I meant "our club" as in our community. Neo was the name of it and it was open for 36 years, longer than any other club in Chicago, but then they lost their lease.
Exit was our other club, and they were shut down in 2020 for code violations.
Now our clubs are Late Bar and Underground. And also Dance, Darklings, but that's in LA and is virtual. That is who I DJ for once in a while (next Fri night actually!)
v6,
boNes
"Also, I would prefer a back seater over the extra gas any day. I would have 80 pounds of flesh to eat and a pair of glasses to start a fire." --F/A-18 Hornet pilot
"Also, I would prefer a back seater over the extra gas any day. I would have 80 pounds of flesh to eat and a pair of glasses to start a fire." --F/A-18 Hornet pilot
Cool stuff, Bones. I listened to most of it on my way in to work this morning (43 minute train ride plus 15 minute walk downtown). I didn't know you did this stuff. When you say "gig", were you performing this live somewhere, or was this just at home?
To answer your question, both. Those recordings you heard were recorded from a live broadcast I did over Zoom.
So here's the backstory. We used to go to the clubs pretty much every weekend until the pandemic hit and shut everything down. There was a club in Los Angeles that got shut down that our friends used to go to. Those friends told us to get around the lockdown what they did was set up the club via Zoom. So the clubbers would go to the Zoom meeting where the DJs would spin with their cameras on. The clubbers were invited to tune in from their lockdown locations and if they wanted to turn their cameras on they could, but they weren't' required to. But of course lacking social contact in 2020, most elected to. It made it fun and interesting. You could see them partying in their own space, and to talk to each other you would use the chat window. So it was like being in a real club where you can't hear what they are saying anyway haha. Somepeople even tuned in from Hawaii or Japan so it was interesting since it was nighttime here in the US but there it was broad daylight. It was pretty cool.
Well, after a while the club split off because the owner was implicated for some social issues and so a bunch of the DJs left and many of the protestors left with them, and so this other club started, "Dance, Darklings." My wife and I were amongst those that left the original club. By then we had become regulars there. One of the Djs running it had a birthday and so I asked him if he didn't feel like working on his birthday, if he would rather dance and drink or whatever, let me know, and I can spin for a little while. He agreed, and that was my first gig with the club. One of the clubbers really liked it and asked why I wasn't doing it before and will I again. I said it was up to the club, but if you'd want me to, I wouldn't be opposed to you passing the word on to them.
So they did, and then I got a request to spin again later. That started the ball rolling and since then I have done a bunch of gigs here and there since. My last gig was last Friday. I even did a gig live from Poland. It was 0730 in Poland but back in the US it was 2230 in LA and 0030 in Chicago. So this time I was in the broad daylight DJing while they were in the night, haha.
I spin mostly industrial/goth/darkwave/electronic/EBM but I do on occasion do alternative, house, new wave, freestyle, etc. If need be I can also do swing, merengue, salsa, bachata but that's not really my market and I don't get alot of requests for that haha. I could perform live at a physical club or something as I'm setup for it--I've done a few parties before. But I prefer my current Zoom medium as I'd rather be dancing and enjoying this stuff rather than "working"--DJing is not my profession, it's my enjoyment/hobby etc. I leave that job to my mentor DJ Jeff Moyer, longtime Chicago DJ legend since 1987, and he still works today (we just saw him spin last Friday after my gig, and will see him again on Saturday). So I am primarily doing it from home, I have my iPod (believe it or not) plugged into my mixer which is hooked up to my PC. The PC broadcasts over Zoom and my webcam records the session. I also have recording software on said computer to record the stream live as it happens and that is what you are hearing on Mixcloud. So sometimes there are live glitches which are unavoidable, such as packet lag causing a split second blackout of sound, but what can you do? But at least it proves I am mixing live, and not just playing a Spotify playlist or something. Recently I bought a hookup that will allow me to broadcast from a laptop so I can actually do it more mobile and not be tied to my office room at home. I am still testing that though.
So, that's they story. Hope you liked the mix!
v6,
boNes
"Also, I would prefer a back seater over the extra gas any day. I would have 80 pounds of flesh to eat and a pair of glasses to start a fire." --F/A-18 Hornet pilot
"Also, I would prefer a back seater over the extra gas any day. I would have 80 pounds of flesh to eat and a pair of glasses to start a fire." --F/A-18 Hornet pilot
Nice, thanks for sharing the background. I dunno if you ever heard of another DJ that goes by Dan Efex. I am friends with him. He isn't as active anymore (used to do big rave parties and what not) since having kids, but he was also doing some Zoom spinning during the pandemic. Correction, I just saw he is doing a show in Milwaukee next month on the 13th and another show in Chicago on Jan 28th.
