i ended up going to this by myself, which i thought was going to be a bummer but ultimately turned out ok. i guess over the past few years i've become more comfortable on my own, and this was as good of a setting as any to be alone. there was a total communal vibe and everyone was cool. i guess that's one difference between manhattan and brooklyn, although i think the fact that it was an afternoon party and a dance music event had something to do with it as well. also, the 6 hitachinos i had helped take the edge off a bit. i've never been to europe but it had a very european feel to it, if you know what i mean. laid back, cheerful, fun.
as for the set, well, it was 2 hours of shimmering tech house, perfect for a late sunday afternoon. i was worried it might be too cold and mechanical, but i should have known better. mm was the guy that introduced me to electronic music with heart. the whole set is below. one of the things i liked most about it was the fact that there weren't any laptops in sight. i'm not anti-laptop, but i am anti-not-letting-the-track-fucking-play. laptop dj's almost invariably think they need to jam six songs into a 5 minute span. you know, it's cool that you have 100,000 songs on your hard drive dude, but we don't have to hear them all tonight. so how about you let me hear more than 30 seconds of the songs you do play, you know?
mm mostly played vinyl, though there were a few tracks on cd. vinyl sounds so much warmer and richer, and it lends itself to long plays. he did more with 2 decks and a small record crate than the 23 year old kid in the neon tshirt and wayfarers dj'ing at the bar can do with all the mp3's in the universe. and he proved to me, once again, that a real dj plays for the crowd. a hack is up there for himself, and i don't have any fucking patience for that.
Michael Mayer - Live At Sunday Best (May 30, 2010) by Sunday Best NYC
for an example of what he does best, check out the transition from the track that begins at 82:00 to the track that begins at 86:00. it absolutely sent me (and everyone else) into orbit. i'm not talking about the actual mix, but the emotional shift. it was 80 minutes into his set, people finally were getting loose, the sun was setting, you could tell he was having fun, and it was the perfect time to drop the track that would serve as the emotional core to his set.
that moment exemplified everything that is right about dance music: no matter what's going on in your life, it can "disappear until tomorrow." you all have shitty jobs and broken hearts and absentee fathers and a fear of the future but the girl with the headband just smiled at you and the drugs have kicked in and the dj's playing your favorite song (just for you) and you're in fucking paradise. the house piano break at 101:40 was euphoria; i looked around, and every single person there was smiling. what a way to escape.
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