YakYak

Just got back from the Warp Rave. We knew it was going to be good. But I don't think any of us dreamed it would be as fan-fucking-tastic as it actually turned out.

We (Yak, RiK, Sickboy and myself) started performing around 11.45. Played for about three-quarters of an hour then took a quarter-hour break before our next set. Our next set lasted for the rest of the night.

While we had all the tech set up on a small stage, we were able to perform on the dancefloor thanks to the miracle of wireless controllers. Four of us bobbing around clutching joypads. This led to two distinct reactions from fellow ravers. Either: "Are you really controlling that (VLM-3) with that? (the pad)" Which we soon started responding to by inviting them to have a go for themselves.

Or: "What are you doing with that joypad?" We're controlling that. "No. Really?" Oh yes. Here, have a go.

Oh, and the other general reaction: "That looks fucking amazing!"

Which it did. Aureole and Fuseball and Fflip (sp?) and others will gladly testify. We were unstoppable digital artists painting the wall with a brand new gorgeous picture every 60th of a second. It's just a shame it had to end. The house lights came up, the DJ stopped playing and we were forced to stop. At which point the only thing to do was to push Jeff up on to the stage to let the people know who was responsible for all that non-stop graphical loveliness.

Loud cheers!

And so Rik, Sickboy and I climbed up with him. Cheers and applause! We were truly touched, and replied with a bow. And by that time the staff were starting to clear people out.

A genuinely magical night, with a nice little postscript: as we were packing up, this bloke came up to Jeff and asked, "Are you Jeff Minter?" A nice bit of shakey-handy greetings and off he went. Jeff didn't even notice that it was Louis Theroux...

Excellent stuff all round. I could probably carry on enthusing fora long time, but I've just worked out that in the past 48 hours I've had about six hours' sleep, so I should probably do some catching up.

-jedburgh, knackered but happy.

Err - what Jed said.....

Wow, I wish I was there to see it. Unfortunately there's this little thing called the Atlantic Ocean in between here and there. You British get to have all the fun!

And I had prior engagements... which was a fucksticks pissflaps type thing... look forward to any pictures from the event and VLM3 of course

Damn sounds like an amazing evening

I was completely off my face at our companies Xmas Do, so am very fragile today

Jedburgh wrote:Jeff didn't even notice that it was Louis Theroux...

Who's that? Should I care?

Well, I'm baack and just enjoying the nice spliff and cup of tea I promised myself when I set out from Baath this morning as a reward for getting home still conscious.

What a fan-fuckin'-tastic night. Bloody hell. Just insanely excellent ...

Everything went really smoothly, baa a bit of initial faffing during which the club's projectors (one which refused to display anything except VGA, and one which was clapped-out with washed out colours) were replaced by a couple brought in by various of the evening's performers... as mentioned previously we played a small set near the beginning of the night, and after that was over there was already a buzz going around about "those amazing visuals". Then we came back on around 1AM and played straight through until the lights came up at 4, and man, it was *storming*. The place was just going off, and people were seriously into VLM-3... I lost count of the number of people who came by to tell me how much they liked what they were seeing. We were pretty much offered gigs in Paris and Florida right there on the basis of what came out of that projector.

We stopped by the flat of one of the Warp Records guys afterwards to chill for a few hours before the journey back, and while I was there he told me that, apart from a handful of exceptional films, he thought that VLM-3 was the most beautiful thing he had seen on any screen, anywhere. I'm really quite happy about that .

Not going to say much more now because I am bloody shattered, having had about as much sleep as Jed in an exactly equivalent time-frame. Suffice to say, thanks to those who came to see us, and we hope you enjoyed what you saw .

Special thanks to the crew - Rik, Jedburgh and Sickboy, who ably joined me in the first ever public live performance of the world's first simultaneous 4-user interactive lightsynth. I think you'll agree, guys, that we impressed the fuck out of a lot of people last night. Excellent job . Let's hope it's the first of many .

I don't know if any of the Warp crew reads here, but I'd like to say thanks to them anyway, for treating us so well and for laying on such a bloody excellent night. And especially Tom for putting up with us for a few hours this morning while we regained sufficient energy for the trip home.

I'm still buzzing.

Just fantastic.

\
(:-) - Yak
/

Well played all, excellent!

Yak wrote:We were pretty much offered gigs in Paris and Florida right there on the basis of what came out of that projector.

We stopped by the flat of one of the Warp Records guys afterwards to chill for a few hours before the journey back, and while I was there he told me that, apart from a handful of exceptional films, he thought that VLM-3 was the most beautiful thing he had seen on any screen, anywhere. I'm really quite happy about that .

Damn, I am SO jealous that I couldn't have been there. If you do ever decide to do a performance in the U.S., come by to Boston, MA. I'd definately be there. Florida's a bit too far from home, but man, it would be EXTREMELY tempting.

My monitor and TV are ready to be sacrificed. They are currently in VLM3 wait mode...

Sounds fantastically cool.
I really really reallly would like to see some VLM3 divx.

Jedburgh wrote: A genuinely magical night, with a nice little postscript: as we were packing up, this bloke came up to Jeff and asked, "Are you Jeff Minter?" A nice bit of shakey-handy greetings and off he went. Jeff didn't even notice that it was Louis Theroux...

And how cool is that? Do you think he lurks?

When Louis Met Yak.

You never know... could be a 5 min section in one of his future TV programmes

Phewsh!

Pretty much what Rik, Jedburgh and Yak said, and then some.

I thought it was gonna be good, but it was just so damned beautiful how the VLM-3 became a glorious focal point for the music/raving. And being a bit of a Warp-head, anyway, I was seriously impressed with the DJ sets. Some fantastic, hardcore, ribcage-shuddering bass with many unexpected joys dropped in occasionally (old-school Electro, Dee-Lite!).

I've been struggling to describe what we did last night to friends who know nothing of such things ("Sort of... interactive digital fireworks... erm... like a band jamming, only more abstract"). But, for those who didn't see it when I posted it last week, I think I'll stick with my Clockwork Orange quote for now:
"Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!"

I think we'll all remember last night for a long time to come.
I'm sure we'll look back on it as the start of something special.
Masses and masses of blessings and hugs to all who made it happen - especially (obviously) the mighty Yak.

Big shouts out to aureole, for all that encouragement and the taking of some lovely camcorder footage (it'll be seen soon, don't worry) - and to Fuseball, who also nabbed some good footage and managed to have, clearly, one of the best nights of his life while ingesting nothing more than simple old H2O.

Oh, and to fflip, for lasting right till the end (as far as I could tell).

And to the guy with the very, very smooth head who kept us going with water and smiles and who absolutely did not stop dancing like a loon ALL FUCKING NIGHT.




Oh, and I've got one or two pics which I'll post in the Lightsynths forum when I've had a nice cup of tea and a lie down.

That sounds like an awesome event. You had my best wishes traveling over the eight million miles or so between Arizona and England. I can't wait to see the lightsynth footage for myself. Yak, when does your new VLM tour hit Arizona again?

Wow, that sounds phenomenal!
Keep us posted about any future raves ok?

Absolutely amazing night. I'm still seeing VLM feedback whenever I close my eyes. Maybe they spiked the bottled water or something but I didn't ever want it to stop.

Cheers to Yak and the VLM crew (esp. Sickboy for putting me up for the night) for a truly unforgettable night. I hope, the first of many...

I'm of to get some more sleep now....