The second North American tour this winter started in Austin where I've never been before. Really nice venue called Pangaea, a sister club to Gryphon in Hollywood, FL where I play regularly. The crowd here is not as clued up as in Canada, but really friendly and open for new things once you give them a few big ones they know. I also had the perfect gig to try my new Usher remix and it went down really well as did my Natasha Bedingfield mix. Eric Prydz 'Pjanoo' got the biggest cheer and I realised that there probably are some clubbers in disguise here and if I go back a few times, this can be a rocking gig.
Pangaea Lounge, Austin March 21, 2008
Hooked vs MJ Cole - Wateright
Elek tro Junkies - Don't Hold Out (SB)
Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful of Sunshine (SB)
DJ Pearl & Patric La Funk – Keep Pushing (Kurd Maverick)
SunLoverz – Show Me
MJ & Akon - Wanna Be Starting Something (Vicious Thrilla)
Yves Larock - Zookey (Africanism)
M&S - No No No
Dirty South – Let It Go
Nicola Fasano – 75 Brazil Street
Starberger - Baretta's Theme (DLG)
Usher - Love In This Club (SB)
Daft Punk – Around The World (Dumb Dan)
Axwell - I Found U (Dubfire)
Britney Spears - Gimme More (SB)
Robbie Rivera – Take On This
Housemaniax – What Is What
Robin S – Show Me Love (SB & Gold)
DJ Disciple – Work It Out (Klaas)
Amy Whinehouse - Rehab (Soulcast)
David Guetta - Love Is Gone (FR & JG)
Unknown – I Believe (Vandalism)
Rob Boskamp - Get Ur A** Up
Alex Gaudino - Watch Out
Ian Carey - Keep On Rising
Eric Prydz - Pjanoo
The next day I flew with the excellent JetBlue to New York. Man, we should send the old airlines to these guys to see how it's done for half the money. Haven't played NYC for years so I was eager to get down to the club early to check the vibe. What a venue, it's kind of midsize, but a great system, lasers, smoke guns and stuff you really only find is huge clubs over in Europe. Kenny Summit was already on it and played an excellent Joey style warm up. So refreshing both in Austin and here that the guys play house and not banging electro at 11 PM. At 1 AM, I got on and kept it very hooky for about an hour then gradually increased the pressure until the end when me and Kenny tag teamed and the really dirty stuff came out. I could see Ronster and Vink jumping in my head, haha - you gotta come with me here next time. I will come to both these clubs again as I feel there's a fresh vibe here that we rarely get back home. Dance is definitely on the rise in the US.
Pink Elephant, NYC March 22, 2008
Davidson & Romano - In The Way Of Music
Yves Larock - Zookey (Africanism)
Tom Belton - Irresistible (SB)
Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful of Sunshine (SB)
DJ Pearl & Patric La Funk – Keep Pushing (Kurd Maverick)
MJ & Akon - Wanna Be Starting Something (Vicious Thrilla)
Planet Soul - Set U Free (Jack Rokka)
Nicola Fasano – 75 Brazil Street
Sunloverz – Show Me
Eric Prydz - Pjanoo
Mighty Dub Katz - Just Another Groove (Tocadisco)
Daft Punk – Around The World (Dumb Dan)
Unknown – I Believe (Vandalism)
Heikki L - Tum Tum
Usher - Love In This Club (SB)
Housemaniax – What Is What
Robin S – Show Me Love (SB & Gold)
DJ Disciple – Work It Out (Klaas)
Amy Whinehouse - Rehab (Soulcast)
Morillo - Dancin' (Fuzzy Hair)
Ian Carey - Keep On Rising
Sebastian Ingrosso & Laidback Luke - Chaa Chaa
Paul Johnson - Get Get Down 2008 (Laidback Luke)
StoneBridge - Put 'Em High
After having a meeting with George from Strictly Rhythm and the incredibly entertaining remix duo, Friscia & Lamboy I spent a few days rinsing cool t-shirt shops and then onto JetBlue again (guys, I should be sponsored, ya hear?). You can always tell when it's WMC time again as your inbox gets flooded with 100 promos a day and trying to catch up is impossible. Now I know why a lot of the anthems have been absent for a few months, man there are good times ahead in the music front. My first gig in Miami this year is a new venue called Dek23 on Washington. My Montreal friend Yanik hooked me up together with Denis The Menace and like a miracle, the set times were longer than the usual WMC 45 minutes or so. Chris Kaeser and his crew were already there as was Kevin from Beatport and Leonid Rudenko from Moscow. Nice start, but the guys before me hadn't structure their set very well so people had already drifted off. I played 5 tracks or so before the promoter asked me to do the terrace instead, which was busy. Had a great time out there with some mad guys from Liverpool and the French contingent. Then the MTV Selected guys arrived with the winner so in the end we owned that room
Dek23, Miami March 25, 2008
Fudge - Fruitcake (SB)
Daft Punk – Around The World (Dumb Dan)
Planet Soul - Set U Free (Jack Rokka)
Nicola Fasano – 75 Brazil Street
John Dahlbäck - Blink (Dim Chris)
StoneBridge - Close To Heaven (Chris Kaeser)
Unknown – I Believe (Vandalism)
Paul Johnson - Get Get Down 2008 (Laidback Luke)
Rubberman - Creep (Rauld Rincon)
Eric Prydz - Pjanoo
DJ Pearl & Patric La Funk – Keep Pushing (Kurd Maverick)
DJ Disciple – Work It Out (Klaas)
Housemaniax – What Is What
Robin S – Show Me Love (SB & Gold)
Winter Music Conference was great this year. I hooked up with lots of guys I haven't seen for a while + the usual random hook ups you always do on conferences. On the Saturday, I went over to Hollywood, FL which is about 45 minutes from the beach for the yearly Funky Junction Gryphon WMC show with Chris Kaeser and Johnny Vicious and a bunch of really good Italian DJs. This year we had more space and I got almost a full hour (wahey!). Gryphon is such a great room and the sound and lights are simply world class. All the DJs played upfront sets and the vibe was amazing! Now it's time for the first SB & Friends in Café Opera and I can't wait to see how that will be.
Gryphon, Hollywood FL March 29, 2008
DJ Disciple – Work It Out (Klaas)
Unknown – I Believe (Vandalism)
Heikki L - Tum Tum
Morgan Page - Longest Road (Robbie Rivera)
Static Revenger - Everything Is Beautiful (Richard Vission)
Daft Punk – Around The World (Dumb Dan)
StoneBridge - Close To Heaven (Dumb Dan)
Nicola Fasano – 75 Brazil Street
Black & Monroe - Sick Of Hearing Silly Love Songs (Laidback Luke)
John Dahlbäck - Blink (Dim Chris)
Café Opera is gonna be huge of course, can't wait either