Day 2
The night I was most looking forward to has now ended. It is the one I like best because I'm really into '80s soul and there's no pressure to play hits since it was a Monday night at a smaller spot. Whoever said the West Side sucks should come to this night. I've written about it before, but I gotta say what's up to the DJs who hold it down regularly: Billy, Ron and Dam Funk. Three great ears. Dam did a remix for Baron Zen that came out on our WMC box set a couple months ago and is recording some new stuff hopefully for my label, Stones Throw, as well. The day was a long one as I went into the studio earlier and worked on one of Guilty Simpson's new tracks and also caught up on Stones Throw stuff before working on my set for tonight. I had a T-shirt made with Jesse Johnson's picture on it and was good to go. (Thanks Liger and Violet).
Dam called me at 10 PM to tell me it was already packed, so I left the house to catch the vibe before I went on. I'm trying to go on at 12 o' clock midnight every night to get myself on some sort of schedule. Routine is important. When I got there at 10:30, they weren't letting anyone else in. I started feeling stressed for the people who were waiting outside cuz I personally HATE waiting in lines. We decided to give them T-shirts and posters cuz it didn't look like they were getting in. In the meantime, Billy introduced me to his sister and a Vodka-based drink that I never heard of before, but being Polish, I had to try it (even though he insisted I drink it with the French brand Grey Goose, which was also Doom's drink of choice during the recording of the Madvillain album.) Run on sentence. Sweet Steve would kill me if he read this. I think the Goose is now kicking my ass as I write this.
I called a few of my friends and my wife, the lovely Violet, and told them to go around to the other door so they could sneak in. In the meantime, my crew from way back, like Theresa (who took the picture of Charizma and I that was used for our album cover) and Rhettmatic (who set off “Tale of Five Cities) were already in the house. Rhett told me earlier in the day that he wanted to hear “Tricky” by The Time. A few Vodkas later and I was on the tables. The time between 10 and 12 seemed like an eternity, as too many eyes were on me. It May be what the kid in me still subconsciously thought I wanted, but as a still halfway sober adult, it felt extremely awkward. The volume on the mixer was cranked to 10 and the analog VU meters were all in “The Red” and I thought of Jaylib. As I started mixing, I realized there were no monitors in the club, which suprised me because I've spun at Carbon on Monday several times before with no problem. I was tempted to turn the volume down because in the past, my homegirl Megan told me about when she saw David Mancuso play and he purposely had the volume at a semi-quiet volume. David is a DJ I look up to, but I can't bite.
The set went really well, all things considered. A few mixes were sloppy, but that didn't matter to me or I think anyone else (by their reactions). I was really into what I was playing and the highlights made up for the lowlights. Just like Do-Over, I fought with the problem I created (not bringing anything remotely familiar to the majority of the crowd), but that's becoming the new theme of my 7 days (with me just now realizing it). I love trying to turn people on to stuff they never heard before.
People were extremely supportive throughout my set and responded to nearly everything I did. Rhett yelled “Guapo” throughout the night, which reminded me that I was sexier than Rod Stewert. If not, I should at least carry myself that way so I can fool everyone else.
2 down, 5 to go.
I haven't started my set for tomorrow yet, but it should be no problem cuz I've rocked Cinespace plenty times before (including my 666 set last Jun 6th). The concept for tomorrow was originally all BADD covers, but now I've opened it up to include anything BADD. I'll probably do some Miami Bass since I didn't incude that genre anywhere in my 7 days and it's something I like spinning out when I can. I'm also bummed I didn't get to do a new wave/post-punk night, so I'll probaby throw some of that in as well. I wanted to do a night of new soul and hip-hop as well, but then it would be the 8 day tour.
Two down, five to go. A lot of people tonight told me they're two for two ,so far, to which I told them, it makes two of us. Just The.
Leave A Comment!