DJ T. tour blog: Week 18

DJ T. tour blog: Week 18

14 November, 2009 | 5.35PM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: dj t, dj t blog, get physical

DJ T. blogs from the land of endless opportunities this week, taking in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

Click through for his thoughtful insight, videos, photos, and more.

Week 18

Hey guys,

Three further gigs down the road – and counting! But before I tell you about my stops in Philly, Seattle and LA, let’s return to New York for a minute, for an extra helping of, well, sociocultural observation and associated curiosities from the land of “endless opportunities.” And that well-worn moniker has become a jarring truism in itself, considering the many “opportunities” destroyed by eight years of beating around the Bush.

But first things first: picking up where I left off in the previous blog entry, I had a fantastic time in New York. The two likeable, handsome men dressed as ‘Droogs’ (those prime purveyors of violence in Clockwork Orange) in last week’s opening shot were members of the Fuerzabruta ensemble, currently on show in New York. And the gruesome twosome were kind enough to invite me to one of their performances. I went along with a few friends – none of us had the faintest idea of what to expect – and the show really floored us!

For those of you who’ve never heard of this collective; around 15 years ago, the slums of Buenos Aires spawned a performance and theatre ensemble that went on to wow crowds across the globe with their unique mix of music theatre, dance and high-wire antics.

De La Guarda – the group’s and show’s name – played venues from New York and London to Paris, Sydney and Berlin. Thanks to great support from critics and celebrities alike, the show more or less sold itself.

Not long ago, two of De La Guarda’s founding members decided to reinvent themselves and launch their own show, Fuerzabruta. In New York, I saw the second version of this performance; apparently, the original was even better!

Here, director Diqui James and composer Gaby Kerpel weave stunning elements into surreal scenes until everything feels like an endless stream of blurring dream sequences.

Akin to their De La Guarda precursors, they abandon straightforward narrative in favour of a spectacular deluge of experiences. In this spirit, James and Kerpel have come up with a string of spatial and visual settings and scenes the likes of which I had never seen before.

From the first second, you’re caught in their spell: a man on a treadmill, the sound of a shot, he stumbles, falls, others arrive, block each other’s paths and tumble into the void.

Or for my most emotional moment: picture a brief intermission after a scene, the audience crouched together on the floor. All of a sudden, high above the crowd’s collective heads, a Baroque-clad DJ catches the spotlight and segues straight into a raving mad, well, rave. Check out the embedded film for this and more Fuerzabruta action.

The music really made the show – I can think of more than one house producer who’d do anything to sample their eclectic world music and ethno excursions. I really hope to get another look: just like an all-time favourite movie, I could watch this show again and again.

I also witnessed a weird and wonderful scene that perfectly mirrors some of the most clichéd facets of American society – where fact and fiction become perverted and mangled beyond recognition. At the famous Fao Schwartz Store on 5th Avenue – my most bizarre toy store experience to date – the sheer wealth and breadth of playful things on offer, for tiny tots and grown-up kids, perfectly epitomised excess and decadence.

Meandering between the store’s levels, I suddenly found myself in some kind of artificial delivery room: here, little girls (or their mothers) asked sales staff in full midwife regalia for advice on their choice of future “offspring”. Naturally, less than 5% of the dolls on display at this “Newborn Nursery” deviated from the standard Caucasian mould – no comment.

Another photo documents a further great find from my NYC trail of curiosities recorded at Penn Station/Madison Square Gardens on 7th Avenue, right around the corner from my hotel. Here – 70 feet high and rising – towers the “world’s first scientifically valid, real-time carbon counter, a huge memorial and account of the world’s relentless emission of greenhouse gases.

This physical reminder is sponsored by the Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors Group. Any of you who’d like to check the latest exorbitant – and thus almost abstract and meaningless – numbers of our state of impending doom can do so on the project’s website. Again, I’ll refrain from commenting and leave the final judgement up to you.

From gigantic monuments back to the gigs: on Tuesday, I played Philadelphia – after New York, the second largest city on the East Coast with almost 6 million inhabitants. Music lovers around the world have a soft spot for this metropolis.

Its particular flavour of soul, the legendary Philly sound, adds plenty of strings to soul’s sultry richness and my first ever Get Physical release (‘Philly’) paid homage to this particular sound.

Incidentally, some of the people I encountered on tour confessed that they’re still sprinkling it into their own sets, so maybe I should dig it out again?

On a more contemporary note, Philadelphia also gave us Josh Wink and his Ovum label, which puts a new spin on the city’s musical heritage. Okay, that’s enough procrastination: despite my love for the city’s sound, this was the first real flop of my extended tour.

A mere 25 souls found their way to Barbary, a small bar/club run by John Redden who picked me up from the station in a charmingly rickety sedan. But I won’t give up that easily – I’ll be back, Philadelphia, and next time it will work like a charm …

This marked the end of my East Coast trail; so on I went to the wild, Wild West and uncharted territory. Next stop: Seattle, where promoter Bryce McKamey and his girlfriend and business partner Kristi have nourished and cherished a friendly crowd of regulars at their See Sound Lounge.

Although Seattle isn’t exactly famous for a huge European-oriented club scene, this place is definitely an oasis for discerning electronic connoisseurs.

Like most North American cities, Seattle seems to suffer from regulations that curtail clubbing abandon – the 2am curfew is strictly enforced – and everything beyond this limit falls under the provenance of “after hour.”

To party-spoilt Europeans, used to 24/7 dancefloor access, it seems strange to associate this term with anything before 10am. Accordingly, the party’s primetime was short and sweet: no hour-long warm-ups preparing for an equally extended finale, but an intense buzz of energy focussed on the main 2-3 hours.

For most Europeans, no other places in the world are as charged with projections, clichés and preconceptions as the US cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas and Miami.

But that’s only to be expected, considering that our culture and imagery have been overshadowed and shaped by American TV and movies from early childhood. So, in a way, it feels distinctly weird to visit a strangely familiar place like LA for the first time at the age of 40.

Suffering from a bad case of constant déjà vu, it felt like I knew it all already, but at the same time, the accumulated knowledge and big screen memories could never convey the immediate reality. At least my own experience was almost a letdown: somehow, the city’s hot spots seemed a lot less spectacular than I had imagined.

Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame, for example, felt like a relic from bygone times, like one of the many fake sets and backdrops that make up the artificial glam of Las Vegas. 
Generally speaking, Hollywood appeared a bit frayed around the edges, a faded approximation of its own glorious past rather than a future promise.

During my week in the City of Angels, I got exposed to a wealth of impressions, to perfect (human) copies of Douglas Coupland’s or Bret Easton Ellis’ empty and meaningless Californian societal cliches, to women with the bodies and sex appeal of plastic Barbie dolls or people who manage to talk for 15 minutes without saying a single thing while jumping between 40+ topics.

Most of these encounters took place in my own abode, the notorious Roosevelt Hotel. On the other hand, I also met a few exceptional people worthy of my respect and admiration.

Despite my latent misgivings about the city itself and some of its fickle (and fictitious?) residents, the Avalon – a legend among the world’s concert and party venues – more than kept its seminal promise.

I couldn’t find any definitive information on the Avalon’s opening date, but with Judy Garland and others having graced the bill of the former Palace Theater, I guess it must have been at least 60 years ago.

Almost any self-respecting rock or pop star has played the venue during their career and the Avalon also remains one of L.A.’s longest-standing clubs: due to its 2000+ capacity, promoters can afford to splash out on lavish line-ups rivalling those of Europe’s top spots. 

So last Saturday, I shared the bill with Matthew Dear aka Audion, Dinky and Shaun Reeves for a healthy mix of clubby sounds. I took over the decks after Matthew’s energetic live performance and treated the full house to my (subjectively speaking) best set of the tour.

For a DJ, there is nothing more satisfying than the indescribable knowledge that absolutely every choice, move and beat was spot-on. I hope the crowd felt the same!

DJ T. - The Inner Jukebox Worldtour 2009

November
20.11.09 - Rise, Boston (USA)
25.11.09 - Electric Pickle, Miami (USA)
27.11.09 - Gallery, Washington (USA)
28.11.09 - Asylum Afterhours, Honululu (USA)

December/January
04.12.09 - Zouk, Singapore (SG)
05.12.09 - Stereosonic@F4, Melbourne (AU)
06.12.09 - Sneaker Peeps, Brisbane (AU)
11.12.09 - Ink, Auckland (NZ)
12.12.09 - Ladida, Melbourne (AU)
18.12.09 - Pang, Canberra (AU)
19.12.09 - Chinese Laundry, Sydney (AU)
25.12.09 - Club Heaven, Seoul (SK)
26.12.09 - Warehouse, Tokyo (JP)

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