It was a lovely weekend. The weather being top, the music idem ditto. Most of the time. It all started perfect. Finding a big ass package from Rush Hour on my doorstep (I finally got "The Jaz – The Originators" on vinyl, woohoo), dining with friends and then heading for Antwerp to see Jazzy Jeff. Stereosushi was packed to the max again, though with a much younger crowd as usual. Still didn’t feel at home. Don’t know why but I can’t connect, on any level, with the people there. Last time I really felt at ease was at the Kerri Chandler gig when we had shipped a busload of friends to Antwerp and so had the Dutch bunch of party people next to us. We met a lot of those guys the week after at Southport, no wonder they knew to appreciate the music. But not this time. The fact that the resident DJ’s were utter crap (and I’m being very polite here) didn’t help. They served an overdose of Wacko Jacko. I can appreciate some MJ from time to time but this was ridiculous. We heard at least 15 songs from him in 3 hours time. The rest of their set was silly too. They just played the obvious. Don’t mind classics but I don’t want to feel like I’m at a Radio Nostalgie party. On top of that their mixing was awful. And you know those remixes on House twelves you wonder why on earth they are made or who ever plays them ? Well after Friday I know the answer to the second question and don’t understand the first even more. I’m sorry if I’m hurting someone’s feelings here but it’s impossible for me to be positive about it. But Jazzy Jeff was the only reason we made the trip. Once he got behind the decks a lot of what was bothering me seemed futile. The man’s a robot. Never misses a beat, mixes are perfect. You know singers who sound exactly as clear as on their CD’s live ? Well Jazzy Jeff is the DJ version of that. Listen to his mix CD’s and you know how he sounds live. Might seem obvious but in these times of computer edited mixes this is rare. Very rare. When I say he’s a robot, I mean a robot with a Soul. The main remark a have about Hiphop DJ’s is not that they don’t know what good music is or that they aren’t good technically. On the contrary, they know their shit better than most House DJ’s do. But I get too often the feeling they don’t know how to keep a party going. They are usually more collectors than dancers and that you can hear. Jazzy Jeff is one of the few to aims his sets straight to the dance floor. He might not play the most obscure gems but he plays good music, with great technique and a lot of feeling. I’m a fan. I only had hoped he would play a little more House. Saturday it was our turn to get behind the decks. At Strictly Niceness. A gig URE and myself were really looking forward to. It’s one of the few parties that oozes the same vibe as our own parties. The crowd’s always going for it, the spirit is like it should be and the music’s totally our thing. Got there early. A bit nervous. But once the music started it went all nice. Bernard Dobbeleer getting the crowd moving as always. We took over and went for it. Playing the tunes we wanted to play and seeing that people were digging it. Strictly Niceness has a killer crowd. It’s the only party I know were everybody is dancing. From the front to the back. We played a mix of Deep Funk, Hiphop, Soul, Disco and 90’s R ’n B. And it worked fine. Living on cloud 9 since then. A big, big thanks to Eleven, Kwak and Bernard. For giving us this chance and giving us the freedom and respect we got. We really appreciate it. We’re fans for life. And a big thanks to everybody dancing. It was an honour to pay for such an elite of the dance floor. Merci Lieve, Phil, the Wickywacky dancemachine (all the way from Lissabon), Dieter, Katlijne, Maarten, Fluppe, Chris, Jan, Lotte, Yoeri’s colleague, Midleft, Sistah, Jenna, Leentje & friends, DJ Reedoo and all those I don’t know by name or forgot to mention.
