Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Miami Madness part 1 - the parties

For most people, this has got to be an adventure of a lifetime. Nothing in the world compares to this experience. I love the music, the beach, the sun, the palm trees, the colorful drinks, the food, the amazing nightclubs, the beautiful people - I LOVE MIAMI!


During the course of my seven days in Miami, I witnessed over 60 DJ's and EDM acts at close hand, in nightclubs, to beach- and pool parties and at the epic Ultra festival. In this article though, I will only cover the parties, and then UMF in a later one, as it all can't fit in just one article.


NYC warm-up


As we couldn't fly directly from Copenhagen to Miami anyway, we started with a five day warm-up in NYC. Knife Party played Pacha NYC the day after we arrived, so we joined the party on the VIP mezzanine, to keep a safe distance from the Jersey crowd, where we also go to meet and greet with Gareth and Rob. Great night in a packed nightclub and a great beginning to the adventure we where about to embark on.

Knife Party - Power Glove


Tuesday - Miami Massive 


We arrived in Miami on the Tuesday in the middle of the Miami Music Week (now 10 days/over two weekends). The Miami Madness had already been going on since the previous Thursday, so we had already "missed" out on 5 days of potential day- and night partying. We went to shower and change from our winter clothes from NYC to the summer gear in our very well located apartment on Collins Ave, South Beach, conveniently placed within walking distance from all the SoBe parties, and then of to our first day-party, the Miami Massive at Nikki Beach. Directly on the beach, though closed for the public, we spent the afternoon grooving in the sand under the palm trees with the likes of David Lambert, Gregor Salto (very good!) and Tocadisco before the night settled and the party moved inside to the sounds of Plastik Funk, Firebeatz, Audien and our danish friend Morten Breum.

The non-danish attendees must have thought they missed out on something as the small group of Danes loyally supported Morten Breum, danced like crazy and sung along to the new vocal version of Larva. Even though it's tough to play that late (around 3 AM) when people have been dancing since 12 PM to many of the same tracks, he played a nice improvised and fun set. Thank you for a great night Morten!

Morten Breum - Larva (Far Away) (Pegboard Nerds Remix)


Wednesday - Haunted Mansion


We skipped the day party to have a stroll on SoBe instead, soak in the atmosphere and get ready for yet another Knife Party show. This time around, it was at the Mansion super club on SoBe with support from newcomer Walden, Candyland, Jordy Dazz, Kill the Noise and Tommy Trash. We quickly entered the VIP area, which was directly behind and surrounding the DJ booth.

This proved to be the best night during our stay in Miami, as some of our favorites DJ's played, we partied alongside and high fived the DJ's, drank with their managers and meet them all after they had played their sets. The Mansion Nightclub was an amazing place, complete with topless dancers hanging in chains from the ceiling, waitresses wearing nothing but underwear, female performers wrapped in tape with powertools, incredible Funktion One sound system and lighting and superior VIP service. What a night!

Check out all the official pictures here and see if you can spot me :)

Timeflies - Nothing At All (Candyland's Not Festival Remix)

Jordy Dazz & Dannic - Fuego


Thursday - Stacked and Hardwell at Mansion


Still buzzing from the amazing party at Mansion the night before, we pulled ourselves together at took a taxi to Finnegan's River in Downtown Miami to catch some of the Stacked day-party. The place was right at the river, under the high way going through downtown Miami. It was packed with the usual American brosteppers as expected for a dubstep event. Even though we came a bit late, we did catch Zomboy, Bro Safari, Andy C and Dirtyphonics.

We left the bro-swarm and headed back to SoBe to get ready for another party at Mansion. This time it was Hardwell with support from Dannic and Dyro.We went to the bar on the main floor and hung out the the tunes of one of the biggest names in house music at the moment.

Check out the official pictures from the party here.

Zomboy - Nuclear (Hands Up)

Hardwell - Spaceman (Carnage Festival Trap Remix) 

Friday -The Clevelander


After a full day at Ultra we continued our brave effort and went for the Showtek and friends pool/courtyard party with Lazy Rich, Jordy Dazz, TV Noise, Bassjackers and my darling R3hab at the Clevelander on Ocean Drive, SoBe. Showtek is really on the rise with their hardstyle inspired electro house sound trending big at the moment. Showtek has got to have some of the most played tracks during MMW. We ended up partying on stage while Stowtek and R3hab was playing. It was a fun night.


Showtek & Justin Prime - Cannonball (Original Mix)

David Guetta & Ne-Yo - Play Hard (R3hab Remix) by R3HAB


Saturday - Pacha Ibiza at Bamboo


Beat from another long day on our feet at UMF, we manned up, and headed to the Bamboo Lounge for the Pacha Ibiza party. We entered a large room almost completely stuffed with VIP lounge areas. This was a club fit for 90% VIP bottle service and 10% GA's - only in Miami!

As the party took off, dancers descended on stages that came down from the ceiling, "cryomen" with stilts and lazers on their fingerips and weird/evil circus performers roamed the floor - what a crazy, crazy atmosphere. We saw Showtek, Sidney Samson, Bassjackers, Sebastien Drums and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

Check the official pictures from the party here.

Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike & GTA ft. Wolfpack - Turn It Up (Original Mix)

Bassjackers & Dyro - Grid (original mix)



Stay tuned for part 2 covering the Ultra Music Festival with Baauer, Deadmau5 and last ever show from SHM.