Boulder Gig Report #2

So I returned to Tusk Saturday night, playing solo.

I don't like DJing by myself for a few reasons. First and foremost, I start to fade pretty hard after about two and a half hours of mixing, at four I start feeling like a zombie.

I saw a few of the same people from last week. Still a lot of bros, but things were a little bit more diverse. Until about 11:45 there was a gray-haired man in his late 40s sipping a glass of white wine and staring blankly at the flat-screen TV on the wall behind me. The television was turned to FuelTV, or maybe it was FuseTV. Either way, there were a lot of skateboarding and surfing videos playing and I have no idea what the fuck this guy was doing watching them.

I began jumping around genres, playing some hip-hop, loungey electronic stuff, and funk edits. I didn't really know what to play, the place isn't a "club" in the sense that people dance. It's a place that people who live in condos go to because they don't want to have to interact with people from other demographics. The bartender complimented my diversity. I tried to monitor the reaction of the gray-haired man the entire time, but he was like a stone.

After the gray-haired man abandoned his glass of white wine, I realized the genre that I needed to play: hip-hop white girls like. We're talking Mo Money Mo Problems, Fantasy, Rosa Parks, Hard Knock Life, The Rain, all the hits. One after another, no filler. I had all five girls in the club going nuts. One guy was dancing with him, it was clear they were wishing they were paying him more attention, he kind of hovered around them.

The girls were an interesting variety that I don't see very often. They were in their late twenties, but were in really good shape and dressed like they were freshmen in college on parade at a frat party. It was pretty sweet. One of the skankier looking ones came up to me and asked for "Freaky Girl" by Gucci Mane. She was pretty obviously looking to get stuffed by one of the guys at the bar that night. It was sweet. Other requests included Soulja Boy and Lil Wayne's Lollipop.

But the real hit of the night was the "Cupid Shuffle". I enjoy the song, I liked hearing it on the radio, but I didn't think it really had much staying power. Apparently it is the ultimate in hip hop white girls like. I played it and everyone in the bar, about 13 people, lined up and did the Cupid Shuffle. If you don't know the Cupid Shuffle, I've included a video of some drunk white girls dancing to it for their webcam. It was later explained to me that the Cupid Shuffle is our generation's version of the electric slide.



After just about the speediest one-man pack-up in the history of speedy pack-ups I got home at about 2:20. I've included a screenshot of my playlist as evidence of how in tune I am with hip-hop that white girls like.

Read More......

Second Night Out in Boulder

Much more successful.
Roommate #1 and I headed to a karaoki bar called the Dark Horse. Incredibly unpretentious western themed bar that had some sort of a circle fetish. There were wheels of many different shapes and sizes behind the bar, spinning by the power of some "dark horse" or perhaps a motor. Also the ceiling was lined with parts from old carriages, completely the wheel aesthetic.

I sang a feverish rendition of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground and somehow got drunk for free. I also performed a slow midi-ed out version of Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding. I was really planning on singing the live Monterrey Pop Festival version, where he really rips into it, but the tempo never sped up. I kinda ignored that fact though and did pretty much the same adlibs he did in Monterrey (basically running out of breath on the chorus and shouting got got got got got and now now now), just at an incredibly drawn out tempo.



There were a few scene looking kids watching me and cheering me on for the Otis song and I talked to one of them afterwards. He was wearing a black jacket with rhinestones in the shape of a space shuttle so I asked him if he was into electro music. He said no, he was just into outer space, but he could see how I'd say that. He's in a garage rock band around these parts called Happy Jawbone Family Band that is actually fucking good. I'm curious to spend some time with this guy.

Afterwards we went to a place called The Foundry which was kind of confused about whether it wanted to be a pool hall of the Thursday night spot for your scantily clad college skank. It was a sprawling place, probably 10 pool tables and an adequate raised dance floor, in addition to a rooftop patio that was pretty sweet. The DJ was playing the hits. He definitely mixed One More Time by Daft Punk into Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back into Salt n Pepa's Push It. So no brainer-generic party DJing. People were eating it up, to be expected.

Afterwards I grabbed a gyro and hit the sack. A much better night than the last.

Read More......