Review of "Come With Us" Launch Party, Barcelona, Spain, 25th January 2002, by David Vidal

I was surprised with this presentation and how the Chems choose only Paris and Barcelona for this "Come With Us" launch party. The event was only for press and also around 250 people who got tickets through local radio stations winning some competitions. So it was not really difficult to got in if you worked it out well.

During the day Tom & Ed offered several interviews to the press. The venue opened at 9:15 pm in "La Paloma";  a huge and beautiful club inspired by the dance halls of the Spain of the 60s. A DJ (no idea who he was) started to spin some phat tracks, while some waiters offered free (yes, free!) champagne to all the attendees!
The Chemical Brothers came on at 10:20pm. The crowd went mad. It was the first time that Tom & Ed have  spun in Spain (with the exception of the  Benicassim Festival). My surprise was to see that weren't any security people. Tom and Ed were accessible to all, it was easy to go near the decks and say something to them or just to get a record signed. Tom and Ed were very receptive, and they did not mind stopping to sign discs and to salute whatever who approached the decks, they had no pretensions, were really down to Earth.

The set was really different of any I've listen before, and probably the best of all. They started with "Come with US",  followed by "Song to the Siren". From the forthcoming LP they just played this first track, along with "Star Guitar",  and a darker and harder version of "It Began In Africa", mixed with Underworld's "Kittens". They didn't play many of their own records after that, just "Studio K", Fatboy's "Song for Shelter" remix and "Hey Girl Hey Boy". Another surprise came near the end of the set, when the earlier version of "Hey Girl Hey Boy" started to sound followed by the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper", just exactly as in the Anti- Nazi mix! Chems played tons of old and good stuff like Micronauts, DBX, Orbital, Emmanuel Top "Lobotomie", FC Kahuna, and lots more (I would pay for that set tracklist!!!).  At 12:30am the Chems finished the set with "Hey Girl Hey Boy", after more than two hours of a set.

All these old tracks,  felt like a 95 Chem's set, along with the special atmosphere that was present there, contributed to a magical night for many of the people there!

After that some DJ's mixed good breakbeat and deep-house tracks till' 6am, but I was really tired, so it was time to come back home!

[ thanks to David Vidal in Barcelona for report and images]