Saturna

a few years ago my friend dave from cincinnati lived here in memphis for a while. the entire time he lived here he told me he wanted to hear me play some drum and bass, but never did that happen, as i had settled up into house before he moved here. when he left a couple years ago, he asked if i would play drum and bass with him sometime, if he ever came back to visit. i promised him that i would, when that day came.

last night, we did a tag-team at a party with trevor lamont, ben armstrong, and some folks from the ESP crew. admittedly, i was not overly excited about the gig beforehand. earlier this week i went through six crates of house music for an internet broadcast, landing myself, once again, completely inspired by house, after a while of feeling quite 'blah' about it all.

so then having to change tack and reacquaint myself with music i have not really played in five years left me more than a little conflicted, and wondering if i had made a mistake in agreeing to the gig. but i packed up and went. it was an early set, and it felt great outside, perfect sweater weather.

neither of us having heard each other play (dnb) before, i think it turned out pretty well. we did three on three for most of the 2 hours, and the whole thing went pretty quickly. i played some of the darkest, hardest hitting records i own, and danced vigorously to a few of them as well. i had a ton of young folks who were really excited about what i was playing, and had to explain countless times, that no, i would not be willing to come play drum and bass somewhere else, that i play house now.

i hated to see that look of disappointment on people's faces, and while i did have fun playing last night, i have simply moved on. there is just something about house music. it challenges me. it uplifts me, breaks me, clears me out and then fills me back up again. drum and bass just kind of clears me out and leaves me hanging.

house takes a lot more energy and consciousness from me when i play, meaning, i am forced to pay closer attention, to its effects on me and all of those around me. i emote in a more complete manner, it is both more visceral and more ethereal to me. whenever i really let myself go into it, i feel changed, more clear, when i am done.

after our set i got to dance to ben armstrong for a little while, a wonderful house deejay from fayetteville, arkansas. i met him just before he started playing and found him to be a truly kind individual. it looks like he will be having me up to fayetteville soon to play his new bi-weekly, looking forward to it.

i was blessed to be able to give trevor a big hug, and disappointed to have to miss his set, but he played really late and i needed to get home to my family and eat some food.

all in all a wonderful night with good music, dancing, friends, and the added bonus of a reaffirmation of my personal musical path. can't really ask for much more than that.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 16th, 2004 at 8:13 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.