Day one of EXIT didn't offer anything curiously new to us to be honest. The dance arena, where we intended to seek refuge for the vast majority of the festival was headlined by The Crookers, whom I had already seen at the Decked Out 10th Anniversary party in February, and the old lethal duo of Erol Alkan and Boys Noize, who we've had the pleasure of partying with many times before. Although Chris had not seen Crookers before, they weren't particularly high on his hit list, neither were they on mine to see them again. But Erol and Boys, as always, remained the real treat of the night.Actually entering the festival site is quite an adventure, and a tiring one for that, especially when coming from the campsite. After marching for a good 30 mins, excluding the temptation to stop and barter with the roadside vendors for a can of luke-warm Amstel, we reached the vast 17th century fortress the festival is housed. Although the huge entrance archway appearted to promise 'WELCOME TO EXIT FESTIVAL', in reality there was still another difficult uphill climb along an authentically cobbled path before wristbands were checked and surly Serbian policemen searched us suspiciously and then finally granted us admission.
Immediately, and naturally we were drawn to the main stage where LCD Soundsystem's performance was well underway. I speak for both me and Chris when I say we do appreciate and like James Murphy's North American alt-dance entourage, but after such a draining journey to the site, they just couldn't provide us with the electricity needed to lift us. It didn't help that we only made it about half-way from the front, which in a crowd of about 50,000 made it a far from intimate experience. The guitars were hot, the synths were pleasing and James Murphy held an undeniably good presence as the first headliner of the festival, but we felt it was time to move on....
Chromeo's Live performance awaited us in the dance arena, which again was another sapping 20 minute uphill climb from the main stage, before a massive descent down a sky-scraper flight of steps. There was definitely a different ambience to the dance arena. Inevitably there was more movement, but we could just feel more excitement. Everyone in there wanted to dance, and most were quite frankly just awaiting Boys Noize who wasn't on until 4:00am. Chromeo delivered a typically colourful show, his retro-synthpop style went down very well, with enough soothing lyrics to keep the girls happy before Crookers stepped up as the first headline DJs with their mash-up of fidgity electro-house and dubstep sounds. It's not like we had any particularly low expectations for them, it's just that we have never really embraced the Crookers. Their horridly-mainstream remix of Day and Night did them no favours, and it does seem like of their tunes that I do genuinely like, they are actually remixes or collaborations (i.e Junkie XL's remix of Cooler Couler and We Love Animals feat. Soulwax). However, the Italian duo did a sterling job of getting arms waving with plenty of explosive crescendos and abbrasive basslines. By half-two, Erol was ready to take over, and this was when EXIT 2010 properly began.
Erol seized the decks after Crookers closed with their best release to date, We Love Animals which pleased many in the arena. I mistakingly thought that Erol opened with it, which is how he opened his January set at fabric, but what he did open with was, in reality, even more predictable. For the fifth consecutive time i've seen him, he couldn't resist getting straight to Boris Dlugosch's Bangkok. An underground classic to say the least, the drop will always destroy dancefloors, and it did once more. Even if you (somehow) are not familiar with Bangkok, if you've seen Erol DJ, chances are you've heard it and loved it. As always, the Phantasy boss went on to deliver 90 minutes of today's cutting-edge electro and techno with many brand new hot tunes, such as his own Lemonade, produced with Boys Noize. Unknown to us, it would be the first of many times we heard this specific banger at the festival.
Boys Noize is awesome for so many reasons, but for me one of the main reasons I love him is his admirable enthusiasm when DJing, despite having a ridiculously busy schedule all through the year. It was the fourth time I had seen him in twelve months, but for me this was the best set I had seen him deliver. Alex Rihda's audience stretches far beyond merely the techno/electro kids (like ourselves) that traditionally clutter his dancefloors. As 4am approached, the Dance Arena filled with a near perfect cross-section of festival-goers, many of whom had emigrated from the main stage following DJ Shadow's rare European set. In reflection, the word that instinctively describes this set is explosive. By far, this was two of the most high-octane hours I have ever witnessed. There were electro-techno classics, such as many of Rihda's own productions which, surprisingly, included not just material from his recent and unquestionably more ravey album Power, but many from his debut Oi Oi Oi. Lava Lava caused inevitable chaos, as did his iconic Oh!, but for me and Chris, the finest came in the shape of Arcade Robot. The robotic countdown is the perfect intro for a dancefloor frenzy, and even to this day it is probably one of Rihda's crispest techno productions. Away from BNR, one of the most adrenaline-soaked releases of late was dropped in classic Boys Noize style. Bart B More's Brap! had been causing quite a stir prior to its release, and Boys Noize was probably the main architect of that. YouTube had provided all the evidence we needed prove this was a categorical banger, videos of him erupting dancefloors mid-set with this are plentiful, and this was no exception. The nail-biting build up, the snappy soundbites and of course the crudely outrageous drop is just the perfect rave ingredients. It was back to mine and Chris's EDM roots. Simple yet incredibly effective electro madness. Fitting that was Boys Noize who dropped it really.
