Mixmag Christmas Party at Egg

Mixmag Christmas Party at Egg

10 December, 2008
by: Frodo

It's the self proclaimed 'worlds biggest dance music and clubbing magazine' so when Mixmag decide to throw a Christmas party you can expect a little bit more than rubbish crackers, soggy sausage rolls and those dated bits of cheese and pineapple on sticks. Tonight's bill features electro mash-up mayhem makers Justice, D 'n' B duo Chase and Status, dubstep victors Caspa and Rusko and some hip hop ramblings from FrankMusik. Basically its an eclectic lot hand picked by Mixmag to really kick off the festive season, and I for one am massively excited!
 
It's my first time at Egg and despite there being no offer of a mince pie on arrival it's an absolute gem of a venue. Managing to get lost on the way to the toilets is always a good sign that the cavernous location has much to offer, and indeed it does. Some well placed mirrors ensure that the laser show in the downstairs room looks almost as impressive as something you usually only encounter some place near Pilton and the mirrored top floor room entices some dance-off style shapes from the hordes of revellers. By about midnight the place is nearing its 1700 capacity and the quality of music is starting to turn up a notch.
 
It's a quick stop off at the bar - with a certain amount of regret that it's not serving mulled wine or egg nog - before a stomp to D 'n' B heavyweights Chase and Status. Tonight they're on fire, dropping beat after beat and further encouraging the melee of bodies to bust out some extreme moves. I consider it a fine warm up for this evenings main event and it seems the hordes of people have had the same thought as getting up to the main room takes almost twenty minutes of nudging up the crammed stair well. It wasn't on the line up but I assume this variation of the classic Christmas game Sardines was intended, although at this point in the evening proceedings not all that welcome!
 
Eventually arriving upstairs is only brief salvation as it's already packed to, dare I say, over capacity. Nobody seems to care that much though as initially Gaspard and Xavier take turns on the decks. Thankfully all their equipment appears to be plugged in this evening and the Ed Banger duo really do deliver sending the sweaty masses into a swaying frenzy. And my how we sway. Attempting to show our appreciation with some wild moves at every opportunity, the ordeal it is to grab even an inch in the packed room only adds to intensity of the experience. It's when they lay down their own tunes that the crowd attempts to exude every morsel of remaining vigour, and it's when they get round to dropping 'We are Your Friends' and 'D.A.N.C.E' in quick succession that the room really does go off. After this a perfect break in the perspiration stakes comes not with a snog behind the photo copier but instead with Buffalo Springfield's 'Something Happening Here', the lights come up and the hoi polloi share knowing glances that we are being treated to a mighty fine set.
 
Coming on after the French duo's triumph is of course quite a feat so it's unsurprising that Timo Maas does disappoint with a mixture of samey house nonsense. However all in all one of the best Christmas parties I've ever been to and thankfully still no sign of a rubbish buffet. I mean cheese and pineapple?

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Frodo