I have a friend named Chrissy that I met in Ireland back in the day. Chrissy is from Queens, New York, and she has that accent, too. One year, I met up with her and her two sisters in San Francisco to celebrate the New Year. They introduced me to a saying that has always rang true, because if anything CAN go wrong on New Years, it WILL. But it always turns out great regardless. So like they say in Queens, NY, ‘Happy F*ckin’ New Yea’.
In the true New Years spirit, my gig at the Capitol Club was definitely one of the most challenging gig’s I’ve had as of yet… and one of the most rewarding. (Compare this to the Boston Luftansa Holiday party where the Hotel we were at had two sound guys to do all the work, and I got to use the new Rane Empath Mixer which was ... to quote a phrase from Elletee 'Tits!'.) It started of at 5pm when I arrived to get the gear all set up. There was a slight technical challenge … the DJ equipment was about 15 feet away from the house sound and I needed to find a cable that would reach that far. I found one after a few hours thanks to the help of Tippit, Sheiny and Bishop. To work it out, I hooked up Sheiny’s 35ft long RCA cable to an RCA extension adapter of Bishops, then hooked the other end of that RCA cable to the house sound using RCA to ¼ inch converters. Then we were in Buziness!
Another challenge was that I had 4 hours of music to play and I totally misinterpreted the kind of music that the patrons would want to hear that night. I brought quite a bit of music in the wrong genera. For anyone that DJ’s (unless you are someone like Digweed), 4 hours is a pretty long set. Plus I thought it would be more ambient kind of stuff. So I brought mostly downtempo and mellow hip hop. But when the staff asked me to keep the BPMs (Beats Per Minute) a bit higher, I was a little spooked for a minute. This scenario made it so I couldn’t help but wonder* ~ ‘How best does a DJ in a non-dance floor venue keep the vibe up and happy enough so people are having fun but not wanting to leave to go dancing?’ Luckily I’ve been to enough of Miss Kick’s gigs to figure out what was best to pull out of my record bag.
In the end, I believe Tippit said of the set that I ‘went around the world in 80 ways’. I played some hip hop that I borrowed from Sheiny, some downtempo that I borrowed from T-bear and Elletee and I had brought enough of my House music to keep the Headz happy, though it was my darker stuff and not some of the lighter, deep house stuff. I was very pleased at the response I received from both the staff and the clientele.
By the way, the staff at the Capitol Club was by far the nicest, most enjoyable staff that I’ve ever worked with in Seattle. I definitely have to give a HUGE thanks to Verna for hooking me up the gig through the Hitgirls. When I arrived at 9:30 for the actual gig, Tippit presented me with a Water and a Red Bull. Fantastic! Also later when I was almost passing out from not having time to eat dinner, I had a plate of the Carnaroli Risotto which was extremely yummy, though if you are lactose intolerant, I do recommend sticking to pizza. Plus the staff was super nice to my parents and long-time friends of the family, Terry and Bob. (Terry has known me since I was 10) who drove all the way from T-town to support me. And I do have to mention that my mom was NOT pleased by the t-shirt I was sporting in my Baltic Room pics. Yes, I should have warned her that my humor can be somewhat…dirty in a very shocking way. Sorry, mom. Love you!
So in the end, even though I was a little unprepared (the patrons never knew!) and I didn’t get to flirt with the hot bartender as much as I wanted, it was one of the most challenging but best times I’ve ever had as a DJ. I was really glad to ring in 2005 with everyone at Capitol Club, including some of the party peeps (here’s some pics), my friend T-Mack who showed up after a wedding, and a nice House Head named Derrick who I tried to give a CD to, but he left before I could give it to him.
Thanks to all and Happy F*ckin’ New Yea!
*‘Sex and the City’ reference -- BTW, after just finishing the entire series of ‘Sex and the City’ on DVD, it is now my opinion that S.A.T.C. is one of the best television series’ ever written.
