By the time we got there, around 11 pm, the place was already packed but, it was a very pleasant feeling to walk into that crowd and feel the cool breeze of the air-conditioning system. The Nile theater looked and felt a lot better since the last time I was there. All the walls, floor and ceiling had a fresh face lift which not only improved the aesthetics of the place but, it actually enhanced the acoustics as well. There wasn't much room for chilling but, it didn't matter because most people wanted to be on their feet most of the night anyway.

After Gary, Emile came on and rocked the house for a solid hour. There were people pushing around in front of his tables and a few times, they bumped into the set and caused the needle to skip and that made it rather hard to get the groove going but, he pulled it off just fine and got the crowd worked up and ready for Plastikman.

Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman) came on around midnight and played none stop for almost five hours. The stage setup was sharp and elaborate with clean cut white walls and a permanent figure of the Plastikman logo behind the set. Bright strobes and dancing figures on the brick walls complemented the set. Jason Ayers played some cool video mixes on the giant screens behind Richie to complete the visual effects.

Richie's set started off sounding a bit monotonous but, soon picked up momentum and gained altitude through the night, ending with a short encore. The Shredder system sounded very crisp and powerful and kept a lot of dancers constantly glued to the speakers.

This was a great party, another one of Swells accomplishments. Russ was walking around, checking up on people and the performance and soaking up the vibes. Everyone I saw was full of smiles and energy and I hope I captured most of it in the photos.

I started doing some experiments with color filters and I ended up with a few cool shots (and some not so great shots). I did have fun photographing this party and I hope you like watching the results.