# 147: Stay Low @ Underground SF, San Francisco, CA

US Tour Day 9
Last gig of the tour, at a cool place Underground SF. Nice size bar and dance floor, chill venue. Decent turnout, great vibe, good amount of people dancing, good energy. Sound was on point, and they had pioneer cdj 800's, which are the ones i use at home, so i was very comfortable. Nobody dancing when i started but that changed real fast. I got to play lush deep rolling tunes and they crowd stayed with me. I played about an hour, had lots of fun, rolled thru at least 30 tunes. The DJ after my set opened with Datcyde's "Naughty Ride", that tune is still a classic, felt like a Driven AM event! I have a cousin so lives in the area who came down to the event with his girlfriend, always nice to have fam at my events, real nice seeing them. Met lots of nice people, love the vibe in this city, definitely looking forward to returning to SF.

# 146: Trauma @ El Rincon, San Francisco

US Tour Day 7
Woke up early and took the cable car to Fisherman's Warf. Took a boat under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz. Got lots of sun, I looked like a lobster by the evening. Ate crab, shrimp and sourdough bread in the area. Waited about an hour to get a cable car back to the hotel, totally worth it. Awesome beautiful day!

This gig was strange. The venue was large, but instead of people standing dancing, they were sitting in the back of the venue on couches or standing at the bar, not many people actually on the dance floor. They served good Mexican food till very late in the morning which was cool. Sound was a nit too loud and intense, hard to hear the monitor with the blasting speakers. I played hard, soft, deep, vocal, no matter what i played i could not get that many people to dance. I still got good feedback, decent vibe, there were a few heads rocking out, but overall disappointing. Still fun, thanks to the promoters.

# 145: The Jungle Lounge @ Nickies, San Francisco

US Tour Day 6
I spent day 4 and 5 with family in San Diego. Love SD. Ate lots of sushi, saw lots of nice things, spent good time with family, got some sun, excellent few days.

Landed in San Fransisco at about 3:00 in the afternoon, headed to the hotel and dropped my things off. I walked around a bit, saw parts of china town and the union square area. Met up with a friend and local MC Zezo One, and hung out for a bit before meeting up with Lukeino and heading to the venue. Went to Ali Baba's Cave which was near the venue, huge gyro with hummus, roasted eggplant and french fries. Zezo and I used to work together in NYC at Direct Drive parties, he was often the MC a few years ago before he moved to the west coast, so it was good to connect with him again.

This was my first gig in San Fransisco. Very chill night at what is basically a sports bar called Nickies. A strange environment to play DnB in, with UFC on the TV's. But it was a great opportunity to play the smaller chill DnB that i love. Couple of people dancing towards the end of my set, i played about 90 minutes. Overall fun night, thanks to the crew for having me down.

My first day in SF was great. Gorgeous city. Looking forward to seeing more over the next few days.

# 144: Liquid @ Red C Lounge, San Diego

US Tour Day 3:
I woke up early in Tucson and watched Quantum of Solace on the (now working) laptop. Great movie. Got lunch with the promoter and Tommy Tarzan, a great Dj and friend. Mexican food in Tucson is great, as expected. Afterwards Tommy drove me to the dessert to see the best of Tucson, it was amazing. Never seen that many cactus's in my life, beautiful area. We hung out a bit and I got dropped off at the Tucson Airport for my flight to San Diego. Had about an hour to kill so i found a sushi bar. It was honestly some of the best sushi i have ever had, prepared for me by wonderful sushi chef. Each dish was individual and unique, i had a bunch of things i've never had before. Creative fresh sushi, if your ever in the Tucson Airport, you MUST visit this small sushi bar. I got to the San Diego at about 9:0pm0 and was picked up by another friend and great DJ/producer Calculon. A quick stop at the hotel and i was off to the venue....

I was told that this place was a small lounge and since its a Sunday I thought it would be chill and low key. I was totally wrong. This was one of the best gigs i've ever had! Unbelievable vibe and energy, especially for a Sunday, it was more like a Saturday in NYC. It was my first time Djing in San Diego and i got a fantastic reaction, played for a little overan hour, met lots of great people, had a really fun time overall. The place was wide instead of long, so the pictures dont really capture the size of the crowd, but much respect to Devi for the excellent pictures! I got to play lots of smooth deep liquid tunes, as well as a few darker harder tunes in the right spots. Also played a few original tunes, went over well. MC Subliminal and MC Ridda were the MC's, awesome guys, great vibe.

After the show, I hung out with a few new friends and had a prime rib quesadilla at 3 in the morning. Great way to end the night! Many many thanks to the loads of people I met and the promoters for having me out, cant wait to return!

#143: Privilege Saturdays @ Level, Tucson Arizona

US TOUR Day 2
I got about 3 hours of sleep before I had to wake up to catch a 9:00AM flight. The first flight was easy, I slept most of the way. I had to wait about 3 hours at the Denver airport, which I thought would not be so bad because I had a couple of movies to watch on the laptop... Then the laptop crashed about 30 times in a row. I got some food, walked around, and before i knew I was boarding the next flight. At this point I was kinda nervous about the laptop. I used it in Cleveland to for my set via Serato, and it worked perfectly. Even if it crashed on me, I always bring DnB backed up on CD just incase. I can always play a DnB set on CDs. Unfortunately for me, in Tucson i was playing a electro house set, which i did not have time to back up on CD.

I landed in Tucson and the promoter picked me up. Another promoter I have been working with for a while now. Really nice guy,and very hospitable. Eventually I got my laptop to work and transfered all the 4/4 music to a thumb drive, which i latter plugged into another Dj's laptop to play my set. Real easy.

This day I did not get to see much of Tucson since I got to the hotel and needed a nap. However the drive from the airport to the hotel was beautiful and I got to see much more the next day. We had dinner at P.F. Changs which was surprisingly excellent, and headed to the show.

The event was really different for me. It was my Tucson debut. I've played Electro house a few times, but never in a big club for a few hundred people. That did not bother me at all by the time i stepped on the decks and i felt really comfortable with that style. the club itself was beautiful, huge, lush expensive place, bottle service style. Absolutely packed also, really nice to see a club like that.

The Dj before me was playing hiphop and pop remixes, then he played "This is How We Do it", and the place loved it... I turned to the promoter and asked if the crowd was going to go along with the harder house I was about to play. He knew the style, i had sent him a mix. He assured me that the Saturday night crowd wanted house music and that it would go over well.

Hew was partially right. There was a good vibe, people dancing, but unfortunately there were a few girls who kept asking me to play Brittney spears. As if i had that with me. Few people wanted r&b, felt like I was Djing a junior prom with all the cheesy requests for a few minutes. The pop element slowly faded to the back or left and the house heads came to the floor. I played about an hour and most people really enjoyed my set. Would have been nice to play DnB, next time i'm sure.

Many thanks to Phat Entertainment for having me out, always a real pleasure working with my Tucson friends. Hope to see them on my side of the US soon!

By this point i'd been to 2 places i've never been before and one things was strikingly apparent. The party in both cities ended at 2:00, which to my view seemed way earlier than the party should have ended. They had to kick people out both nights. Another reason NYC is great, we go till at least 4 every night!

Booking # 142: Cleveland DnB Coalition @ Touch Supper Club, Cleveland, Ohio

US Tour Day 1:
Wow! My debut in Cleveland. I've been working with this crew for a few years now, and we have been trying to connect on a date for a while. Thankfully this date on the tour worked for them. I flew in early in the afternoon and spent the day with the guys, lots of fun. Got to see some of Cleveland, went for a nice drive thru a park, saw a bit of the downtown where my hotel was too. Went to an awesome grilled cheese place called Melt!

The evening started slow but ended fantastic. There was a Dubstep DJ who played before me, some folks in the room were into it, started off really high energy. Then his set went south, kinda played really mellow deep stuff, nobody was dancing, just moving side to side like that dubstep cartoon. I saw people walk in and right out, or back upstairs for the electro on the top floor.

I def did not let it bother me, and by the time i went one, the place seemed to fill up quite well. Not packed but a nice sized crowd. More importantly, the vibe was huge! For most of my set, every time i dropped a new tune the place would go crazy and scream, call for rewinds, people asking what i was playing, lots of dancing people. Loved the vibe. At one point in my set i played a few of my tunes back to back including a new vocal tune (That Face) and one with a Nas vocal sample (Hard To Tell). I think I played for about 90 minutes, could have played all night with that vibe, great stufff!

Many many thanks to the Cleveland DnB Coalition for thier hospitality. Great crew, amazing vibe in that city! Can't wait to return.

The latest addition to the Driven AM roster, Sinistarr and his girlfriend drove from Detroit for the show. Was really good to connect with him face to face, and to meet his girlfriend. They were staying in the same hotel as I was, so after the show a bunch of us went back to my hotel room and hung out. Sinistarr and I played new tunes thru laptop speakers for everyone other until late into the morning when i kicked everyone out and went to bed! Day 1 of the tour was just about perfect, great start to the trip!

Booking # 141: 100% Original @ Public Assembly, Brooklyn / Stunna, NBA, Kjell, Raw Q

Last night was the best 100% yet! The vibe and music was on point the whole night. Kjell vs Raw Q worked perfectly, really melodic deep funky jazzy dnb back to back, fantastic music! Stunna had the set of the night, really killed it, great section of deep lush dnb, and crisp clean harder tunes, the flow of the set was excellent. I enjoyed the Dubstep and oldschool style jungle NBA dropped, along with great scratching. Diggadee as always was the perfect host for the night, excellent contribution to the evening. I played a short set to a good response, always fun hearing my tunes on the big system and seeing people dance to them. Thanks to everyone who came out, many big things ahead!

Booking # 140: Artitronic @ Club Exit, Brooklyn NY

This was awesome! I don't usually play raves, not because i don't want to, I just don't get that many opportunities. I think most rave promoters think (wrongly) that the style i do is too mellow. I've heard my style is to "adult" and "mature" for the rave scene. In my experience, the deeper more melodic stuff can go down really well at raves.

Club Exit is a huge 2 room venue in Brooklyn, i've Dj's there a few times before. They recently renovated the upstairs room, where I Dj's, and it is definitely an improvement, thu there are still a few issues. I played about 1-2, right after Integrity. He's a hardstyle Dj, nice guy too. I knew exactly what was going to happen and I was dead on. Most of the people in the room would leave 60 seconds after i drop my first record, but a whole new crowd would come in 5 minutes latter.

I think i played a real good set, people seemed to enjoy it, however the way the turntables were set up, i could only see about a third of the dancefloor, which made it really hard to read the crowd and really connect. I still had a real fun time DJing. Bunch of people came up to me or have contacted me since the event and said how much they liked my set. Since i rarely play raves, i always seem to convert a few heads to the deeper side when i do get to play for those crowds.

Many thanks to the promoters for having me out, this was a smooth party, great vibes, good sound quality, definitely a fun nice. Looking forward to my next gig at Exit!

Booking # 139: Drop @ Momia, NYC

New Thursday night weekly in NYC. I don't think it will last long in this venue, its just not right for the crowd. The place looks like an Egyptian lounge, which is because they serve sushi, although its not very good. Not really enough room to dance, but people did move a little to the sets, there were only about 20 people there anyway. I had asked earlier in the week if there were CDJ's, the reply was something like "yes but not Pioneer's, but don't worry I've seen many dj's rock on them"... Not what i wanted to hear but i was willing to role with it. Big mistake really, it was a horrible dual deck old school style cdj. Worst off, it was nearly broken and i had to use chopsticks to change the track, which hardly worked at all and made me miss all my cues, which was ok cause i could not really cue or beatmatch on those decks anyway. the sound was horrible too. Yea, this sucked.