It seems like this year Marquee New York scored some of the best EDC NY after parties, hosting the legendary Richie Hawtin and trance superstar Dash Berlin on consecutive days after the two day festival. Sparing no expense, Marquee’s DJ booth was turned into a giant stage structure with projected graphics, giving the club yet another layer of visual awesomeness. The post EDC crowd brought out a solid community of a crowd to Marquee as well, and they responded by featuring less tables on the floor, creating a huge, open dance floor, perfecting the long, winding set that Hawtin threw down.
Hawtin, famous for two decades worth of minimal techno under various aliases, most famously Plastikman, stuck around for three hours, feeling at ease in the small club after headlining a huge festival stage just hours earlier. While there was supposedly a ‘black and white’ theme, I didn’t notice it. Hawtin’s sound curates a rave vibe, you get into it and lost in it, despite being surrounded by bottle popper’s VIP tables. The forward thinking producer kept to his roots, playing extended cuts and gradually building his set over several hours. He truly brought the underground vibes to Marquee.
The next night took a complete 180 turn, with Dash Berlin playing a set that seemed custom tailored to the club. Just as packed but with more tables, the partied through a somewhat extensive set switching between his own productions, remixes, and trance hits. He also threw in a bunch of club staples, like Zombie Nation’s ‘Kernkraft 400′ and Alice Dee Jay’s ‘Better Off Alone’, which worked perfectly for the club setting, keeping everyone in full party mode. This did, however, seem to disappoint some of the more hardcore Dash fans. I overheard a few people complaining, saying, “I paid for money to see Dash. This doesn’t feel like Dash.” Regardless, the set was one of the more fun sets I’ve seen recently. Highlights include an awesome mash up of Dash’s hit ‘Waiting’ with Above and Beyond’s ‘Sun And Moon’, and a re-work of Sander Kleinberg’s ‘This Is Not Miami’ with the refrain, ‘This Is New York’.
Marquee gets a lot of talent but with a legend like Hawtin and a superstar like Dash Berlin, you know the weekend was going to be special. It was both the perfect come down from a day at a music festival, or a whole night of partying by itself.