The Adventures of Ni-Cd & Cam Maxwell: Honey Dijon, Film & Basement!
And this begins another chapter in the epic tale of increasing bagok-ness: Ni-CD & Cam Maxwell taking on the weekend of September 6th, the year of our lord, 2008.
Cam the Maxwell House of Coffee and I were attempting to get into a really important gig: The Toronto Comiccon of 2008.
I was dressed up as venom. Because Venom is actually a pretty good guy--just misunderstood, and harbouring terrific resentment. Who among us can judge him? All hail venom.
As we decended into the south building, mid-afternoon, well after the gates have opened, our eyes sprung wide in surprise...the line-up to get tickets was un-freaking real:
Quickly, cam pulled out his iPhone, sister technology gadget to Cam's favourite piece of DJ equipment, iDJ, and attempted to purchase advanced tickets online. Unfortunately, he was foiled. His palpable dissappointment was caught accidentally on digital film:
"How do I zoom in?! Stupid iPhone...I wish I had a Samsung Instinct(tm) instead!"
We estimated at least a 3 hour wait to get into the Comiccon, so we decided to bail back to Club 225 to do what we do most Friday nights...
...shave a tea-cup yorkie. I know--you do it too. It's the new fad eh? What fun! Then, suddenly, something occurs to me.
"Cam!" I exclaim, breath baited as ever it would be baited
"Yeah yeah yeah yeah.....what?" Cam retorts, clearly enjoying this session of Yorkie-shaving.
"Aren't you opening Footwork tonight for none-other than Miss Honey Dijon?!" I question him, voice ending in a high pitch squeel like a 13 year old finally coming-of-age.
"Mother of ba-gok!!" He exclaims in surprise! So we jump into the Cam-tasia mobile and make our way to one of the best places on earth: Footwork.
We arrive at footwork just in time for Cam's opening set. DJ TK would be up next, and then the infamous Honey Dijon. The club was empty at 10 pm, as usual--perfect for grabbing a brew and socializing with the few early attenders.
BTW, can I just note that Footwork is NEVER ENDING with their weekly renovations--I instantly a-spied the rear wall to the right of the DJ booth redone with some really slick lighting shooting down over high-backed bench/seating areas. The footwork peeps know how to create ambiance. I have to admit, though I miss the laser system (OH YES, I SAID IT, HOUSE-HEADS, I MISS THE LASERS!), the ambiance created in Footwork is always cozy, intimate and inviting.
Cam played to an empty floor with a small entourage of (*cough* paid friends *cough) admirers standing nearby.
Cam graciously drops one of my favourite Paolo Mojo tracks - "Riding Armidilos" and I can tell you it sounded sweet on Footwork's sound system. The place started filling in quite quickly around 11:30...
I noticed (as politically in-correct as this may be) an increased number of the gay crowd at footwork that night. Then I remembered that Honey Dijon tends to draw a gay crowd. This was good news to me--there's always a very positive, high-energy air that is brought into the club from this crowd. I was definitely stoked to hear what TK and Honey Dijon would bring to the table.
Cam closed his set to a now totally-packed club and handed the decks over to DJ TK. She is probably one of my favourite DJs in the city because she is so damned nice and personable. I'm not the biggest fan of her music--Leap_frog is big time, but it's not totally to my taste. That being said, I'll enjoy a set of Tk's anytime just because of her personality. Kudos to you girl.
Wandering around the club taking pictures, I bumped into HouseAddict.com's Irgo, who for some odd reason was wearing an advanced proto-type life preserver, given (er, bestowed) to him by the Shi'ar (see X-Men Unlimited comic #242, 'nuff said).
Swim buddy swim. It'll be alright. Speaking of which, HouseAddict.com's FIVE YEAR anniversary is coming up. It is being celebrated at the Mod Club. I had the pleasure of designing the flier for the event...Mod Club! John Creamer! Stephane K! irGO! Spam!
The ladies were out in full force too, pretty-ing up the dance floor... Angela, Taylor & Anna grooving to Cam's tunage early in the night!
I took a moment to catch a breather in the smoking lounge... uh. Right. Breather. Smoking lounge. Oxymoron anyone? I spotted the infamous Geoff Denis and DJ Matt Brennan chillin' outside. I was especially appreciative of Matt's t-shirt slogon. Thought provoking and deep...
...with that in mind, I headed back into Footwork to catch DJ TK's set. I knew Cam was finished behind the decks because I could hear him over by the bar. Yes, I could hear him over the music. Acoustics. Wow, acoustics.
The energy TK had behind the decks was infectious. Though I'm not big on the tech-house/techno tunage she brings to bear, I love watching this girl mix. She's so full of energy, totally conversant with the crowd, and completely into the audio-rampage she's letting lose on the crowd--and they were loving it!
Then I overhear Cam at the bar talking to irGO "Yeah, I'm actually spinning at Film Lounge tonight, peak hour, I'm pretty stoked!"
I check my watch...it's quickly nearing 1 am...a mere hour from the epic "Peak Hour" at Film Cam was talking about. F*ck me and call me stacy, shouldn't he be going? I keyed Cam into this, and he's like "Well... it's obvious to me that you have to drive!" So off we go to the Cam-tasia mobile... beloved Footwork and thus yet unheard Honey Dijon left behind--and the night was BANGING too!! Ugh! The crowd was eating UP DJ TK's set!! Damn...but a DJs gotta do what a DJs gotta do, with multiple gigs on one night...
Off to FILM Lounge we went...
We left early enough to grab a bunch of double cheese burgers, a diet coke and one water from the nearby McMakeYourStomacheAche. Then we rushed into FILM to a DEAD empty dance floor. Ouch. At near-peak hour? A near-empty dance floor? What was going on? Then Taylor reminded us that it was Film festival week, and many bars had a 4am liquor license in effect, which may mitigate the attendance time of many would-be Film frequenters on such a night. I marvelled at her logic and intelligence and gave Cam a smack on his ass and told him to get to work. He settled in behind the DJ booth quickly and showed that Denon (Pioneer knock-off) CDJ who's boss...
I fleetingly wondered how Honey Dijon was sounding at that moment over at Footwork... but Cam was no less daunted by an empty dance floor, and started pounding out the tunes.
By 3 am, the floor was slowly filling in, and the DJ had some vibe to work with. by 3:30, the entire club was totally packed with the Film regular crowd--what a transformation! Cam was ROCKING the decks, pounding the crowd with track after track of electro and electribe with rolling under-lying bass-lines; completely different than the opening set he crafted at footwork. It was quite the thing to see a DJ play two different vibes in one night, something unknown to me until that evening. I have total respect for guys like Nathan Barato, Vinyl Junkies, and Carlo Lio that have fully booked nights, playing everything from open to peak hour to close--totally different vibes and requiring completely different tracks. It was a real learning experience for me how a DJ actually goes to 'work' on a nightly basis. What a marathon.
I won't mention at this point when the Dennon ate one of Cam's CDs and totally started a skip-marathon. I also won't mention how he thought he was killing the system with levels and left the killer-CD in the dennon to ruin a good 30 seconds of his set with skip after skip of bizarre raw beats out of one his tracks. This is the end of my 'won't mention.'
Cam closed out his set with the crowd totally bumping and DJ Aadil took over the romper-room (stomper-boo).
Cam grabs me to introduce me to the owner of FILM Lounge, Charles. I had the pleasure of meeting the awesome and very professional team behind the scenes of FILM. Charles, the owner, a built guy with a close-crop hair cut, eyes me up and down with a smile after speaking into a mic attached to a close-range walkee-talkee: he's constantly in touch with his bouncers, ensuring the comfort of FILM's patrons. Cam introduces me as a writer for Scenester Magazine (wasn't Scenester hosting Miss Honey Dijon over at Footwork? Oh yes, they were!). After some brief words, Charles is pulled away and I share a few moments with Cam introducing me to the other FILM intelligencia, including Charles' wife. All very professional, intensely interested in the music, and very concerned (and happy) about the vibe in the club. It's good to meet yet another club owner that truly gives a rats-ass about the experience produced inside their club. I restrained myself from asking Charles if he would please install lasers in film (THAT'S RIGHT HOUSE-HEADS...I SAID LASERS. AGAIN.)
Mid-conversation, Cam gets a txt on his iPhone. He looks at me with a twinkle in his eye. iLook at him with Apple(TM) trademarking written all over my face.
"Buddy, the night isn't ending yet..." he says. "We're off to Basement. I have a morning slot. Grab a red bull and let's get the hell out of here!"
With Cam's (paid) entourage in tow, we head off to the Cam-Tasia mobile to hit our next destination. It's 5 am. We're partying like Rockstars on rockstar & vodka. This is the life of those who love house music. This is the life of the afterhours.
We arrived at Basement to the smooth and pounding beats of DJ Neno who was opening that morning. By the first bar, Paranoid Jack, El Duran and Matt Brennan were chilling, listening to the beats. Up and comer DJ Matty Ryce met us there, and I introduced him around. I haven't heard Matty spin yet, but he threw me a 'back in the day' mix that had a lot of classic house remixes tastefully programmed and mixed. I'm definitely interested to hear what skillz he has live behind the decks. Brennan wouldn't stop talking about some insane party in Peterborough coming up that Jermz and he were involved in. Peterborough...who knew?
Paranoid Jack and I had a brief discussion on Sunday morning music... that it should be more pounding and less social for those that need a morning dance-a-thon fix, or have been going all night and need some high energy tunage to keep them going.
As if on cue, Rudee gets on the decks after Neno (who played a solid set with lots of tribal beats) and plays a set very similar to his Labour Day monday set. Now I LOVED the set Labour Day...and in hindsight, i was in a pretty chill mood on that monday, so no wonder I enjoyed it. (you can download that labour set from the Basement's facebook group) However, this time around, geared up to dance, there just wasn't enough energy for me in the tunes, and my vibe suffered as a result. I really need more energy and more vocals for those early Sunday morning sets to get me rocking. Don't get me wrong--Rudee definitely knows how to work the decks, and his mixing is just unreal--I just wasn't feeling it that morning from him.
As Rudee came off the decks 2 hours later, with a good portion of the club in chillax mode as a result, Cam went behind the holy pulpit decks of joy with his mandate clear: Let's take it up a notch. With some very unique track selection choices--many coming from his promo, Cam brought some vocals and electro to Basement providing a refreshing change from the earlier beaty-down-tempo-tribal that Rudee was playing.
As tired as we were, Saeed Younan's You got to believe (TribalFunk remix) got us all up off our asses and onto the dance floor. Next, Twilo - Carlos Fauvrelle & Jiggy ripped through the club with some great bass lines. Have I mentioned how much I love the sound system there?
As tired as we were, the morning was a bit of a blurrrrrr so when Cam got off the decks we decided to hit the cam-tasia mobile and head back home for some chill-out time. I was pretty much sick of hanging with the guy and hearing his crappy electro-thumpin' tunage, but he was my ride, and he has a pretty sweet place with a fridge stocked with beer...so who can blame me?
As we settled back at Cam's crib, morning beer in hand, with the sun high in the sky promising a Sunday of good weather, Cam eye-balled up his newly purchased quad-core PC in the studio and mumbled to himself "Maybe I should take that back and get a Mac..."
dun dun dunnnn!
...to be continued. Some day.
Relevant links:
www.dijonmusic.com
www.footworkbar.com
www.cammaxwell.com
www.djtk.net
www.djrudee.com
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/
[url]www.scenestermag.com[/url
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