1997 May 2

Organizer: M

Venue: Warehous

DJs: Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez & Little Louie Vega - Masters at Work (M.A.W.)

Decor: Practically none except the usual smart drink booths

Crowd:

Kids - but very polite
One group of kids sat right in the middle of the dance floor with a candle lit in the middle. One Asian boy with blonde hair did this stretching exercise with the girls i.e. they stood back to back , both people locked in the arms, the boy bent down so that the girl lied on his back and was "stretched" in the upper torso. This whole thing was done IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DANCE FLOOR surrounded by the "voyeurs" at the front rows and the dancing crowd left, right and centre. Then the antic was followed by them sitting in a circle in the same spot chatting. Some of their friends lit up some rolled-up joint that smelled like burnt shit. They were very polite & friendly but I was furious when the music started to sound pretty good. The blond girl smiled at me and fingered me to sit down with them. I looked back and smiled and the Oriental girl/ boy also did the same and I bent down to realize that they wanted me to sit with them. I couldn't help but told them that they shouldn't sit there. Then feeling that I was a bit blunt, I added that the music was too good and that they shouldn't waste it. One of the older boys got up and left them soon but the other two remained seated there. I was surprised to find that P. also supported my view . Even though I could have been more diplomatic, they deserved a lesson.

Music:
They started with an unending sequence of treated/softened dance drum beats/ base mixed with continuous rather trancy soul singing gradually turning to stronger, wider, more open dance beat sound mixed with more popular tunes such as Move your body (only the keyboard part) and some sounds from Bucketheads, then to their Nu Yorican Soul - a mix of salsa, Ibiza, Pet Shop Boys and tribal drum beat. By that time we decided to leave (5:45a.m.).

Disappointment:
The schedule indicated M.A.W. to play in Arena 2 at 3:00 but no one seemed to know where Arena 2 was. Finally a security guard told us it was going to be at the Guv side at 4:00. Luckily P. went to the other room to check and found them playing there. Bad organizing. Plus the crowd was not mixed enough. First two rows at the front of the stage were surrounded by DJ worshipers. They only stare and did not dance. Then the people behind them weren't too enthusiastic either. If they had spun at a real warehouse it would have been sublime.