Booking #89: Direct Drive @ Tonic, NYC

Always an honor playing for Direct Drive, one of the best and longest running parties in the US. I had an opening set tonight at Tonic, my first night playing this venue, but i do own the Medeski, Martin and Wood CD 'Live at Tonic', so it was cool to be on that stage. This was the first time Direct Drive has had DNB there, and the setup was difficult. It took the sound guy my entire set to setup the monitor and get the levels properly set, which made it hard to play. Still had fun. Crowd really enjoyed Michael Jackson - Human Nature (Makoto RMX), always a pleaser.

Booking #88: Direct Drive @ R&R

This venue has years of NYC DnB of history. It used to be called Rare and is next to the venue formerly known as Baktun. Direct Drive ran their live Saturday night weekly for something like 4 years at Baktum a few years ago. That was before my time with DD, but still to this day people talk about those parties. DD also ran events at Rare. That was the first place in NYC that i DJ'd, alongside Dara, it was great. Lots of history for me.

This night was another bittersweet night, Rare club closed a week after I dj'd there. Turning into condo's or something. Sad really. I tagged with Bluewater (Lou), it wasent; great, we both had a different idea of where we wanted to take the set, it did not work out as expected. Perhaps in the future we can meet in the middle. Thanks to DD, always a pleasure!