Club Schizophrenia
Tonight, my DJ friend (let's call him DJS) was canned from his residency at a local club. I won't say name of the club, not because I'm particularily concerned with what they'd think of my thoughts on this, but, to misquote Paul Harvey, they would want me to mention their name. (Really. They would. They need publicity).
DJS is one of the best trance DJ's in the area, state and, frankly, I'd put him up against just about anyone in the US. This cat has opened for Tiesto, has his own streaming radio program, you get the idea. So when a few months ago, this club hired him for a Sat night residency, those in my little group of trance fans were rather excited. (We've been in dire need of a good EDM scene ever since the local media ran wild with the "Raves=Drugs!" story that got all the city mothers and fathers all lathered up, who promptly decided that the best way to deal with it was to try to kill the nightlife as a whole.) The club even got some good press from a columnist from the local media who covers the nightlife scene. They claimed they were going for a Vegas look and a Miami sound (Club Space, anyone?). House upstairs, trance & progressive downstairs. A higher-end clientele. It seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.
By Dr. Giggles maybe.
Now I understand, hip-hop isn't just popular, it's freaking pandemic. (Though how anyone can get into a musical genre that routinely refers to women as b*tches and ho's is beyond me, but hey, free country, whatever floats your boat.) Our little 7th Ave strip alone has no less than 7 hip-hop clubs and I'm not counting the surrounding metro area. There are 2 radio stations slamming out the latest rap/hip-hop (3, really, one just won't admit it) . Only one major club here spins any sort of EDM and that's hard hard breaks, which can get really monotonous, even for dance music. So I figured it was a discriminator. Why compete with all the hip-hop clubs when you can be one of the few spots for true EDM? It might take a while because word has to spread, an audience has to build. Just about any new club takes time to gather a following. Patience is a virture. Right?
Wrong.
This place had the patience of a 5 year old. Within an hour of DJS going on the decks, "management" (including some accountant, who didn't even know what a breakdown in a song was) were screaming at him to play hip-hop. Going from trance to hip-hop is like cruising at 70 and deciding to throw your car into reverse. The tempo's different, the vibe, everything. I'm out there dancing (as well as a rhythmless white man can) to something like "Find" and some "tootsie roll" type up song blares up, going from about 130bpm down to maybe 90. My back still smarts over that one. An hour of hip-hop goes by, then 30 minutes of trance, then hip-hop... you get the idea. The crowd, of course, doesn't know what to think of this transmission-grinding behavior. I mean, could you listen to a radio station that switched between smooth jazz and speed metal at the drop of a hat? Me thinks not. I had people I had talked into coming out later give me grief to the effect of "If we wanted to hear hip-hop, we would have gone across the street".
And Club Schizophrenia (as I'd started to call it, no disrespect intended to the poor souls actually afflicted with the malady) kept at this for weeks. Not surprisingly, no following builds because EDM and hip-hop tend to be mutually exclusive. It's really rare for someone to be heavy into both. (P. Diddy being an notable exception - I've seen him twice at EDM events. Once at a Paul van Dyk set at Space, another at Ultra Music Festival with Oakenfold). Meanwhile, us trance fans are grumbling - we were promised EDM, not hip-hop. Even ColumnBoy (who'd become a friend of mine by then) felt he'd been led on a bit. And, naturally, DJS is going bonkers. He can and does spin hip-hop on Friday nights at another venue, but trance is a passion of his and he was desperate to be free to let a set go. (I'm telling you, the guy can blow up a club.)
At one point ColumnBoy, myself and a mutual friend 24HourMan (because he's always "working", if you know what I mean) go upstairs and eavesdrop on the managment stroking their beards, clucking their tongues and talking about what's to be done with the club. One suggestion?
Booty-calls.
Um, yeah. There's nothing like a good ol' booty-call to get those high end types out to a club. ColumnBoy nearly fell into a chair when he'd heard this. So flabbergasted were we that after the evening was over, we found the general manager NitWitGM and expressed our concerns. Politely. With support, saying we liked the look of the club, thought they had a major talent in DJS on their hand, we really really wanted to get an EDM scene going and were willing to help. NitWitGM, with all the oil and grease of a used car salesman, was "Oh, yeah, I want your inputs" and "We should get together and talk about this more." and "Call me, we'll set up something."
Do I really have to tell you where that went? (ColumnBoy did in fact meet with NitWitGM later. I had submitted a few sure-fire draws like Ferry Corsten or Armin van Buuren. NitWitGM instead gleefully showed ColumnBoy a list of hip-hop whodats and hazbeens. They also added a cage for girls to dance in, because, you know, a cage is the hallmark of a great club. The folks from Godskitchen these people are not...)
Long story short, DJS got increasingly frustrated. He asked if he could move upstairs and spin progressive/trance there and let hip-hop reign supreme downstairs. But no, they had some house DJ going on there (who was ok, but I have to assume he had some choice bit of dirt on someone there to be so firmly ensconsed). Until finally, DJS simply refused to spin hip-hop, especially last Sat when a few celebs rolled into Club Schizo, took over upstairs and turned said so-so house vibe into their own personal version Death Row Records studio. By that point, DJS said "Screw it. They hired me as an EDM DJ and by cracky, that's what I'm going to spin."
And he did.
And they fired him for it.
He hasn't said outright, but I wouldn't be surprised if he told them "You can't fire me, I quit!" The loss of a steady gig isn't a good thing, but losing your mind is even worse. DJS will find another residence, I'm sure of it. He's too damn talented.
So to Club Schizo, as they say in France, buh-bye. I'll never set foot in your place again. You can have your cage, your booty calls, your hip-hop and your idiotic managment. I'll look for your obituary in a few months.
PS To one of Club Schizo's patrons: If you wanna dress up like that, all the power to you. But a fashion tip: Try not to wear a wig that looks like it's been stolen off the set of a Poison or Ratt video. Big Hair went out with the 80's...
DJS is one of the best trance DJ's in the area, state and, frankly, I'd put him up against just about anyone in the US. This cat has opened for Tiesto, has his own streaming radio program, you get the idea. So when a few months ago, this club hired him for a Sat night residency, those in my little group of trance fans were rather excited. (We've been in dire need of a good EDM scene ever since the local media ran wild with the "Raves=Drugs!" story that got all the city mothers and fathers all lathered up, who promptly decided that the best way to deal with it was to try to kill the nightlife as a whole.) The club even got some good press from a columnist from the local media who covers the nightlife scene. They claimed they were going for a Vegas look and a Miami sound (Club Space, anyone?). House upstairs, trance & progressive downstairs. A higher-end clientele. It seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.
By Dr. Giggles maybe.
Now I understand, hip-hop isn't just popular, it's freaking pandemic. (Though how anyone can get into a musical genre that routinely refers to women as b*tches and ho's is beyond me, but hey, free country, whatever floats your boat.) Our little 7th Ave strip alone has no less than 7 hip-hop clubs and I'm not counting the surrounding metro area. There are 2 radio stations slamming out the latest rap/hip-hop (3, really, one just won't admit it) . Only one major club here spins any sort of EDM and that's hard hard breaks, which can get really monotonous, even for dance music. So I figured it was a discriminator. Why compete with all the hip-hop clubs when you can be one of the few spots for true EDM? It might take a while because word has to spread, an audience has to build. Just about any new club takes time to gather a following. Patience is a virture. Right?
Wrong.
This place had the patience of a 5 year old. Within an hour of DJS going on the decks, "management" (including some accountant, who didn't even know what a breakdown in a song was) were screaming at him to play hip-hop. Going from trance to hip-hop is like cruising at 70 and deciding to throw your car into reverse. The tempo's different, the vibe, everything. I'm out there dancing (as well as a rhythmless white man can) to something like "Find" and some "tootsie roll" type up song blares up, going from about 130bpm down to maybe 90. My back still smarts over that one. An hour of hip-hop goes by, then 30 minutes of trance, then hip-hop... you get the idea. The crowd, of course, doesn't know what to think of this transmission-grinding behavior. I mean, could you listen to a radio station that switched between smooth jazz and speed metal at the drop of a hat? Me thinks not. I had people I had talked into coming out later give me grief to the effect of "If we wanted to hear hip-hop, we would have gone across the street".
And Club Schizophrenia (as I'd started to call it, no disrespect intended to the poor souls actually afflicted with the malady) kept at this for weeks. Not surprisingly, no following builds because EDM and hip-hop tend to be mutually exclusive. It's really rare for someone to be heavy into both. (P. Diddy being an notable exception - I've seen him twice at EDM events. Once at a Paul van Dyk set at Space, another at Ultra Music Festival with Oakenfold). Meanwhile, us trance fans are grumbling - we were promised EDM, not hip-hop. Even ColumnBoy (who'd become a friend of mine by then) felt he'd been led on a bit. And, naturally, DJS is going bonkers. He can and does spin hip-hop on Friday nights at another venue, but trance is a passion of his and he was desperate to be free to let a set go. (I'm telling you, the guy can blow up a club.)
At one point ColumnBoy, myself and a mutual friend 24HourMan (because he's always "working", if you know what I mean) go upstairs and eavesdrop on the managment stroking their beards, clucking their tongues and talking about what's to be done with the club. One suggestion?
Booty-calls.
Um, yeah. There's nothing like a good ol' booty-call to get those high end types out to a club. ColumnBoy nearly fell into a chair when he'd heard this. So flabbergasted were we that after the evening was over, we found the general manager NitWitGM and expressed our concerns. Politely. With support, saying we liked the look of the club, thought they had a major talent in DJS on their hand, we really really wanted to get an EDM scene going and were willing to help. NitWitGM, with all the oil and grease of a used car salesman, was "Oh, yeah, I want your inputs" and "We should get together and talk about this more." and "Call me, we'll set up something."
Do I really have to tell you where that went? (ColumnBoy did in fact meet with NitWitGM later. I had submitted a few sure-fire draws like Ferry Corsten or Armin van Buuren. NitWitGM instead gleefully showed ColumnBoy a list of hip-hop whodats and hazbeens. They also added a cage for girls to dance in, because, you know, a cage is the hallmark of a great club. The folks from Godskitchen these people are not...)
Long story short, DJS got increasingly frustrated. He asked if he could move upstairs and spin progressive/trance there and let hip-hop reign supreme downstairs. But no, they had some house DJ going on there (who was ok, but I have to assume he had some choice bit of dirt on someone there to be so firmly ensconsed). Until finally, DJS simply refused to spin hip-hop, especially last Sat when a few celebs rolled into Club Schizo, took over upstairs and turned said so-so house vibe into their own personal version Death Row Records studio. By that point, DJS said "Screw it. They hired me as an EDM DJ and by cracky, that's what I'm going to spin."
And he did.
And they fired him for it.
He hasn't said outright, but I wouldn't be surprised if he told them "You can't fire me, I quit!" The loss of a steady gig isn't a good thing, but losing your mind is even worse. DJS will find another residence, I'm sure of it. He's too damn talented.
So to Club Schizo, as they say in France, buh-bye. I'll never set foot in your place again. You can have your cage, your booty calls, your hip-hop and your idiotic managment. I'll look for your obituary in a few months.
PS To one of Club Schizo's patrons: If you wanna dress up like that, all the power to you. But a fashion tip: Try not to wear a wig that looks like it's been stolen off the set of a Poison or Ratt video. Big Hair went out with the 80's...
posted by The Doctor at Tuesday, January 25, 2005
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