Jeff Mills

On October 7 I attended a 3-hour DJ set by Jeff Mills at the new Tresor club. I saw the whole thing except for the last 5 minutes or so. Because of knowing nice people from the label, I got to view much of the performance from on stage. (I also got to see the unopened parts of the club, which are these weird empty former factory parts. The building is unbelievably huge...)


















He played with 3 turntables, 2 CDJs, and a 909. In general he would use these in chunks, rather than mixing them all up--i.e., maybe 10 minutes w/ the tables, then 10 with the CDJs, and so on.






















When he played the 909 he was really “playing” it. It was quite incredible. One could see him turning the knobs and hear the sound being very immediately affected.

Quite a few of the top Tresor producers from Berlin were there. I was impressed to see that these serious DJs had all come out to hear him—it speaks to his reputation/respect.

I tried to pay attention to his record digging behavior. As always it was extremely fast. In general, he seemed to be very much in the zone. He smiled several times, as if he were happy to be playing for a home crowd. The crowd was 2/3 male (big surprise there). Lots of shirts showing techno allegiances: Underground Resistance, "Berlin-Detroit: A Techno Alliance." The place was packed the whole time.

At 5 I went to Berghain, where I achieved a new personal best by staying until 8.15 a.m. :)