This past February 7, clubbers withstood high temperatures to live an unparalleled experience with The Soundgarden mastermind, Nick Warren. We go back and recap his most recent presentation at Crobar, Buenos Aires, with local ace Marcelo Vasami.
The Argentine DJ and producer Marcelo Vasami based his set on solid sounds, that supplanted the lack of forcefulness to which the unwritten laws of a warm-up subject any serious artist to. During his show, clubbers were populating sector of Crobar, which now looks crowded with young people eager to travel without moving from their place.
By 3:10 AM, a rough male voice rumbles loudly in Spanish on the dancefloor at Crobar “Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche”, (“I could write the saddest verses tonight”) which is the title of the most famous poems by the poet Pablo Neruda and turns heads to center stage, as the legend Nick Warren appears on the scene.
During the day, the thermal sensation had risen to 45°C in the city, and in spite of the drizzle that covered the city during the afternoon, the heat did not dissipate, creating overwhelming temperatures inside the club. In the middle of that human sauna, the same man continues reciting more poetry “Es tan corto el amor, y tan largo el olvido” (“Love is so short and oblivion so long”). These beautiful phrases belong to ‘Poema 20’, by Pablo Neruda.
The introspection invoked by these words is interrupted by a groove that has been gaining momentum from behind and proceeds to take over every human vessel present on the floor. A moment of flair and style, as the British veteran DJ is in charge of the opening of Crobar Club for the 2020 season, in what would become a masterclass performance.
Stepping outside of the ‘The Soundgarden’ format, Warren appears in full club mode, in the capital of one of his favorite countries in the world. Already in the official poster for the date, the predominant color had been red, and that same is was transferred to the nightclub, with blood colored-lights staining the main screen behind the booth. And that feeling of fire runs through each of the clubbers who, as beasts trapped in a steel cage, feel the unbearable heat of the night. None the less, everybody was dancing to the mantras in Nick’s set, as if it were the only way to find some relief.
The musical story that Warren is telling climbs up to reach, in his last hour and a half, a kind of limbo in which the atmosphere relieves pressure and ends up unwinding those who pushed the boundaries of their own bodies due to the heat. It’s Nick‘s gift to the warriors who fought the sweltering weather of this February night in pursuit of a pure dance moment.
The final banquet includes exquisite tracks like ‘Set to Glow’ by Small Fires, ‘Allegro’ by Paul Thomas and a fine remix of‘ ‘Precious’ by Depeche Mode. Now, the night melts into applauses and mutates into dawn, with the radiant sun announcing a new day of blistering heat in Buenos Aires.
