http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=8146
If you're looking for a good party/DJ night in the LA area, your best bet would be to avoid Santa Monica, the living, breathing beachfront mall-city. This is the same city that recently decried it illegal to smoke on your own balcony. So when The Chase (a roving monthly featuring disco, beardo and adjacent) announced it was moving from downtown 15 miles west to Santa Monica, purists were very skeptical.
To entice, the crew brought in Justin Vandervolgen, the disco DJ's DJ du jour and a producer, engineer, performer and DJ that I had admired since the !!! and Out Hud days. And, to be honest, it was actually refreshing to leave the eastside/downtown for some new environs. The venue was Central S.A.P.C., a small live venue, which made for some westside bar aesthetics, but which guaranteed a nice PA and lighting package.
The only other benefit to the night taking place in Santa Monica is that it's right next to Venice, its defected sister city with some actual stimmung, so it pulled some of the disco beach nerds to come see their local DJ Heidi opening up for Mr. V. I caught some of her acidic space jams, which amounted to a very nice, sensitive warm-up. While the crowds weren't huge, the quality was solid, with more DJs than lay folk, like the Sarcastic, Still Going and Hot Biscuit concentric circles.
When Vandervolgen finally went on around 12:30 (remember, LA closes at 2 AM), the crowd was certainly into it. Every time I've seen him, Justin V really prefers to manipulate the lights as well, because he (obviously) knows his tracks better than a lighting tech. This time was no exception. He moved from Mouzon Electric Band's "Everybody Get Down," to the new Still Going remix of Bot'Ox, and another sordid collection of beardo-friendly but aggressive tracks. He's a DJ where you not only need to hear what he plays, but also see how he does it: His dynamic EQing was, as usual, on point and wild without being obnoxious. It was definitely an enjoyable evening, certainly my favorite in Santa Monica in years and possibly ever, but when the lights went on around 1:50 AM, I couldn't help but feel like things were just getting started.
Words /
Jonny ColemanPublished /
Thu, 21 Oct 2010
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