Venue: Big main room, medium outdoors and then a small terrace upstairs. Everything was new inside. Sound was good, almost as good as Czar.

Crowd: A bunch of old pop music fans, too busy buying Martinis to give a fuck about what sort of BS was playing on the speakers. The number of 40 year olds there was astounding. Nobody there had a clue about electronic music nor did they care. They were just there because it was a cool place to be. I felt like I was in a top-40 club on an electronic music night.

DJ Dan: To give him some credit, he did play to the crowd. More cheese than a Velveeta factory running overtime... exactly what the bunch of noobs wanted to hear. We are talking overly chunky electro basslines with little or no substance... rinse, wash and repeat. The same exact sound all night. This shit was damn near pop, then he drops...

House of Pain - Jump?!

The crowd ate it up! I couldn't believe it!

Then...

Guns and Roses - Some Pop Shit (Farting Electro Remix)

I was just appauled.

Then he had the GAUL to throw a cheesy remix of Daft Punk - Around The World... which put me over the edge.

Other thoughts:

Perhaps electronic music entering the mainstream is actually the force that is turning the majority of EDM into garbage. On the plus side, you have more and more people exposed to the music, which sounds good on paper. On the downside, our venues are crowded with tools and our DJs are playing to them.

Rarely do I feel ashamed to listen to electronic music, never actually. Last night I really was. Part of the reason I love this music is because it's different... now it's been revamped into the same recipe as pop... and eventually it will be as mainstream as rock or rap. This is definitely a contributing factor to the demise of the scene in Tampa, and the US in a broader sense.

Anyways, sorry for the rant... I need to move to Miami/NYC/Chicago/LA.

ep - thats what I was talking in the tampa scene dying thread. I love the idea of Push, but if all you play is top40/hiphop/dance then the people aren't going to care about the talent they bring in. How the hell are they going to react to Kaskade?

Had you been there before? I wonder what the crowd was compared to a regular night. Also how much was it? When I went it was free for ladies, $10 for guys. A little steep for St. Pete... they actually charge $5 on Sundays and during the week, I can't even being to get into how ridiculous that is.

I have sent a bunch of myspace mails to the Push people regarding all these issues, they probably have my picture up to not let me in the door. I just think if you are going to open a place like that you probably want it to stay open for a long time. Catering to that 40 year old crowd who don't give a shit about the music will only last so long, until the next place comes along to pull their attention away. I live 5 minutes from Push and I would like nothing more than for it to succeed, but I don't see it happening with the current system.

Also, not that this matters, but were all the bartenders still dudes? I thought that was kind of weird.

Also, did you expect that much from DJ Dan? I figured it would be a 2 hour version of That Zipper Track......

Yeah it was stupid to expect much from DJ Dan, however I had seen him before and thought he did ok. This was years ago.

$10 for both ladies and guys.

Bartenders were both male and female.

If this is the best Tampa can do, our scene is LONG GONE.

The venue is just so nice though. It's a real waste. I think the St. Pete crowd is a bit older, more of a business professional type of crowd.

I saw Kaskade recently, just awful, don't even think about going.

The sad truth is, pop music sells. The owner is running a good business w/ Push... why fuck with that. If his market is 30 year old professionals, then he is doing fabulous.

Maybe we can count on some smaller venues bringing in more underground DJs, but I have not seen that happening. We did have Laurent Garnier and Lee Burridge which was awesome.

So who knows, I'm a bit frustrated, it's near impossible to find a consistent electronic music night in this city.

lol thats funny, but I know what you mean about Push. I went there with my gf for new years, cost $100 for both of us. After about 20 minutes watching 40 year olds that not willing to accept they are old and listening to top40/hiphop/pop-rock I had enough. Spoke with the GM, got my money back and got the fuck out of there. Its really a nice place, but if they play/cater to the metro-40something crowd, thats all it will ever be.

We should shove some obscure DJ in there just to fuck with the oldies... I can see them running to the door.

You could look at it in a positive manner actually - the scene is growing rather then dying. I don't know of too many cities in the US where a bunch of FORTY year olds go out clubbing, let alone to a club that brings in DJs and plays some type of EDM music. The forty year olds are probably part of Florida's first wave of techno fans. They may not be as passionate or as into the music as people in their teens/early 20s, b/c they have so much more going on in their lives, but you gotta give them credit for supporting this music. It's pretty cool to read that in St. Pete EDM music transcends age groups and can be listened to by so many groups of people.
You also really can't say the Tampa scene is dying if DJ Dan is playing some commercial crossover music. He's not a Tampa DJ, so he's not part of the local scene. He is however a veteran of the US House scene though, and he's played at numerous clubs throughout the US and Canada, in both big and small cities. He obviously knows how to read a crowd and I'm guessing the promoters were satisfied with his booking.

Lastly, if you have a club that caters to older EDM fans you can experiment with midtempo Soulful and Jazzy House, a commercial Euro-Dance night, and you can throw some good oldschool parties with Rave anthems from the early 90s. At the same time you can book good DJs for the 25+ crowd that may not necessarily want to go see them at an 18+ event. I also bet you that quite a few of the seasoned DJs in Tampa would love to play to a crowd that's closer to their age.

quote:

Originally posted by epdarks ...

i don't think it's dj dan that is to blame... he was doing his job which is to work the crowd. if he played his normal style, maybe you would have enjoyed it, but the majority wouldn't have which is bad for business

true, I guess it just depends on how many people actually seemed into the music. On a regular night, not that many people are there. I don't see that changing for talent, but maybe it did.

i'm going to Starkillers this weekend so I will give my report...

Sorry, my rant was probably a bit over the top.

its all good EP, you don't even want me to get started on PUSH. Enough of my friends have heard my ranting on the subject. Its such a nice place, and money was clearly spent on it... i just want it to survive and be good.

Sick place, it will survive for a few years no doubt, it's too bad the crowd isn't my cup of tea, otherwise it would easily be the best venue in Tampa.

Oh well, Czar, keep them coming.