14.07.2005, 18:08 | Display only selected photos Music  Czech Republic  ADF  Prague  

Asian Dub Foundation in Roxy, Prague and the following tunnell afterparty

The whole day we were waiting for the ADF gig. Remembering the experience from Amsterdam and hoped, that the show will be at least that good as in the city of weed. We were a little worried about the fact, that Roxy have to close at 10 pm from May 2005, because of the arguments with the citizens living near this club. We were let to the club ten minutes after 7 pm. Pandit G was already on the stage, playing d'n'b and jungle sets, which were more powerful, when the performance of ADF crew was close. Sad thing is, that Roxy is famous for its crappy sound, especially a sound of the groups with live instruments. And its true. Pandit's performance was cool, maybe a bit longer, than we wanted, because we were anxious to see ADF. The soundmaker messed up the bass (the tone was loud and blurry, which caused Albrecht a headache). After one hour Pandit finished his sets, the promoter sticked at least 10 playlists all over the stage and the rest of the band showed up and started playing. The band wasn't complete. Lord Kimo wasn't present. Spex told me, that he is sick, Pandit said, that he hasn't got valid passport. Who knows what really happened... Because he was on the Colours of Ostrava. So the MC performance depended only on Spex, with the occasional help of Chandrasonic and leading vocals of Ghetto Priest.

First song was Blowback (actually, the playlist was the same as in Amsterdam), which was a little messed up. But that was just a heating up round. Rise to the challenge was awesome (i really like this song), but the best performance they showed was the stuff from their last album „Tank“. Pieces like Round up, Tank, popular kickass Flyover and Warring Dhol with Cyber’s outstanding beats jumped up the wild crowd. Atmosphere was 100% better than in Amsterdam, sound was 75% worse, but it didn’t matter too much. Then – „oldies“ like New Way New Life, Naxalite, Riddim I like (the old instrumental version – almost without input of MCs, because of absence of Lord Kimo), classical tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – trancing song Taa Deem. "Is this a terrorist attack or what?" asked me one girl from the crowd at the beginning of the anti-Bush song Enemy of the Enemy. The energy of the Fortress Europe almost killed some people in the front, which were definetly on the edge of death during the last song of this evening – what else than Rebel Warrior.

The temperature in Roxy was like in hell, people were pouring bottles of water, beer, vodka and whatever they found on themselves, no matter who was the owner. ADF were sweating even more than the audience, i squeezed the sweat from my t-shirt to the ground and went to Albrecht to pick up the t-shirt which he made for Cyber to give it to him. He was very pleased, Albrecht's work was outstanding. He even remembered us from the ADF chatboard. After a short talk with him and the rest of the band he invited us to their afterparty. The problem was, that noone there knew, where is the club. Everyone were saying something like „Tunnel“ or „club near tunnel“. Even the promoter didn't know or he didn't give a shit.

So we went to the internet cafe to meet up with the rest of our posse and we were about to decide, what to do. We found club called „Tunnel“ on the internet, but it was on the edge of Prague and it was some motorbike den. It wasn't very probable, that ADF would have a party on such a place. So we wanted to go to sleep, but our (ex-girl)friends convinced us to go „searching for the hindu bomb“. They knew, that there is tunnel linking the two Prague parts and I knew, that club called „Black Cat“, which is right in front of the entrance, has something in common with Roxy owners – or friends of the Roxy owners. So we began our journey. We arrived to Black Cat, but there was noone there. We almost went home again, but luckily the waiter heard our conversation and told us, that there is really a club in the tunnel.

It wasn't a club in a proper meaning – the space there is used for private parties and actions. So after a while we were standing in front of the massive metal door, guarded by a huge guy. We were lucky again, because it was Albrecht's old friend, which let me to look inside for free and analyze the situation. I entered that nest of hippies, junglists and other strange individuals like us :-). It was the old manhole, which served as the storage of the material and the accomodation for workers from the times, when the tunnel was being built.

"This must be it!" I said to myself and went to the front door to pick up my friends and pay the entry fee. So – we were in. We bougth some drink and went to the DJ's table, because he was playing the Fun-da-Mental set. Then – suddenly – Cyber, Ghetto, Spex and Chandra appeared. "So you have found it. Cool!" said smiling Cyber. Spex went immidiately to the DJ, picked up the mic and started freestylin', Ghetto joined him in a while. We had a nice talk to the members, music was coolio. After 3 hours we were too tired and drunk, so we had to leave. We said goodbye and went home, heads full of the nice experiences. I would like to thank Petra and Jana, which convinced me and Albrecht to go to the Black Cat. Massive respect to you, great detective and deducative work! Looking forward to the next show, maybe in their hometown – London. Keep da fire burnin' and P2TSM!

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