River's Edge Niezależne i niekomercyjne piśmiennictwo, muzyka, reportaże, wywiady, strefa retro i 8-bit.
Third edition of multiplatform computer party „Riverwash 2009: No Mercy” took place on 4-6th of September 2009 in No Mercy club at Warsaw’s Wola. This time the job of organization got V0yager, Fei and Gorzyga with additional support from Ubik, Deadman, Yans, Mover and Tygrys. Location of the party place was really good, because for this place it was easy to come directly from Dworzec Zachodni by a walk or from the centre of town by bus. “Industrial disintegration of reality” – this was the official description of the area around “No Mercy” club and I have to admit that these statement were really accurate.
The first day – the trip, visiting the party place and talking with good old friends…
For a lonely trip to Warszawa I went on 4th of September, going with morning TLK (Cheap Train Lines) relation of Szczecin Glowny – Lublin. On Dworzec Zachodni I came around 2 PM and soon started to think in which direction I have to go. Firstly I chose wrong way, but quickly I turned around to Dworzec and asked a woman from kiosk how to come to Bema street. After receive important guidelines I went to the Warszawa Wola train station. After some time I came to the edge of viaduct, which was localized over very busy street, which as it turned out, was jammed most of the day. Soon I arrived near party place, where just before entrance was sitting few sceners with Silent Riot between them! He smiled on seeing me and welcomed warmly, moving me by the occasion to the second side of the little fence. It was really quietly there. At the entrance there was 2 guardians guarding the order, inside were doing some works with connecting all audio-video hardware.
Subsequently I went to the workers hotel located a few hundred meters away in which I bought the room, changed my clothes and I left my stuff. When I came back to the party place I’ve realised, that nothing happens there except the fact, that the amount of party people was rising with the time. Very pleasant surprise was the presence of Cycu, which last time I saw at Symphony 2005. Much bigger surprise was arrival of Flapjack, Informer and Hazz, known for some sceners from North Party 8 where he was using Navigator nickname.
NThere were also some colorful persons like Count, Alien, Spec, Azzaro i Borys. From abroad arrived traditionally Topy44. Unfortunately Wix, who since Symphony 2003 attended to every multiplatform party in Poland, was missed this time. Also came few persons from Hungary with Gargaj on top, who had to present on Saturday’s evening his first set in his musical career. From C64 scene Nitro was presented, who was occasionally getting his immortal snuff-box from his pocket.
Soon Reiter came to the party place with which we made some photos :). However he didn’t stayed long but promised that he will come here next day. I went with him to the bus station and while the walk I had the possibility to learn a little bit about the history of the tunnel by Dworzec Zachodni, where supposedly were working gas chambers during II world war.
When I came back to the club I’ve realized, that before the entrance came more new sceners. Party people were spontaneous talking about several themes. Nearly his grill place was preparing Deadman. Soon also TVN television came which make a live interview with V0yager and Fei. I in the meantime together with Willy were standing in the background and thanks to that we’ve been also recorded by the camera :).
Drop Zone was successfully working on the party place where everyone could drop anything which could be useful for other. In meantime on the party place came by his king of highway – Polonez no one else but Raf accompanied by a certain Sebaloz. There were also Cresh and Prezes, who arrived on bicycle with a female guard in the form of his sister.
In the mood of concerts, Amiga and vinyl…
Party was going on and on. Deadman was doing sausages and necks on grill. Inside of the club on the scene Wiekszy Obciach band was preparing to concert.
Around 6:45 PM the concert has started which partially enjoyed party people. Some sceners with Silent Riot on top were raving under the scene and generally whole performance of the band was really successful. There were well-known tracks from official demo of the band and also songs from album Ludzie bez dowodu which came this year on music market.
Setlist of Wiekszy Obciach:
1. Jestem gwiazda
2. Ludzie bez dowodu
3. Czeluść
4. War Has Never Been So Much Fun
5. Radiowy przebój o wojsku
6. Umiesz Cis
7. Piwo Chlej
8. Zimne Łokcie
9. Coś specjalnego
10. Nowy
11. Bajaderka
12. Wszyscy Kłamią
13. Do Kotleta
14. Marianna
15. Sklep
The band had in plans to play song called Telenowela for bis, but gave up seeing that not so much people are having fun on the parquet. Most of sceners were outside where famous Deadman’s grill was going well.
Party prospered very well which result was a lovely action of Mecenas, who with a worship started to hug a guest from abroad – Gargaj. Next slightly drunk Aceman started to swing on overturned chair, finishing with covered by a metal grid taken from fence surrounding entrance of “No Mercy” club.
Soon came Amiga 500, keeped by one of sceners. Guys started to make a photo session with her. Soon Azzaro picked her to his hand and someone put his pants down. Azzaro covered his nature with Amiga. The final of this game wasn’t funny at all because Azzaro without a moment of thinking thrown Amiga in the air and she got broken to the pieces on the sidewalk. Second hero of this situation was Aceman, who when saw what happened, came to the pieces of Amiga (luckily only top cover got broken) and started to hug them. This event got recorded by BBD and pushed next day for Wild-Anim Competitions.
When grill was comming to an end, before party place in tent was located another hardware and projector on which some demos were presented by Tygrys. Inside of club more scene releases were presented which were watched by not so much people. At the down part of the club was located Amiga 500 painted in black on which every scener could write something in realtime.
On the scene Tm_Dag was preparing for live performance and soon he presented his set consisting only Drum’n’Bass music. By the way Dag deserved for big respect, because he was one and only person, who was mixing this weekend in “No Mercy” club from vinyl. His performance met with big approbation and more party people had fun with it.
Day two – crazy competitions, Polonez, Party Police, Gargaj on stage, competitions and Trusting in the Dark…
Next day when I came to the party place around midday, crazy competitions were organized by Fei. First of them was a demonstration of a skills in reading Hungarian’s sentences from paper. Next one was a task just like from the Primary School: modeling demo from plasticine! Few daredevils also with Deadman decided to take part in this competition and make their own plastic creations which were next judged by the audience which also had to guess, which demo is presented by concrete work. One of the winner was mentioned before Deadman.
Outside his acrobatics skills were showny by Raf with his Polonez, which artistic circles met with interest from other party people. By the way I met also KBI wich which I talked a little bit. Some of sceners were drinking before entrance to the club, other went around the local area.
In meantime when there was a consumption of dinner imported by organizers, Holdys came to party place, who later became unexpectedly a negative hero of Riverwash party. Also Biter and Asmcode came wearing paper crowds with the message, that they came without any demo :).
Soon Reiter came to the party place with which our Commodore team: me, Raf, Spider and certain Sebaloz, discussed quite long on the parking near “No Mercy” club. Raf praised with his C128D which wasn’t worth to set up on the party place. Next Spider bet with Raf that he will hold on the back of Polonez, standing on the hook. Soon both guys decided to realize theirs intentions but with the first circle of the car Spider didn’t hold on the back and lose the bet. His effort Nitro wanted to repeat, who quickly jumped on the back of Polonez. Spider this time placed himself on the mask and they hold themselves on the car only for few seconds :). Next Raf made another effective circles, trying also to mark the act of run over certain Sebaloz.
Our team without Spider was discussing more about different project, when Holdys came into our eyes. He went to us and told, that we Commodore people simply rulez :). Next he said, that he was kicked out from party, because he hit someone by his head. He decided to come back there, but there wasn’t know for what the reason. We went together with him, but the guardian didn’t let him in the party place. Holdys started to say something to Fei, who got pissed off and decided to call for Police. Desperate fanatic of Amiga decided to run for escape. He ran only several dozen of meters, shake and felt down. Soon the guardian catch him, bring back up and carry again before party place. Holdys maul himself at this fall, destroyed hand bleeds heavily and trousers and shirt were torn. After few minutes Police came to the party place, who wrote down the culprit and then let him go to his house. In meantime I’ve tried to know what really happened before and I got the information that then took the place an uncontrolled and unjustified incident in which Holdys hit GumBoy from his head. I don’t know more details about this subject but maybe it’s good, because this is not a matter that should interest me. I only feel sorry for Holdys who unfortunately couldn’t control of his reactions, being under the influence of alcohol.
Party was going on very well. More sceners came, for example Slayer which last time I saw at Symphony 2003, also 6a2a9 and Bonzaj with his wife. Inside of party place Edimax company were preparing to make a multimedia presentation. The biggest popularity has two women which didn’t wanted to talk by microphone being too shy. Whole presentation was carried by one man who was talking about wireless networks with the passion.
After presentation Silent who feels the best as compere, took the microphone. Some technician problems interfered his presentations of verbal skills. In meantime organizers were continuing music competitions. Some of the sceners were dancing under the scene like in good old times 🙂 and the atmosphere was really positive. Later graphics competitions were performed at which more sceners slowly began to descend to the club.
After finished graphics competitions Gargaj came on scene! He placed his equipment and soon got the people to the crazy dance with breakbeat rhythms. It was a nice surprise for me when he turned out into Hardcore climates, which I would never expect on computer party. I cannot describe the madness under the scene! Hungarian crew was jumping continuously by 1,5 of hour and Gargaj encouraged everyone to the common dance by spontaneous gestures and screaming of vocals from individual songs.
End of the set was extremely smashing, because it was keeped in speedcore rhythms. However soon silence fulfilled the hall and by the thunderous applause of the audience Gargaj thanked everyone for good party. In meantime In Dark We Trust formation arrived to the party place. Lorelein, Tau and Tonid had in plans to give a live performance just after the competitions. They got started after Gargaj’s show and organizers firstly showed 256 bytes intros and 4 kB intros. Next wild and kwit competitions were presented and on the end – demos. One of productions didn’t wanted to run and this situation met with typically applause from the large audience gathered in the party place. In the Readme file there was a note from author in which there was a request about e-mail contact in situation, when there will by any problems with running the production. Fei decided to… write that e-mail in real time! This operation visible all the time on the big screen got accepted with a big ovation and I must admit, that the spontaneity in this case was highly recommended.
Competitions got finished with „demise” from Azzaro, who quickly became an object of interest from other sceners, trying to place on his head a cup and a bottle. After these treatments Azzaro woke up and decided to move to the safe place. In meantime on the scene In Dark We Trust were preparing to the performance. Tau presented his set as the first one, mixing mostly climates of easy House. Next Tonid jumped on the stage and got sceners to dance at quite harder Psytrance rhythms. After several minutes of good mixing Lorelein stood behind the wheel which played her set kept in similar climates. However whole performance of In Dark We Trust formation didn’t last till the dawn (as it was originally assumed) because of less interest from party people.
I did a memorial photo with Tonid with which I talked a lot about good old times (we’ve been recalling his activity on C64 scene from 20 years ago when he was living in Canada). Soon I went to the hotel to have a short nap.
Day three – time to say goodbye and come back to the reality…
I woke up at 8 AM and after packing my stuff I went again to the party place. Those which were on the place, they looked really wasted. Tired eyes were looking some Wild’s from last years displayed on the big screen (also with famous Wataha Zua) and some of sceners were dreaming in sleeping room. I’ve voted on all productions, said goodbye to the sceners and went for the train back to Szczecin.
After long travel I came back to my house being tired, but raised up by the fact that I’ve participated in really successful party on which (however real C64 was missed) atmosphere was much positive. For a big plus I can recognize quite comfortable location of the party and more music performances: 1 concert and 3 DJ’s sets. This year on Riverwash came according to official data around 140 persons and 95 of them had the entrance for 3 full days. It’s also nice to praise about the fact, that two works provided by me for Chip Compo, got placed 1st and 2nd (in parallel with V0yager’s work) which clearly illustrated general acceptance of these works by the gathered audience during competitions.
Let’s have a hope that the party will be much better next year! So probably see you on the next Riverwash and everyone I invite to look at photos and movies done by myself :).
Pawel R.
V-12/Tropyx
Szczecin, 11.10.2009
Riverwash 2009 – results of competitions with C64 works:
Chip MSX
1. Ssay Suty – Surgeon (42 p.)
2. Control – Klax (31 p.)
2. Stage 02 – V0yager (31 p.)
3. But Your Lips Are Cold – Kam_ (29 p.)
4. Downstream – AceMan (23 p.)
5. Flow – PSK (14 p.)
Oldschool GFX
1. Mr Deadline – Slayer (56 p.)
2. Walk a Dog – Darklight (30 p.)
3. Ooz_eAt! – ooz (25 p.)
4. Mousehunt – irwin (20 p.)
5. M&C! – Sebaloz (19 p.)
Full results from all competitions are available here, and stuff from C64 here. Also my photos zipped can be found here!
By the way I would like to greet a man called Ryhu – boss of bartenders of No Mercy club which really beautiful and professional paintings adorn the walls of the place, where took Riverwash this year!
Riverwash 2009 – photo gallery:
