8/20/06
Did another installment of Ghetturista last night with Anjali and DJ Blackmarks. There were all sorts of confusions about the date between booking agents and the date was moved back and forth. We were confirmed for the end of September after having the August date cancelled but then one and a half weeks ago we find out that they actually wanted us for August after all. Well, one and a half weeks is not a lot of time to promote a one-off party and Anjali and I were heading to Vancouver, BC for the week (Jagga Sweets in Surrey!). Blackmarks hustled, came up with flyers and posters (Thank you, man!) and did some street promotion. Thank you to the people who came out.
Was looking forward to playing the large patio space at Acme. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that the one subwoofer (our sole supplier of bass for the evening) had a big tear in the cone and sounded like a flatulant hippopotamus. Damn. I was resting all my sonic hopes for the evening on the subwoofer. We didn’t manage to rustle up any last minute replacements either.
The evening began slowly with just a handful of tables along the edges of the patio filled with seated patrons. By the time I got up to play there had been no more than a few people doing a little booty shaking around the edges of the space. I started out with some Grime, moved into some Japanese hip-hop and found myself with a small dancefloor. At this point a drunken woman came up to me with her friend and announced that they were part of a large bachelorette party that had just arrived and asked if I could play Young MC “Bust a Move.” Now I DJ weddings and the last one I did proved the power of that song without a doubt, but that is decidely not what Ghetturista is about, and I am nothing if not a DJ commited to theme. I explained that the night was dedicated to international hip-hop and that we might get around to good-old American hip-hop but seeing as how Blackmarks played a bunch in his set I didn’t see myself going there any time soon. Now I try to be polite in these situations but it is hard not to get aggravated. She kept asking me what I could tell her to bring back to her girls so that they would have something to look forward to as far as dancing. I explained that they might be happier in a more mainstream club. “Oh no, we’re not going anywhere else.” Yet she kept wanting some positive news to bring back to her girls. I was flustered and clumsy as I moved on to French hip-hop. This time the dance floor got crowded (New 113 killing it!) and suddenly I’m faced with a mass of dancers. I got a request for Reggaeton (That’s more like it. Someone who knows what I’m about.) and that’s where I went next. The Reggaeton was working so well I went with it for most of my set. I wanted to bust out some Carioca Funk but as soon as I made the transition I lost some of the dancers. I stayed with it anyway until it was time for Anjali to come back on.
What was funny about the woman from the bachelorette party who got in my face was that once I got everyone dancing she came back to me very apologetic about having bothered me. That was nice. I don’t think anyone has ever come back to apologize after getting in my face. However, she was so drunk that she kept coming up to me all night once I had stopped DJing apologizing over and over for having bothered me. At one point I was sitting with the Cannonator and she apologized to both of us. Then she ended up going up to him alone throughout the night and continued apologizing to him. She kept going up to Anjali all night and telling her how awesome she was. As she was leaving she came up again to thank us and apologize. Alcohol, it’s something else.
Despite there not being a whole lot of people there the dance floor kept reviving itself up until they shut down the club. Even then there were a group of dancers wondering what to do next. Thank you again to everyone who came out. We had a great crowd. And Blackmarks had a blast.
Anjali and I will be back at ACME for the September 7th First Thursday edition of BOOTY. It’s a theme party: Treasure Island meets Lord of the Flies.
IK