There is this episode of King of the Hill, one of my favorites, wherein Bobby, in an attempt to find himself, joins a coven, headed by a strange video store employee who refers to almost everything as "resplendent." Last night, at the Club London/Poplife party, we saw a guy who looked nearly indenticle to that character.
"Resplendent," my brother whispered to me. Behold, we had a new word for the evening.
The thing about working at clubs is that there is no routine. One never knows to expect. Sometimes, parties with a good buzz suck. Sometimes they are, well, resplendent. Last night fell into the latter category.
This marked the second time that I have played with the Club London crew. Honestly, I'm humbled to play with them because these guys are some of the most skilled DJs in town, the sort who can take a staid club genre like the 1980s and make it exciting. (Props to whomever mixed Tears for Fears "Pale Shelter" with Flock of Seagulls "Wishing." That made my night.) Knowing full well that I was set to play with some remarkable folks, I spent a lot of time practicing this week-- hour after hour of ensuring that the vocals and "Funkytown" sample on "NY Lipps" play throughout the intro of Richard X's remix of the Bravery "Fearless" without colliding with Moz-a-like's vocals and then bringing in Franz Ferdinand "Dark of the Matinee" at just the right time so that when the guitars on the latter hit, the mix doesn't sound too cluttered. In the end, I didn't even play the set I practiced, outside of that mix, and it actually sounded better.
My conversion to the church of sponteneity began when Le Tigre, for what I think is the first time ever at an LA indie club, cleared the floor. In a moment of hardheadness, I followed it with The Gossip's new single, knowing full well that nobody would rush back to dance, because it's new and I wanted to get it in the set. After a minute of boredom, I screwed that terrible idea, grabbed a tried and true classic, (The Clash "Train in Vain") and mixed it in over Beth Ditto's diva screams of "woah-oh-oh." From there, the set was completely off the cuff. Somebody had requested Ladytron's "Playgirl" and it just happened that one of my extras in the crate was my "Playgirl" versus "Can't Get You Out of My Head" mashup from four or five years ago, so I threw that in, mixed some Depeche Mode with White Stripes, merged Elastica with Basement Jaxx. It was perhaps the most fun I have had in a DJ booth in a very long time.
Likewise, at a club, you never know who to expect to see in the crowd. I ran into roughly half the people on my guestlist, which is typical because a) some flake; b) some show up but can't find parking (sorry, Sarah, I understand!); and c) some might actually be there but in a club as massive as the Catch One, it's damn near impossible to run into everyone. Outside of the usual suspects (Carlos and Juan), I saw DJ Gerber (Clockwork and a bunch of other clubs), who informed me that there are now FIVE industrial clubs in the OC.
"There aren't five industrial clubs in LA," he remarked.
Sometimes it seems like there aren't even five industrial fans in LA, but, then again, I haven't been to an industrial club in ages.
Sam from Imperative Reaction hung out with us for a bit and announced that his band will be opening up for Tiger Army in February, which is a pretty big deal since the band has a large fanbase in Southern California and there is enough psychobilly/EBM crossover out here (don't ask me to explain that) where his band might pick up a slew of new fans. Congratulations, Sam!
Earlier in the evening, I met Andrew, the sound guy at Catch One and promoter of Ground Control and realized that we have far too many friends in common to have never really chatted before. He told me all about the owner of Catch One, who also runs a free clinic and sounds like a really incredible woman. (The club, if you have not been there before, is by far one of the nicest venues in Los Angeles.) He also described Burning Man in a way that actually made a desert-loathing person like me actually want to attend. In the meantime, though, I swear I will go to Ground Control once the Monday night classes end.
In addition, everytime I turned a corner, I nearly walked into someone I hadn't seen in ages. It was a pleasant surprise to run into the people who were regulars at my old residencies, but don't go out much anymore (Holly, Carlos, Edgar). Plus, Comrade Daniel showed up with our good friend Tony. Daniel was in such a trance when Robert Miranda (Vertigos) played Madonna's new single that when I attempted to freak him from behind, he didn't even notice! That's a serious Madonna fan. Resplendent.