Sunday, May 29th, blue sunny skies on a Memorial Day holiday weekend. Chillin at DJ Bladerunner's house listening to The Game's CD (which caught me by surprise- the boy is really talented, and the tracks are SICK! I will finally give in and go pick that up), the decision is made to go to the dance music club LOVE (www.musicislove.net). Joaquin 'Joe' Claussell (of the ubiquitous and now defunct Body and Soul parties) is spinning. We get to the place at around 8:30--and the spot is jumping like these kids have been partying all night! There were stunning Chocolate Amazons with chinky eyes and pouty lips; Mark Ronson-type white boys with modelboy bodies, Asian hipsters (there was one chick there affecting a 70s Yoko Ono feel that was FIERCE); Jewish American Princesses who had come to appreciate dance music and had to get a piece of Joe's artistry; Latino chulos in tight tanks which were soaked with sweat; and Body and Soul/Sound Factory/Paradise Garage survivors who will NOT let dance music go silently into the night. Absolutely NO attitude in this melting pot. The ambiance was simple/chic/mod- you walk through the first room which is all black with glow in the dark graffiti painted on them and beanbags on the floor leading you to the second room, also painted black with artfully hung "sheets" in all corners of the club with various still lives projected onto them, and tall lit candles surrounding the top of the space and providing alternate lighting to the INTENSE light show accompanying the INTENSE mixing going on in the DJ booth. All of this, and Joe hasn't even hit the 1's and 2's yet; some chick is on the wheels of steel, and when I tell you that she got me sweating in less than 10 minutes...believe it! I wish I had found out her name or met her. Her set made me realize that I had been missing the REAL party by (of late) ONLY attending these hip hop/reggae(ton)/r&b concoctions that it seems EVERY promoter is doing these days; real SOUL music is still alive and well. By the time she ended her set with Me'Shell NdegeOcello's "I'm Diggin You (Like An Old Soul Record)", I had been taken to the next level, and dance moves I had stored in the closet of my mind had found their way back into my spinal column. Then Joe came on. He played four sets, each with a different texture, each hitting different parts of my body, each taking me on a different journey. I mean, come on, who would think that in this day and time I'd be spinning on the floor while a DJ spins HIS version of Michael McDonald's "What a Fool Believes"? Trust me, his mix would have had you shakin that ass! He worked through two other powerful African tribal sets before taking us on a musical rollercoaster ride with his mix of- of all things- John Legend's "Ordinary People"!!!! How I'll be able to listen to that song again WITHOUT thinking of the things that Joe did to it, I don't know. To top the night off, there was LIVE music as well. 'Speak in Tones' featuring Daniel Moreno and his Cosmic Collective started out with a simple one-two beat which was then accompanied by a tambourine and the perfect mix of other instruments to give us a syncopated potion of...LOVE. After their set, I couldn't take any more; I had to leave, I was on overload. I replayed all of that music in my head on the A train back to Brooklyn; there was no need for the Ipod. I got LIFE at LOVE!!!
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