ-mixer not at all made for club use
2x Ortofon styluses
- no DJ booth monitor
plus
- a P.A. not able to provide any frequencies below approx. 100 Hz that even would've provided no or even shittier sound if Arnold of Juri Gagarin hadn't fixed it single-handedly
- no accomodation apart from one of the clubs rooms that was converted to our backstage with 2 dirty mattressess and 2 sofas for seven people - a reason why The Dance Inc. decided to book hotel rooms from their own money although the venue should've taken care of this
- no showers
- backstage toilets that were nothing but a pure mess
- and worst of all staff that weren't able or willing to change a thing about any of the mentioned problems
Due to all that and most of all the fact that the turntables weren't working for me there was no other option but to cancel my set on location although, as mentioned before, I've been looking forward to do the show. Furthermore there will be no second try for AK 44 no more as I'm never ever going back there again and if you're an artist or booking agency you're highly recommended to blacklist this venue immediately 'coze I think it's quite likely you''ll be experiencing same or similar problems.
But even this night, one of the darkest since I'm on the DJ-circuit had two highlights - Saskia our driver of the first ever Plutonium Pogo tour was dropping by from her hometown Korbach and I feel always blessed to have her rolling with the crew plus a very nice and long chat with a girl named Diana, which is as well working at AK 44 and seems to be the only staff member capable to understand why I was totally pissed off. She's defo not the one to blame and she knew it but was always apologizing for what happened that night.
posted by baze.djunkiii at 9:29 PM
7 Comments:
don't piss on my hood,maaaan! hahahah :D
aber ich kann dich sehr gut verstehen!
war doch alles cool. ist halt ein punkladen. damit sollte man umzugehen wissen. und es war doch eine gute party.
ich hab auch nix gegen punkläden, solange sie auch die entsprechenden möglichkeiten bereiten als artist / dj dort überhaupt seinen job machen zu können, was in meinem fall de facto nicht machbar war, weil die turntables halt derbes feedback hatten. da ist das AK44 ein leuchtendes negativbeispiel gewesen an dem abend.
das ist oft der fade nachgeschmack solcher schuppen, was keineswegs pauschalisierend klingen soll.
aber mal im ernst: ein 'halbwegs' ordentliches eqiup kostet nun auch nicht die welt, jedenfalls ist das geld dann für einige jahre gut & sinnvoll investiert... und dazu muss man kein nobelclub mit 100.000en euros in der kasse sein.
dont try to fuck the provinz... ;D
Kenne das AK lange genug ... und warum zum Teufel warst du so geil drauf da den Gig zu machen?? Irgendwas muss dich doch dran gereizt haben! Sag bloß nicht das du nur vom hören sagen den Laden kennst ... wenn doch, dann müssen die Kollegen dies geil gefunden haben sonst wäre es dir nicht empfolen worden. Und was bist du fürn scheiß snob, wenn du nur mit Top Equip arbeiten kanns? Biste schon zu fein um mit "schlechterem" zu arbeiten? Ein guter DJ holt einfach das beste raus. Punkt. Und dein Job isses, das es den Leuten vor Ort gefällt, und das hats wohl... ref. to other comments.
Und wenns um die Toiletten geht oder die Matratzen ... warst du noch nie Campen oder auf ner Schultoilette? Da gehts um die Party und die Atmo .. wenn du 1st Class Atmo willst, geh ins P1 nach München!
@dimmcity: tatsächlich kannte ich das AK44 nur vom hörensagen resp. wusste, das da die "under the ground" parties sind/waren, von denen ich bisher zumindest recht viel gutes gelesen hatte. dann hab ich das date halt gepostet in div. foren und da auch nur sachen gehört wie "cooler laden" etc. dementsprechend hab ich mich halt drauf gefreut, da zum ende der tour nochmal einen draufzusetzen, nachdem erlangen am freitag schon gerockt hat. und was das kennen der läden angeht - um einen teil meiner dates kümmern sich zwei bookingagenturen, da heisst es halt: ihr fahrt da hin und gut ist, da macht mensch sich nicht bei jedem laden en detail schlau, was da geht.
was das equipment geht, unser rider geht von dem aus was clubmindeststandard ist, und wenn einer der beiden nachbauplattenspieler halt schon bei zimmerlautstärke nur derbes feedback verursacht, dann ist halt technisch nicht möglich mit platten aufzulegen. mit cd's / mp3's leg ich grundsätzlich nicht auf, weil ich die formate nicht mag, also gabs auch kein set. also nix snob. und zur unterbringung - bandwohnung oder hotel gehört halt dazu, grad wenn mensch auf tour ist mehrere tage, und wenn die toiletten im backstage dann auch noch quasi in pisse schwimmen, dann ist das einfach ne zumutung.
als gutes beispiel für alternativ organisierte / besetzte läden führ ich da mal die alte meierei in kiel an - da gabs auch keinen luxus, das equipment war trotzdem wie angefordert da, da gibts ne bandwohnung und die leute vor ort kümmern sich, wenn irgendwas hakt. da fahr ich gern wieder hin. alles gut.
was das P1 angeht - da war ich noch nicht, bin mir aber relativ sicher, das die künstlerbetreuung dort vor ort einwandfrei läuft.
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