I got to BOC at 8 AM, having already been awake for 24-hours producing Sea of Dreams, and playing a 3-hour set there in Silent Disco. The plan was to drop gear, then head home for a nap as my set was at 6pm. As the day wound on I realized that going home would be the end of me, so I figured I should tough it out. Besides, after wanting to play this party for so long, maybe this was simply the final flaming hoop Id have to jump through to earn the right. Right? Better said than done. The day wore on. Good conversation, some dance, a burger, a bloody, my throat growing raspier and more sore. Id look at my watch and it would mock me by saying “11:30” or “1:15” . By 2pm I couldn’t even talk anymore and was relegated to “that guy who whispers in everyone’s ears at parties”. Somewhere along the way I realized I didn’t have Serato Cds, a potentially devastating development if I couldn’t find some blanks. Thankfully, Kramer HAD blanks which I paid for by promptly spilling his full beer all over him. Now I’m THAT GUY too.
At 4 Clarkie went on and sprayed flaming gasoline on the crowd while I nervously burned my Cds behind him. At 5, Aaron Pope went on and reminded us why he’s one of the finest dance-music Djs in the Bay Area... Just an outstanding set, energetic, funky, yet progressive-enough for the tweakers. A VERY hard act to follow. By this point, I’m going on 36 hours or so so its basically adrenaline and redbull. I figured my go-to thematic funk/rock remix stuff would be too tough a transition from Pope so I stayed with the more beat-centric stuff earlier, then downshifted into the chunky later as it got darker. It seemed to work really well. To my surprise, the techier stuff was less effective than anything with a rap or a hook (my go-to territory anyway). When I downshifted into the funky stuff (“Earthlings” and “Jungle Jam”) and my own edits, the crowd really just erupted. It seemed like folks were about ready to rock out, so we went there. Towards the end, the security told me I had 10 minutes, so I dropped the tempo and went into a few midtempo bangers with the idea that Id close out with “Whistlers Delight” which ends on Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. As it turned out, 3 minutes into this Andrea got them to give us another hour and I upshifted into Neighbour’s “Superstition” so that 8Ball and Zach Moore could take it home. All in all I couldn’t have been more thankful of the opportunity to play for most of everyone I love at one of my favorite all-time get downs. - MoPo
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