In Review: Halloween Special at District 8

With Halloween unofficially falling on October 30th this year, where better to spend it than in the dark and smoky lair of District 8? With a stellar line-up including Omar-S, Lakker, Randomer and James Ruskin the Halloween Special was a night not to be missed. As usual the turn-out was large, with many fully embracing the theme of the night and dressed up in all kinds of weird and wonderful costumes.

Warming up the decks for Ruskin, Randomer played an energetic set, mixing in some squelchy acid with whoompy bass-heavy tracks. While the crowd clearly enjoyed the solid techno served up, he did hold back from playing the mind-blowing tracks he’s famous for, aware he wasn’t the real star of the night.

Upstairs in the theatre Omar-S was on closing duty. His set began on a positively up-lifting note, verging disco at times and had everyone smiling. After half an hour he made a sharp shift to the slightly darker realm of house. Playing tracks with a relaxed, steady pace like his own “Take Ya Pik Nik!!!” it was the perfect mix against the plush setting of red theatre seats. After an hour and cognisant that Ruskin had already started I left Omar and made my way downstairs.

Ruskin’s set was a history lesson through the decades of classic techno tracks, most likely a nod to ‘The Wizard’ Mr Jeff Mills who played in Dublin earlier that night. Among the classics he played modern but old-school sounding tracks that blended in seamlessly, like his own release ‘After Dark.’ People were going crazy and it was a joy to see everyone giving it socks, dancing individually but very much together.

While the night was enjoyable the downside of such a jam-packed line-up was my inability to be two places at once. I couldn’t fully let go and had to constantly keep an eye on the clock for fear of missing another act. You could hear it in their performances that the DJs felt the time-pressure too. With minimal set times to flex their fingers, they sounded under pressure to compress as many tracks as possible and the movements of the sets felt unnatural at times.

All in all it was a great night and I can’t wait to see what District 8 has to offer up next.