INURFASE kicked off the club season at Bootshaus this past weekend with their latest MASSIVE edition “Highlands of Doom”. Relentless hardcore beats and house-shaking uptempo kicks by 21 artists on three stages spurred the crowd to enter full-throttle mode. Let’s shine a light on the details!
Simon Roth
Venue
Industrial Ruhr charm, powerful sound systems by Funktion-One and SEEBURG, multiple areas with unique atmospheres – that’s Bootshaus! Centrally located on the eastern side of Cologne and effortlessly reachable by public transport, it’s been a magnet for electronic music lovers for nearly two decades meanwhile.
No wonder this club was once again voted among the best clubs worldwide (6th place, DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs 2023), and in my opinion, it’s the must-visit spot for electronic music in Germany!
When I arrived about half an hour after the gates opened, a considerable line of visitors had already gathered in front of the entrance. But security and the box office did a good job and progress was made fast towards the entrance – quick stopover at the wardrobe, off we go into the night!
Areas
Each of the three indoor areas was amazing in their look and feel, and we can be sure lots of thoughts have been put into every single one of them. Outdoors various seating areas invited people to linger, relax, and recharge under the night sky before the next set.
Main floor
The main hall was segmented into multiple levels, creating multiple smaller areas around the actual dance floor. The elevated chill-out area with couches and tables in the back provided a great view top down. Five large screens, one mounted horizontally in the middle, and two more vertically next to it on each side, marked the DJ booth and showed the name(s) of the DJ(s) currently playing as well as some fancy animations. A special spectacle was the flamethrowers firing up into the huge hall directly above your head!
Blackbox
The second area was solely dedicated to uptempo artists and came up with a stunning mix of futuristic and industrial design. The indirect lighting and illuminated steps opposed to the exposed brickwork and the back-lit metal fans hanging down from above made this floor a really special one. The sound system with its punchy bass also turned out to be picture-perfect for this music style and two additional bars on the left- and right-hand side supplied the thirsty crowd with affordable drinks of all kinds.
Dreherei – hosted by Brainstorm
Raw industrial design, gray concrete flooring, a stage built on pallets and enclosed with mesh – this definitely was not the usual club floor. The unique atmosphere was complemented by triangle-shaped lighting behind the DJs, in the utter dark resembling a back-lit cave wall, and a ceiling equipped with luminous tubes spanning the whole length of the room. With its alternative style and its small size, this was the perfect area for everyone who isn’t into mainstream stuff!
Music
The night started on the main floor with hardcore, slowly picking up speed to uptempo in the end. Later on, the two other floors also opened up, providing the right sound for everyone’s taste at any time.
Juju Rush
With Levenkhan’s “G6”, Angerfist’s “Solid Stigma” and “Remember The Name” (by Rooler & Sefa), Juju utterly fired up the main stage. By mixing hardcore, frenchcore, and uptempo creatively together into an amazing set, she supplied the early-arrivers with an incredible intro to the party. Unbelievable how much progress this emerging talent made during the past years!
Namara vs. Dr. Z
What happens when you put two aspiring German uptempo DJanes on stage together? You get an absolutely packed area with sauna-like air conditions! There was nearly no possibility to get in or out while these two took us on their killer-energy trip to the ultimate “Boss Fight” between Deadly Guns and F.Noize and showed us GPF’s “Miracle”. It was worth every single drop of sweat though!
N-Vitral
Brutal bass, insane sound, ultra-high energy – that’s legendary N-Vitral exactly like we know him! With absolutely precise consistency he delivered one banger after the next (“Ich will Bass”, “The Next Level”, and “Deathblow”, just to name a few) before he closed down his set in style with “Break Your Face”. What an awesome performance and my favorite set of the night!
Irradiate vs. Juliëx
The honor of the main stage closing set was given to these two swiftly rising Dutch uptempo stars – and they in return replied with pure dedication, getting the crowd moving to “The Hardcore Elements”, “Anger In The Nation” and “Wonderwall”. Great atmosphere still after 5 a.m.!
Conclusion
We experienced a professionally organized event with an interesting line-up consisting of rising newcomers as well as well-known international artists. Time flew by so fast and I’m sure everyone who likes hard and fast electronic music got his full money’s worth – recommendation without any restrictions!
Ready for more INURFASE?
Check out the upcoming events:
- Dr. Peacock pres. FRENCHCORE WORLDWIDE (October 21st @ Zoom Frankfurt)
- This is SEFA (November 10th @ Bootshaus Cologne)
