Charlotte came through with the goods!
Friday night was a good one. I was at the House of OM Summer tour at HOM in Charlotte. I was excited and anxious on a few levels. I was arranging the road trip for a few friends, and myself and I always want the details to be perfect when that happens. I was going to be seeing some of my favorite DJ’s at a multipurpose venue that I heard was a wonderful place. I am also a label rep for OM records, so I wanted a good turnout, good energy, I wanted it to put forth a good image for the label, and I hoped that the touring DJ’s would be happy.
A friend of mine picked me up and we drove up together. The party started immediately. We stayed at the Westin Charlotte, which was very nice, well located, and had a fantastic staff – I recommend it. Kicked around downtown for the afternoon, and then came back to the room to re-energize for the night.
We started off to HOM to begin the night with dinner, and meet our third traveling companion for the weekend. Hom is actually 3 different businesses in one. A lounge/bar/intimate music area called LIV, a swanky see-and-be-seen restaurant called FEAST, and a large club called PLAY. There is also a beautiful outdoor patio area with views of the city that pulls everything together. We were pleased to be invited by one of the owners to come early for dinner – as he told us he was having the DJs in early for dinner as well.
FEAST had tasty food, good service, and a great vibe. I knew as soon as we walked in and Charlotte DJ “That Guy Smitty” put Sa-Ra, and Tiombe Lockhart records back to back, that we would have a good night. Smitty played a set that was a perfect sonic match for the beautiful surroundings of FEAST. We were also seated right by the window, and I gotta say……this city has MANY sexy, stylish, and CLASSY looking women – VERY impressed. (Take note ATL. . . especially in terms of sexy but still CLASSY.)
Spent most of the night in the downstairs “LIV” area to make sure we heard sets by Heather, and Fred Everything. If Fred isn’t my favorite house DJ right now, he’s right up there. Heather played the most diverse set a lot of us had heard her play in a while in terms of styles – and did it well. Went upstairs to check out Colette in the main room. That room was jumping and Colette was in voce dolce as usual.
Saw tons of people I didn’t expect to see, people from Winter Music Conference, people from ATL, people from Columbia. Also got a nice compliment on a set I played in ATL early in the summer. Spoke with Fred, and Colette – all the DJ’s seemed very at ease – and comfortable with their surroundings. I made MANY trips to the bar, met a few of the bartenders who were very cool people.
All in all, Charlotte represented. I had been hearing that they support house music better than ATL, and I can definitely believe that. I don’t know how the DJs who played think it measures up to the other cities they’ve played in on the tour, but I hope they were pleased. I know I was.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Posted by greatwhitefunk at 7:54 PM
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11 comments:
Good read. Thanks for taking shots at my city (ATL), although I'd have to say that was a fair assessment. The gig sounded cool, and Charlotte seems to have changed since I have last been there.
Yeah - not happy to say disparaging things about the "A" - but there have been some horrendous crowds for some great house DJ's and a lot of girls should really take the "stripper eveningwear" look down a notch.
Sound like a great weekend! Good to hear that Charlotte has some things cooking at the moment. I think the main thing Atlanta struggles with is consistency. We have great events with sporadic turnout. MZ
I have limited experience - but based on what I have seen, I would tend to agree with that.
The Roy Davis Jr. event went right off...I think that basement room at Lava is well suited - -
At the same time, I've seen Migs, Chuck Love, and Onionz with very poor turnouts.
Thanks for reading Mike. I hope you're doing well.
Sounds like you had a good time. Is someone leaning towards moving to Charlotte now? You could be a Bobcats season-ticket holder.
Nah - Allthough I like it a lot, its still smaller than I want - and allthough it may be doing better with house music at this MOMENT - overall it's not as well-rounded musically as ATL.
Good to hear you had a fab time Bill.I know how you do the whole planning for your friends, still remember the first time we met in Miami you had all the parties printed out and I'm sure Kenny was impressed with that planning.
I see you also got to hang out with Big Doug...
Yeah - it was a good night. Big Doug is the best. Glad you had fun at Farina!
Nice one mate! Glad it all went well :)
BTW, I think that events everywhere can be pretty sporadic regarding turnout - in London we are at such a saturation point - everybody supposedly "DJs" and "promotes parties" and that doesn't leave many clubbers left!
First of all, I really appreciate you checking the blog Lee.
Comparing London to the States, especially the part of the country I live in, the Southeast, is VERY much an apples to oranges situation though.
I would agree that there is a definite saturation point in London. It boggles my mind sometimes when I hear of all the club nights you folks have packed into one area.
Although house music is far from the mainstream success here that it is in London, many people claim to love it and are always wishing they could see shows of this caliber. When an opportunity like this comes along, and there isn't a good turnout - it kind of baffles me. Even if you have to drive a few hours to get there (like I do all the time)...I feel like you should be there if you care about house music.
In the London situation, I could see how it would be much more difficult, b/c there are SO many choices all the time.
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