Chicago was soulful, and that’s an understatement.
6 hours after leaving Cleveland, we arrived at Kool Hersh’s apartment in the windy city’s Logan Square. The vibe was excellent and our host was superb.
First on the itinerary was an in-store performance at the Silver Room in Wicker Park, a jewelry store, art gallery and performance space with an elevated DJ booth, fully equipped with Rane rotary mixer of course.
The Silver Room’s owner Eric came up in the old Chi town with the rat pack of original house legends like Ron Hardy, Larry Heard, Green Velvet et al… and brought that soul in to the space. He even put Nick on the phone with Ron Trent, just to say hi.
A grown and sexy crowd trickled through the door before the official start time and dove in the open bar. DJ Question and DJ Yazi played the soundtrack of classic house, new dance music, dubstep and hip hop. Tiombe and I almost died when Yazi dropped a tropical remix of Drop the Lime’s “Devil’s Eyes.” Needless to say, they were doing a great job.
The crowd filled the backroom space while the Beat Street Club, a collective of local mc’s played a short set which got the room nice and warm. Cubic Zirconia took stage short after and stirred a frenzy. They opened with “Fuck Work,” their first released single that took everyone by storm and had them at the jump. A few songs in, the crowd jumped in jukin and 2-stepping next to the double stack of 18 inch subwoofers, a must for any good retail.
After the set, the vibe was so great we all hung around for an hour longer while DJ Question started a dancefloor in the bright lit room. The people started hopping on the drums, battling on the floor, like I said, it was soulful, and that’s an understatement.
We moved the party down the street to Rodan, a slick moderned asian-fusion restaurant and lounge. Of course we ran out of a drink tab in the first 30 minutes, but that didn’t stop the party. Nick and Tiombe did a DJ set which consisted of Four Tet, Ginuwine, Tiombe on a table with maracas and a dancefloor sweating under a beaming projector.
15 minutes before the doors closed, Nick got on the mic and decided “if anyone has turntables at their house we’ll come DJ.” Sure enough, 4 blocks down the road, Mike and Chad not only had turntables, but 5000 records, full soundsystem, bar setup and 2000 empty square feet perfect for 50 of us.
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