Swedish House Mafia Masquerade Motal @ Pacha review

Masquerade Motel at Pacha  //  Monday 2nd August 2010

Falling asleep in the taxi en route to Pacha was never a good sign for Swedish House Mafia's Masquerade Motel.  Five nights into our week in Ibiza, the mind was willing but the body was weak.  However, energised by the red neon SHM stars blinding the hordes outside the main entrance, I knew I was good to go.  This was going to be legendary.

After watching the guestlist queue with amusement (we're talking about a 30% success rate), we were greeted by a tall, rather charming young chap in a leather leotard and more slap than Lady Gaga on Halloween who was handing out pretty special SHM fans.  And boy, would they come in handy.

Confidently bowling through the second room, slipping through the beautiful people, we had our eyes on the prize: we are, what you might call, Main Room People.  A collection of Scousers, Macunians, Leeds lads and a rather scrappy East Londoner, we have never once been defeated by a dancefloor crush.  After 15 minutes of elbow barging, we weren't even close to getting through the Narnian entrance to the magical kingdom beyond.  A abrupt, Braveheart-style roar of 'ABORT' from the team leader, and we retreated to Room 2.

The magical combination of easy access to the bar, toilets and plenty of room to dance was soon found.  We spent the next four hours right in front of the night-vision screen showing a live feed from the DJ booth we'd failed to get within spitting distance of - and it was great.  The atmosphere was electric, helped along by the legendary DirtySouth, who succeeded in working the dancefloor up into such a frenzy that there wasn't a single person not cracking their face with a huge grin.

Steve Angello introduced himself and Sebastian Ingrosso with an enthusiasm rarely seen in such seasoned DJs - they were so excited, you'd have thought it was their first night, not just another weekly slot in a summer-long residency.  Like a 17-euro vodka RedBull to the ears, they were off.  And they did. Not. Stop.  Two full hours of pounding electro house that only the SHM can deliver.  Ticking off the summer's biggest Ibiza anthems, the terrible twosome layered ten-second samples and looped whole tracks, countless obscure mixes and, of course, their recently released surefire air-puncher: "One".

After Angello had so politely requested at the beginning of the set; "IBIZZZZA, LET'S GET SWEATY!", it was rude not to, really.  We did get into the main room in the end.  At 5.30am, we tried our luck again - it still took us twenty minutes to squeeze through, but the sight of the place still rammed and going for it, and the gorgeous masked dancers on the podiums was worth the peek into the Promised Land.

All it taught me was to next time A) check into the Masquerade Motel again as soon as is humanly possible, and B) get there earlier than 2am for a prime piece of the Main Room Pacha Pie.

Words: Natalie Earl

You can catch the Swedish House Mafia Masquearde Motel every Monday throughout the summer at the legendary Pacha Ibiza. Masquerade Motel closing party is on 27th September 2010. See Pacha.com for more details.