David Guetta's Pool Position Mondays took its stand on the season's agenda yesterday with a splashin' surge of commercial house. A heavy packing of tune troopers diced between age groups and nations flocked into the belly of Ushuaïa's backyard for a day to midnight sesh with Nicky Romero, NERVO, Kimotion and the main monsieur himself, Guetta.
Famed for its elaborate stage productions, you could expect the French showman to do something special here and he kitted the open-air stage venue with a drag racing theme – flag waving lycra clad racing girls included. Aussie sibling glamour pusses, NERVO, sheltered under the gigantor sparkler racing helmet to blaze on with a set of nail bitin' droppers from their very own Revolution, to upturned trance classics in DJ Jean's The Launch (D.O.D remix) and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike's Meet Her at Tomorrow made famous by Da Hool when the love parade was the destination. From the goers packed in front of the stage to those flocked around the perimeters in the ravin' comforts of Ushuaïa's hotel rooms, all were well juiced and nearing an overspill as it hit the 10pm mark.
A moment of anticipatory silence fell. Some people might have stopped breathing. Pulses were probably inclining. I held my nose, closed my eyes, crouched and stood up really fast for a free high head rush. Not a bad wee trick.
Ah Guetta. The connoisseur; the monsieur. Always filled to the brim with pleasantries and smiles (apart from maybe that epic hairy moment at Tomorrowland last year). Crowd cheering, he picked them up off the stalled carousel with his own smasher featuring Ne-Yo, Play Hard. And indeed play hard was the mantra for the evening with Guetta taking a moment to speak to the crowd with a rhetorical question: “Are you excited to be here for the craziest party of the month?” I had a quick scan; no one appeared to opt out. As his first crowd addresser came to a close a flight of inward bound disco drum beaters flew overheard with raucous cheers.
Helmet clad dancers took to the stage with aerial hoop acrobats as smoke cannons exploded and flames erupted in front of the foam handed fist pumpers. The unrelenting limb thrustin' was sparked in retaliation to a succession of crowd pleasers from his own catalogue, from his classic, Love Don't Let Me Go, to recent self-made smashes feat Showtech in Bad and Skylar Grey in Shot Me Down. He delved into other genre realms for dance juice inspiration with licks of O.T Genasis' CoCo and The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army.
If all that titillation wasn't enough, Guetta was joined briefly under his glittering helmet by EDM heavyweights, Hardwell and Afrojack. Waves were given with LED screens enlarging their presence for all to see and then back on with the solo Frenchman. In another effort to ensure his troops were having a topper time, he stuck on his very recent collaboration track with GlowInTheDark Clap Your Hands – one we'll fondly remember from our childhood, but probably without the line, “If you're f@cked up and you know it clap your hands.” Although some of the stuff you did as a kid minus the social awareness filter was pretty messed up...
All hands were clapped, slapped and trapped. David Guetta kicked off his pool located Monday residency with a firecracker bang for all his fans and it will definitely gather even more momentum this month as the White Isle captures the insurge of music loving holidaymakers.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOGRAPHY | Ushuaïa
