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FRIDAY
It’s 15 degrees outside, and the winter of ’92 is rearing its vindictive head, shooting icy lasers of wind off the Detroit River. There is a long line of ravers waiting to enter a crumbling warehouse tucked inside the dilapidated downtown, quietly huddling not because of some love drug but because their tiny T-shirts barely cover their paper-thin torsos. We wait for nearly 30 minutes before the line moves, and as we fade toward the entrance, the intense robotic beats inside become more involved with our internal rhythms. Stepping into the building is like entering another world: the strobe-blasted, tiny dance floor is thick with vertically bouncing bodies. The music overtakes me; my eyes expand and contract in time to the rhythmic punches as my chest resists collapsing from the bone-rattling volume. Inside the DJ booth is Richie Hawtin, his bald head and wispy body jerking along with his bullet-quick beats. As Hawtin pushes his turntable pitch to +8, all shivering stops and a sonic heat boom overtakes the room. Off goes my coat. Off goes my head. Hawtin’s third album as Plastikman, Consumed, is minimalist, Reichian techno with rhythms so spacious they’re almost circadian. While Consumed may not designed for warehouse dance parties, it’s subtle power can still shape the weather. Hawtin joins Rabbit in the Moon and a host of DJs at Sting 14 at 10 p.m. Friday, July 3, at the Capital Ballroom, 1015 Half St. SE. $25. (202) 828-1984. (Christopher Porter)