These have been the names of the last three clubs that I’ve played at. They all start with T. I will be watching closely for tonights club to make a quintuplet.
I really have a lot to write about them, but I’m short on time as I’m about to meet up with Danny who’s leaving for Shanghai today.
Trendy Club was unbelievable. In true trendy fashion, they absolutely flipped out when I didn’t play house music. I came into there with an agreement with myself that I would play music that they don’t hear in places like this. I wouldn’t stick to protocol, I would break all of the rules as flagrantly as possible. I played Gin & Juice first and ressurrected the dead dance floor and before Award Tour was finished the manager of the club was up in the booth yelling at me. Here’s approximately how it went:
him: WHAT ARE YOU DOING
me: HI. DJ’ING
him: THIS IS CHINA
me: THANKS
him: YOU MUST PLAY HOUSE HERE
me: I DON’T WANT TO PLAY HOUSE HERE. PEOPLE ARE DANCING NOW
him: NO, I PAY THOSE PEOPLE TO DANCE
me: WHY THE FUCK DO YOU DO THAT?
him: THIS IS CHINA THIS IS CHINA
me: OKAY I’LL PLAY HOUSE
I played Smack my Bitch Up next and then Kim ran on the dancefloor and started breaking. I hit stop on the song that was playing and dropped Rappers Delight to make the place more conducive to dancing, but the manager of the club literally pulled Kim mid-windmill off the dancefloor and forbid him from breaking. I got really agitated at this point and played Mary Jane by Rick James to cool off a bit. I knew their heads were about to explode at a club as musically xenophobic as this one, so I went through some other tracks quickly and then prepped the Gypsy Kings cover of Hotel California (the one played when Jesus is bowling in Big Lebowski). The guy came in the booth and cut me off¬†and I dropped the mighty Gypsy Kings which played for about 90 seconds until they started with some awful Chinese house music which instantly cleared the floor and reclaimed the clubs Trendy namesake. After Hotel California I was going to play the end sequence of Killing in the Name of by RATM with the “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” sequence which would have undoubtedly been the most rebellious single moment in my years of DJ’ing. Being in 10 clubs in 20 cities over 2 months makes me realize the ridiculous overabundance of clubs in China; 90f them are all the same and play the same music over and over; I’d much rather play what I want to play and be kicked off while playing AC/DC than have some chump businessmen dance with 16 year old prostitutes while I play Chinese lovesong techno remixes like some of them want me to. Oh, also. Even though my set was cut short, my Coors boss said that she had a friend in the club who owns another local club and wants me to DJ there, and she gave me his number to call him when I’m back from Thailand. Funny how things work out sometimes.
Touch Club last night was a lot of fun, though. The place was like a loft-style club, but really dope and much less stuffy, in terms of the crowd, the music, the atmosphere, and so on.
Today I’ll negotiate with Ronny, a DJ/promoter in Shanghai that has 4 gigs that he’s lined up in September. I’d consider him a friend, so if the dates work, I’ll do it.
The guy next to me in this internet cafe is singing pretty loudly while checking his email. Sweet.