Pete Tong tour: Chicago, Toronto, and Washington DC

Pete Tong tour: Chicago, Toronto, and Washington DC

10 November, 2009 | 10.10AM

• Written by: tongy
• Filed under: Music News: pete tong, pete tong tour

Onto the final stage of my tour and I am playing in three cities with a strong dance music heritage, and two with Obama power.

Chicago

Thursday night I arrive in Chicago, the spiritual home to all things house. It’s a grand place in every sense sitting tall on the shore of Lake Michigan, proud in the knowledge that it supplied the nation with its first black president.

I’m back at Spy Bar almost a year after my first visit and I know I have a special night ahead. Dino Gardiakos is one of the most progressive hosts and DJs on the circuit and he books a challenging and eclectic selection of artists to play at this warm and intimate venue.

He’s a keen enthusiast on the scene and is full of tips and recommendations for up and coming talent which he delivers over some amazing pan asian cooking at Sunda. All that and he’s not a bad DJ either!

The crowd are musically very astute and make me more than welcome. I also pick up the highest number of Tong Factor CDs and memory sticks indicating the passion for music making is in tune with the passion to dance.

Great people, great party and I hear Frankie Knuckles has even moved back to Chi town. On this evidence I’m not surprised.

After being woken up by Oprah Winfrey, who was handing out copies of her new magazine outside my hotel window causing a near riot in the process, I take a short hop across the Great Lakes for Friday night in Toronto.

Whilst it might not have Chicago’s ‘house’ heritage it certainly has an unrivalled track record in putting on vital parties for well over a decade. The electronic music scene is vibrant in this town with a host of new artists and DJs vying to follow in the footsteps of Deadmau5 and MSTRKRFT.

My show is at This Is London, a venue co owned by the city’s most famous club Guvernment. The place is absolutely heaving and very vocal on my arrival. I consistently rave about playing in Canada and I’m never disappointed.

I leave the night thinking how much closer North America is getting to the sound we have been championing in Ibiza this year.

One of the downsides of this type of touring is that you never get to hang out long in the cities you play. Late nights and early mornings, airports and plane food, mean you get to see more Californification than California, so to speak.

However I promised myself I would see something in Washington DC that didn’t look like the inside of a hotel room. My taste to be a tourist was aroused when I paid a brief visit here at the end of August for the V festival.

One of my first visits to DC was to check out the much hyped Go Go scene from back in the day. I even put out an album called ‘The Sound Of Go Go’ (Washington) but it never changed the world. The only survivor seems to be an actor from the awesome Wire series who was in the seminal band Rare Essence.

The success of Ali and Sharam and the home to Deep Dish and Yoshitoshi is a much stronger dance legacy for this most famous of American cities. The drive from the airport takes me past the holy trinity of Capitol Hill, The Washington Monument and The White House, but by the time I check into the hotel and run back out someone had turned the lights out, “sheeeeeet”.

Fortunately Sharam is on hand to play host and take me to the most amazing steak restaurant (BLT Steak) I have ever been to. Let me refine that point, when he told me I was about to eat the ‘second’ best steak in the world I thought he might be reserving the top spot for an Argentinian or Japanese wonder but no… he told me the best is actually Craftsteak at the MGM in Vegas. BLT is number 2.

I thought I was experienced in the these matters but I bow to his culinary wisdom - I have never every eaten steak like it. The thing literally melted in my mouth. I cannot imagine how Craft in Vegas could be better but I’m now on a mission to find out.

Sharam is coming to see me play tonight and I’m flattered but he’s also out to wind up our host at Glow, Pete Kalamoutsos, about the pitiful form of The Washington Redskins. Sharam and his brother are Cowboys fans and both are walking talking experts on all of the nation’s sporting obsessions.

Glow is a legendary party in this city and has been running for 10 years. Its current home is at Fur, a giant club designed in the manner of the great New York clubs, Twilo, World, The Tunnel, and Crowbar. Sadly the likes of which you rarely see these days.

It’s my first time back in Washington DC to play since the days of Buzz and Scott Henry back at the start of the decade. I can’t imagine why I left it so long.

I turn down the lure of the afterparty in favour of seeing some of DC in the daytime only to oversleep, meaning I only have time for a quick dash to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a close up at a rather quaint joint, before the flight home! Odd that you seem to be able to get closer to the White House than you can the US Embassy in London!

A happy ending to the most enjoyable of North American tours. I feel so energised by the experience that I could go back round and do it all again, but you know what they say about having too much of a good thing!

And it will be great to get back to the family. Thanks to all the promoters, clubs, resident DJs, and most importantly those that came to party for making it all possible. Invite me back!

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