The radio station panel was quite entertaining especially with them playing the vulgar traffic report. Seeing all the commercial dance radio stations, cable and internet stations on one panel talking about dance music was really helpful and helpful for perspective. I headed to the Club Culture panel which was moderated by Miss Lainie Copicatto who had wisely arranged for a martini bar to serve in the back of the room. The discussion was quite informative, covering everything from political issues and legislation to profits and dress codes. Screaming Rachel was quite a trip talking about her Chicago roots and the lady from Rock the Vote was quite motivating.
Up next for me was the Positiva pool party at the National Hotel. I arrived as Scumfrog was spinning and banging on his drums. What a nice change, adding live percussion to DJ sets. The crowd was very British industry. Trend #7 - bad haircuts. Not to be bitchy, but I was wondering why all these british women, who should know better, were sporting shag/mullet hair cuts - they just looked wrong. The music was exceptional and Jes (from Motorcycle) came next, singing a very moving version of "As the Rush Comes," starting with the atmospheric chillout version and building into the trance version which was the perfect launch for Dave Dresden's set. It takes a lot to get industry people dancing, but Dave was proving why Gabriel and Dresden have risen to the DJ stratosphere. I wanted to stay there the whole night but I had several other parties I wanted to check out.
Basically next door at the Surfcomber, M3 was doing their nightly Summit Sessions and I arrived just in time to see Krafty Kutz & A Skills tearing up the turntables. The beach front stage was full of people dancing. Legendary rapper Kurtis Blow came out and did "Rapper's Delight" and even freestyled back and forth with a German MC in the crowd. Danger Mouse, the buzzworthy turntablist who created the Grey Album by blending Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White album, performed an incredible live set of dynamic turntablism. I was in heaven dancing to Tim Deluxe who was playing energetic disco house for the crowd who were totally into him. I could have stayed there all night, but other parties beckoned me.
I stopped by the Creek Hotel for the Dance Local Think Global event put on by Betty at Plexi PR. Several people at the Positiva party mentioned that Infusion's set at Creek Hotel was quite exceptional. Steve Porter was rocking the decks and the vibe was quite night. Mellow people enjoying good music pool side. I grabbed a cab and went up Washington to the Automatic Slim's party that was hosted by Cary Vance at Promo Only. Soul Logic, Marcy Faith and Lucas Prata performed on the makeshift stage. Even though they were plagued with equipment problems, all three gave great performances. The crowd was commercial US dance industry - Robbins, Ultra and all were quite festive. I ran into some of my favorite people like Vic Latino, Dee Robert, Rich P, Aubrey, Kim Sozzi, Marty Thomas and many others. After Lucas' performance, I walked a block up to catch the IndieCentral part at Twist. Twist is the local, no-attitude gay club which was a nice thing to see in Miami. Definitely a hot spot for locals, the crowd was really feeling the performances by Jade Starling, Calanit and Dolce. I snuck in the backroom where the DJ was playing disco classics - what a maze that club is.
I met up with Gregory Angelo, the HX writer who I had met at the Madonna party, and we shared a taxi to Nerve for the SAW party (by this time my legs were getting quite tired. Basically for Nerve - see Trend #6 - rude door staff. I was quite surprised as I had heard that the doorstaff for the Junior morning party at Nerve was quite good, I guessed they saved the evil for the night party. Now if the club was full to capacity or there was a huge line to get in, I could understand her delaying us. There were 10 people outside and she let in several people who arrived after us in before us. After about 30 minutes, she acknowleged we had invite passes and let us in. We enjoyed the music and danced for a while. Satoshi was spinning and the crowd was really into the music. I would have stayed longer but I was quite exhausted and knew that I was on a panel at 12:30.
