Pete Tong @ Club Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina

"An opportunity in every difficulty"

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill

By Ryan Gawn

Despite last minute venue changes, technical upsets and a fraught few months in the Buenos Aires scene, Pete Tong recently played his first club night in Argentina before heading off to 60,000 fans at Brazil's Skolbeats Festival.

Touching down in Buenos Aires for the third time, world renowned DJ Pete Tong arrived in the midst of an increased clampdown on the local club scene. His club night was a victim of increased city regulations (due to a nightclub fire that killed 193 people in December), which lead to a last minute venue change from superclub "Mint" to Club Museum. This tight transition had the potential for trouble, but Pete pulled through.

At the beginning of the Heineken-sponsored night, up-and-coming local DJ Elio Riso warmed up the crowd nicely before fellow Argentinean Mint resident German Rovira took over. Due to change of venue, technology at Club Museum was limited and it definitely showed, with some pretty evident volume and mixing problems. Nevertheless, the crowd had come this far and they were very prepared to cope with these last minute issues to wait for the Essential Selection's maestro to take over. And he did impress.

Arriving an hour later than scheduled at 0430, the most well-known DJ in the world stepped onto his stage. Showing that he wasn't beyond getting his hands dirty by personally setting up an array of hardware before opening his set, his presence in the club was electrifying as the crowd turned to watch him, waiting in anticipation for the opening track of his 3 hour set. To a huge cheer, Tong led the crowd into a quick-clap samba-style opening with D.O.N.S. feat. Technotronic's "Pump up the Jam". The mesh of people on the floor began to move with the music with such energy it set the tone for the rest of night.

With 2,000 fans looking on, Pete made do with limited resources and really played up to the crowd - the cheers of the crowd just fuelled his performance and you could tell he was in his element. Providing a mixture of deeper house as well as anthems such as Deep Dish's "Say Hello", Pete kept the Argentine crowd baying for more until the daylight hours of the following morning.

Although, the night may have been better had the event been a little less unpredictable, the chaos seemed to add to the performance rather than hinder it. The fans didn't seem to notice and refused to go home until Pete played them one last tune. Mr. Tong ingratiated the throng of cheering fans with Rachel Starr's "Till there was you (Gabriel & Dresden Remix)", before leaving them to the capable hands of resident Elio Riso to close the night.

Despite the difficulties, the maestro had, once again, seized the opportunity, and was able to walk into a fresh new Buenos Aires morning with yet another successful night under his belt.
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