Miami WMC 2005 Part 2 of Jondi's Long-Ass Blog (with pictures this time)

Friday
The morning after the Proton party I get various reports about the early morning party where Mr. C from The Shamen (remember them?) played ... descriptions ranging from "like waking up in hell, two hours of an out of tune kick drum" (from Mark Musselman) to "a great vibe, really minimal cool music, I had a great time" (Hoj). Just goes to show that multiple headspaces can exist at a single party.

Mark and I meet Spesh at the Balance Promote party at the Marlin. In between mixing records, Villo loads us up with stacks of promo CD's from Bedrock and elsewhere. The party turns out to be good place to hobnob. I see J-Punch (aka Hook the Captain) and remember him from last year ... we discuss his multiple monikers and I let him know I'm a fan of his productions, even though the claims on his website are a little over top (irony notwithstanding). Christian Cambas stops by and I introduce him to Cece, who will hopefully bring him out to San Francisco to play sometime soon. Christian seems surprised and pleased to hear that lots of SF DJ's were hammering "It Scares Me" last year (myself included). Spesh talks to Chris Fortier, Mark Musselman works the room effortlessly as usual.

Villo keeps disappearing between mixes. He mentions that he hasn't eaten or slept in several days. Each time he reappears to put on another record, the music gets slightly more intense.

Suddenly my eyes glaze over and my brain stops.

6pm, one disco-nap later, we all meet up at the Galleria for Billy & Scott Carrelli's sets. I point at a smoothy that the bartender has just made and ask for one. He says "Let mee make you sometheeeng better." Fifteen minutes later I'm holding a 24oz coco-rum-thingy that costs me fifteen bucks. Shit, I'm gonna be drunk before dinner again. I grab three empty cups and split it with some other people. Scott is tearing it up, hands are in the air, the smoke machine is on overdrive.

After sushi with Astrid and Spesh, and four times as much green tea ice-cream as we meant to order, Jackie and I head over to the Spundae/Flirty-Flirty/Qoöl "Greenfields" party at the Grass Lounge to catch the end of Hoj and Rooz's tag-team set (which turned out to be very cool twisted proggy stuff). The Grass Lounge is a classy outdoor venue in the Design District of Miami, kind of island-style palapas meets Ruby Skye. I'm a little worried when I arrive because everyone is eating dinner, and there doesn't seem to be a dancefloor. Eventually the tables are cleared out and people start to move. M3 from SF plays some groovy house and the crowd seems to dig it. I have a moment of anxiety wondering how they're going to react to the deep, intense, weird, technoey prog that Spesh and I are going to play at 3am.

I meet Sasha and the other girls from Flirty Flirty who are friendly and charming. Guiv and Peter are both in excellent spirits, Spundae having just won "Best Club Night" at the WMC International Dance Music Awards. Guiv is slightly kicking himself for being too shy to make the acceptance speech, he sent up Rooz and Chris to accept it instead, and missed out on the accolades. Several bottles of Belvedere seem to be taking the edge off, and it's hard to say no to Guiv and Peter when they want you to join in their drunken revelry. Pretty soon I am flirting with a cute molecular biologist in a white dress (scientists, they slay me!). Astrid and Spesh finally arrive, Scott and Hsiao-Wen soon after. Hsiao-Wen, who seems to be tipsy, keeps sitting in Guiv's lap, her timing coinciding perfectly with Guiv (who seems to be getting over his shyness) being engaged in conversations with cute girls. Some reference is made to cock-blocking.

Finally Spesh and I go on. After waiting politely for fifteen minutes for the previous DJ to wrap it up, we finally kick him off (too bad he was greedy, his Ableton live set was good and I would have invited him to play in SF if he hadn't been such a deck-hog). All worries about how the crowd will react to our music prove to be totally unfounded, either they love our style or they're drunk enough to dance to anything. Spesh and I have been tag-teaming several nights in a row now and we're in-tune and reacting well to whatever the other guy is throwing down. What can I say, DJ'ing is fun! Mark Rahmani and Mariell arrive and Mark is taking pics, if you want to see me and Spesh looked kind of toasted, check here. Here are a few samples:

Around 7am I get back to the hotel room and Mark Musselman is there, partying with Joe, Brian Checkoway, and some other friends. We hang out and listen to music for awhile, then they take off to Breakfast in Bed. It's the last I see of Mark for 24 hours, despite 5 messages left on his voicemail. Party black hole!

Saturday
Saturday ... breakfast with Astrid & Spesh at the News Cafe ... wander around with those two for a bit while Spesh shops for clothes, get bored and make some random phone calls, like to Eric Haller to ask if he's moving to LA because I read on his blog he bought a one-way ticket there. I'm tired of shelling out for cabs so I walk all the way back to the Albion, get sweaty, tired, and slightly homesick in the process. I take a shower, then grab a major disco nap. As I drift off in the middle of the afternoon it occurs to me that I'm missing about a dozen excellent pool parties ... but I didn't give a rat's ass. I need some extra z's.

RANDOM MIAMI STORY #2
Just before midnight on Saturday Spesh and I ran into Johan from Inkfish, staggering down the street clutching his side. Apparently he had just (rather heroically) intervened when he saw a thug hit a woman in the lobby of the Whitelaw hotel (ok that place has gone downhill since we stayed there a few years back). He smacked the guy down (after saying “Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?” - but you have to imagine that line in a Swedish accent), walked away, was sucker punched in the back, and then beat the guy down again (“I had to beat him really bad that time, until he wouldn’t get up.”) So there's Johan, wincing from a possibly broken rib and requesting painkillers of any variety. We can imagine the other guy looked much worse. Message to Miami thugs: don’t beat your girlfriend in front of insane Bacardi-swilling Swedish dance music producers with strong moral values.

After I awake from my comatose state it's time for dinner. After about eleven text messages, I manage to convey to Patty that she and Christy are invited to join us all for our last-night-in-Miami dinner at a place called Tuscan Steak. Patty, being the social butterfly that she is, brings along seven other people, but luckily the restaurant has put a whole back room aside for us and they can seat our gigantic party no problem. Let's see, it was Patty, Sam, and Jason from Proton Radio, Patty's sister Christy, her boyfriend, and their two friends from New York, Astrid & Spesh, Scott & Hsiao-Wen, Neil Quigley (who played at the Proton party), and myself. Yes my memory is intact. The meal was really outstanding, 50oz steaks, rack of lamb, lots wine, Spesh going to work on a giant fish head, Patty having a few too many, and the entire dessert menu *comped* (thanks to Spesh giving the concierge at the Clinton five dollar handshakes all week).

Patty took lots of pictures ... they're all here if you want to check them out.

Our last gig is the Frisky Radio party, in the lobby of the Chesterfield Hotel. The Qoöl LA guys are there, but have reached the end of their rope and are asleep on one of the couches. Some program called "Buck Wild Backyard Wrestling" is playing on the DVD. Faisal from Frisky gives us some "Feeling Frisky" shirts and we hang out and listen to an excellent set from Scott Carrelli. Gunita is there, drinking champagne and being fabulous, and the vibe is mellow but really fun. Christy and her boyfriend stop by, she's wearing a blue boa, her "I heart Spesh" shirt, and not much else (not complaining - it worked!). Patty is apparently stuck at Bed with no ins/outs, which is properly ironic since she gave Spesh a really hard time for being stuck at Bed and not making it to the Proton party.

Since the night has kind of a freestyle vibe to it, Spesh and I both end up playing some of our weirder, more out there records. I play "Onions & Goujons" for the first time, a cool track from a guy named Ben, (aka Turnipwagon) from Newcastle. We play late ... tag-teaming from midnight until 3, and then Spesh played on his own until 4:30 or so. All in all a good way to wrap up a week of excellent music.

What am I forgetting? Lots of stuff I'm sure. A big thanks to everyone who booked us in Miami this year ... we really appreciate getting the opportunity to play. That includes Kaine from Most Wanted, Peter & Guiv from Spundae, Faisal from Frisky Radio, David & Amy from Toes in the Sand, and Chris Coleman from DJsInbox. Also thanks to Jackie for coming out to support and help keep us organized, to Scott Carrelli for hooking us up with the Frisky gig, to Patty, Christy, and the other Proton peeps for throwing a great party, and partying with us, to Mark & Mariell for partying with us and taking lots of pictures, and to all our SF friends who came out to play.

We'll be back. ;-)