street sounds swirling through my mind
m and jovino on the late-night BART
Originally uploaded by jovino I caught word of an 18 piece live disco band performing in SF - and you know I had to check out that action!
This is me and my hott man on bart on our way to the show. I wish we'd thought to take before and after photos - would have been a good night for it.
It was a lovely night. We met our friends Pup and Tag and had a great time running around the club, dancing, and hanging out. The party was at Mezzanine in SF. It's been a while since I've been in a big overcrowded nightclub like that and I'd completely forgotten how annoying it can be (must be why so many people get so fucked up, because then you don't care as much.) I'm still fairly adept at clubbing though.
I'd never been to Mezzanine before, but I'd heard it tended to be overly full (which was true) and that the crowd was mostly made up of very young hipsters (which was also true.) I have to say, though, that these kids really did bust it out as far as dressing for the party!
Lots of people went totally all-out in their disco looks - enough so that the folks who just showed up in jeans were in the minority. Clothing-wise it actually resembled the mix of styles you'd see in a club in the earliest '80s, during the last days of full-on disco (the '80s revival hipsters in their H&M stuff just fit right in, let me tell you. It looked like 1982 out there!)
Personally, I wore PVC pants - for the first and last time EVAR. (They were free from a clothing exchange, and as soon as I get a chance to wash 'em they are going right back to the next one I attend!) Admittedly, my ass did look great, but OMG were they ever schweaty and oogy! Vinyl is for records - not for pants!! And that is all I'm gonna say on the subject.
There were several "perfect moments" of dancing and laughing... right before our friends left, we were all dancing and the DJ put on Disco Night / Rock - Freak (you can hardly go wrong with Chic) and then just as Jovino and I were taking off we had to run back in to dance to a version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" (with a male vocalist) which I had never heard. We then bounced out of the club to a favorite Sylvester song (Mighty Real) - leaving on a high note. Shortly before that, one of the DJs also dropped the track containing the sample used in the Bucketheads' "The Bomb" ("Street Player" by Chicago.) It was awesome. I just love hearing (and spinning!) the original tracks that familiar samples come from (there are a ton of Salsoul track that were made into the 3rd generation house music which I loved so much.)
The band we saw tonight (Escort, out of NY) was quite good. As far as I could tell, all their material was original, but they had the classic sound nailed right down. We also heard Bus Station John, who seemed to remember us from when we used to be regulars at his Thursday night club, Tubesteak Connection. To my delight, he was throwing down the funky/groovy ~120 bpm stuff that I like best. I've heard him doing the late disco period High NRG stuff which is just not my bag. The music he was spinning tonight was just what I like!
Honestly I've got to admit that I'm a bit jealous of those vinyl disco DJ boys - I know there is so much stuff I would love that is only on old records... but I can't afford to go down that road, at least not right now. Hopefully it'll still be possible to even get this stuff, when I am finally able to afford it (and the technology to play it.) ;-)
We also saw two different sets of tag-teaming DJs. I don't mean to be snarky, but I have to say that technically I am a better disco DJ than I tend to give myself credit for. I would like to think that I would manage to spin without breaking the beat as badly as I heard a few times tonight (though god knows there are no perfect DJs - or if there are, I am certainly not one of them!)
All in all, an awesome night! We also have big plans to join our friends for an all-out classic SF party weekend some time in the not to distant future (though it may have to be post FC) which should include some crazy all-night party, the endup, hot tubbing, and possibly even a late-night (or late-afternoon!) chill out walk on the beach. I am really fucking looking forward to that!
I may be getting old (my feet hurt enough at the end of the night that I had the taxi go clear down our block instead of stopping at the corner) but I ain't dead yet, and it has been far too long since I had one of those weekends. One of the few things I miss about living in SF is how much easier it was to do these things when I lived there.
I do have to realize that it was made all the easier not only by living in the Haight (with my own hot tub, no less) but also by having the budget to just take cabs if I wanted to! There's nothing like climbing out of a cab, hiking up the stairs to your awesome 3rd floor flat (half a block off of Haight Street) then kicking off your shoes, kicking on the DJ rig, and hopping into the hot tub for the ultimate chillaxing. (I really can't complain... we're even going to have a hot tub here, as soon as we take the time to get it repaired and set up. And my life right now is pretty goddamn good, even without a hot tub!)
So anyway! Another awesome night with my awesome boyfriend and our awesome friends! (Last seen at the club being awesome and sucking down expensive cocktails.) Aww yeah. I am a lucky girl - and I fucking love my man!!!