Friday, March 27th – Night 3
Will this day ever end? Well little did I know it only begun in terms of house music treats. So back over to Score to see a much anticipated set by legendary DJ/producer, Danny Tenaglia for his night called “Attack of The 50 Foot Tenaglia.” Now if you aren’t a house head, then you might be like “who the heck is Danny Tenaglia” - but you would realize if you were there that you were in the presence of a God by the end of the night The only time I ever saw Danny Tenaglia was back in 1999 when somebody actually booked him in an alleyway between Backstreet and The Armory that wasn’t even a bar (later became Loco Luna). I remembered watching him spin Celeda’s track “The Underground” which was just taking off. I didn’t know I was going to be a DJ 10 years ago but knew there was something significant about being in this guy’s presence. So, anyway back to the night. I arrived with my friend a little after midnight at Score and it’s a very mixed crowd (mostly straight at that point) and half full. It was a completely different door and bar staff. He starts playing this really downtempo set of songs that sound like Miguel Migs with trumpets and harmonica and saxophone in it. Then from out of nowhere he drops a heavy tribal percussive track and everyone freaks out. Then back into some jazzy stuff. Then more percussive tracks. I’m smiling the whole time because he’s breaking any sort of rules of a house set, he knows it, and I’m loving it! Highlight of the best set I saw all week at WMC: Danny Tenaglia’s mashup of his “Be Yourself (Celeda’s 1998 classic)” mixed with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” while Anthony Lamont and Vivacious performed to it. One word to sum this up: SICK!
Saturday, March 28th – Day 4
Ultra is like Electronic Woodstock
No conference today for me, instead I headed to Ultra Music Festival downtown. Spent almost 6 hours soaking up the biggest names in electronic music all in one 75,000 people outdoor festival. I regrettably didn’t make it on Friday to see Tiesto but if you read what I did Friday, how could I have made it there anyway. Two DJ legends remain highlights of the day: Eric Morillo and Carl Cox. I thought the sets from Pete Tong, Armin Van Buuren, Moby, and Trent Cantrelle were amazing but Morillo and Cox were unbelievable. The massive tribal influenced sounds of Morillo and Cox were completely unpredictable. I was aware of these legends but felt like I was thrown down the rabbit hole by these guys. This was like Electronic Woodstock. The mixing of styles - massive big room percussion with plenty of soulful vocals sprinkled into Morillo’s set made me shake my head in disbelief. Pete Tong along with Morillo and Cox had a common element in their sets: they would have these massive builds that went on and on finally drop and then repeat just as you were catching your breath. By the time 9:45pm came, Carl Cox had me so exhausted from tapping my feet to the rhythm that I had to miss a DJ I really wanted to see, Deadmau5. Unfortunately, I opted for a taxi back to the beach rather than fight the masses as Deadmau5 and Paul van Dyk closed out the night.
Saturday, March 28th – Night 4
Running on pure adrenaline from the week and 6 hours of ear-bleeding music, I headed out for my final show which was unfortunately sold out for the evening: Sasha performing at The Shelbourne. One of the guys who worked the door told me that I might have a chance to gain access if I try back after 3am - so I met up with a friend at Twist and enjoyed DJ Craig Mitchell’s tribal set. I think he got a hold of some of Danny Tenaglia’s CD’s. The ones I’m searching for today. After that I headed back to see if I could pop in to get a glimpse of Sasha before he closed out his set. No luck. There was such a mob outside the club, that security said that if people didn’t leave the area police might shut the whole party down for everybody. Crazy. Well I ran out of steam anyway and off to sleep before catching a morning flight back to Atlanta.
Sunday, March 29th – Recap
Well , I caught my flight out of Miami and back home to Atlanta. Nice flight and I was tired by the time I got home. I was using my time to work on a set for an upcoming after hours party in Birmingham and wanted to draw on as much WMC inspiration as possible. Looking back on my first Winter Music Conference experience, I have to say that it was amazing and I am glad I went. There were so many great events and so little time. As I illustrated, I did run to many events but missed many DJ’s that I really wanted to see like David Guetta, Tiesto, Kaskade, and on and on but at the same time I feel like I saw and met some amazing industry people and am excited about going again. Unexpected appreciation for DJ’s that I liked but didn’t love until then: Tenaglia, Morillo, Vendetta and Cox. These DJ’s will have an impact on my DJ career and may influence my future sound—the sound of house music…
