Idris Elba, Kevin Saunderson, Richie Hawtin cap Movement after lengthy weather evacuation
An elevating performance by Idris Elba with Kevin Saunderson and a reliable banger from Richie Hawtin capped a Movement festival day marked by one of the most extensive weather delays in the event's history.
Rain showers have been part of Hart Plaza’s techno tradition going back to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in the early 2000s. But Sunday’s 3½-hour interruption — which started with an evacuation of attendees at about 6:45 p.m. amid storms and high winds — was a doozy.
By the time things revved back up after 10 p.m., Hart Plaza was one big soggy dance floor. Fans who had retreated to their downtown hotel rooms or nearby nightspots were nevertheless up for the occasion, restlessly piling into long lines along Jefferson Avenue to return for a music lineup that had been frantically rejuggled by organizers.
Movement producers got approval from city officials to extend Sunday’s run time to 12:30 a.m., a half-hour later than the midnight curfew that has long been strictly enforced — as can be testified by fans who watched the plug get pulled on Wu-Tang Clan in 2015.
Elba, the award-winning English actor (“Luther,” “The Wire”) who’s been DJing since his teens, joined forces with longtime friend and Detroit techno icon Saunderson for a buoyant set on the Pyramid Stage.
Elba is a certified house-music head with an affinity for techno’s birthplace, as evidenced in his 2012 documentary “How Clubbing Changed the World,” which traced the genre’s Motor City origins. He and Saunderson tag-teamed at the decks for a world-flavored set of techno-house, a lush presentation with rave-era touches that launched with their 2020 collaboration, “We All Move Together.”
There was a sense of place and reverence in Elba’s execution, which came backdropped by the Detroit River and the Windsor skyline. Bobbing and enthusiastic, he kept things pure: One of the most familiar actors of his generation was content to be shrouded in dark.
On Movement's main stage, meanwhile, Windsor-raised Hawtin unveiled his latest conceptual performance, “DEX EFX X0X,” an updated take on his adventurous late-’90s work.
Hawtin, known for his ambitious festival spectacles, has described the new project as “more club than concert,” and that certainly played out Sunday in downtown Detroit, where he crafted a subtly intricate sonic tapestry whose tight lighting and immersive audio left an enveloping sensation.
Hawtin is the most prolific headliner in Movement history, and Sunday’s hard (and hardworking) set was typically pristine, precise and technically impressive.
He’ll reprise the “DEX EFX XOX” program at Barcelona’s Sónar festival on June 14.
Movement will wrap up its third and final day Monday with another busy slate of music, including night-capping performances by British veterans Goldie and Fatboy Slim. Forecasts, mercifully, are calling for dry skies after morning showers.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Idris Elba, Richie Hawtin cap Movement after lengthy weather delay
