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Review of the night:
I rolled up to Club One around 11:30. Parking delayed entry to the club until 11:45. I came in, and looked the place over. Club One has some potential. I felt odd that there were only a few places to sit, but seating is not all that important. The dance floor was very big, including a few places to stand on and a pole (for girls to dance on no surprises there). The DJ booth was in an L shape, which provided a lot of people to look and see the DJ. Clubs such as Lizard Lounge and the former Red Jacket did not allow this. I felt this was perfect for James since he is a different kind of dj.
The first dj i heard was tekfunk. Nothing really made me want to go and dance to tekfunk. It was not that he is bad, 1) his music choice was questionable; 2) he was your typical play tracks, play samples over a break in the beat, etc 3) I've liked Zabiela since oct 4,2002. James made an appearance at 12:33 by walking behind him, saying something to tekfunk, and then walking back behind the dj booth again. He did this again at 12:47. Me and my 2 friends were getting impatient and started yelling get off the decks! =) At 1:02, James came out. He started setting up his stuff while tekfunk finished off his track. Over on the right video screen, the following was played. 'Club One Presents James Zabiela' We knew it was time to go down to the dancefloor from above.
James started by messing around with tekfunk's final track. It was really interesting. He dropped the track off, and started his usual intro, which was throwing layers and layers of samples, scratches, and mixes into a loop. This went on for about 3-4 minutes with the crowd begging for a beat. Finally it came, and it was like a bomb had been dropped in the place. Everyone went absolutely NUTS. He played a very massive track at the beginning that I've never heard before and the crowd loved that. Well basically, anything he threw. Then, to kill the crowd, he threw on Weekend World's Straight Out of Stokey. I knew when I heard the bassline that it was Stokey. I started telling everyone this is going to be massive. And oh it was. Words can not describe what happened. I heard girls saying OH MY GOD he is so amazing from some people making out. He played a lot of ID's that I didn't know, but I did recognize Red Star - Pretender (Dub) that he put on. I told my friend, wait for the bassline, and I meant it. I first heard Pretender in his Vibe set.
About this time, I had realized I wanted to write in a request. So, I went and borrowed a permanent marker from the bouncers at the front. I wrote down, 'Play Dirty Gringos - Cowbell? =)' and walked up to the front and put it on the glass so James could see it. He smiled, and a few minutes later I heard samples of Christopher Walken saying, Cowbell with some effects on it. I knew James was this kind of DJ. All night I saw him taking CD's and signing them, posing for pictures with girls (BTW if any of you have pictures on this board please post them), and just being very happy with the crowd. And then I heard it. I knew from his Marconi Studios set it was Blur - Song 2. I hyped up the crowd again. And when it dropped, everyone went nuts x2 of Stokey. You could hear people screaming woo hoo over the music. =)
As the set wound down, we knew it was closing to 4 am. He dropped off the last track, and we gave him one hell of a closing applause. Then, he did something I did not expect. He took a sample of a robotic voice saying, "Thank you," and dropped a beat over it and remixed it live. It was amazing. (James if you're reading this, best night of my nightlife man). We gave him applause and went nuts during every break and readdition of the beat, and then once again at the end of Thank you. He went to sign autographs, and he signed a few behind the decks. Then he went to the crowd, posed for pictures, signed more, and talked with the crowd. I told him thanks for the sample of cowbell. He said to me, "Well i only dropped the sample, because the beat did not fit what I was trying to go for." I understood, and I was glad that he at least played some of it. =)
Being someone who does not drink or do drugs, I respect James as a person, and as an artist. Overall, perhaps the best experience of my 20 years on this planet.
(P.S. This was my birthday present to myself. My 21st is Wednesday. Thank you James for a VERY memorable night, one I will never forget. Good luck to you in the future, and hopefully we can bring you back to Dallas! I wonder if he recorded it; I would love to experience this again.)
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