Co-Pilot: Prior to picking up Papaya, I had to snag LORD SMS, D/P/I, and Zona, grip the CD turntable kit down the road, including all their equipment, and packed ‘em/it all into a sports SUV (two-door) with little elbow room. We barely made it to the venue for the 8 PM start-time so BADMAN BRAD could PROPERLY lay out a bit of jockey. Got to a fairly lit Papaya a bit after the run-around, took his ass to the bodega next to Palisades so he could cheaply purchase the same beer this venue provides, and he continued drinking during ZONA b2b ENGINE b2b REGENT STREET.]
Pilot: My TMT writing only pays me $80k annually (before commission), so I’m ballin’ on a budget. Thus I did most of my drinking before, feeling pretty drunken after only one beer, but then drinking several more, which didn’t seem to cause any significant change in mental state. Just so you know!
My co-pilot and I rolled in and surveyed the scene. The crowd was a solid 80 percent dudes, and on stage that percentage jumped sharply — to 100 percent. Three such dudes going as ZONA b2b ENGINE b2b REGENT STREET sounded good, and what stuck out from that set is a sample of the Rescue Rangers theme song, normally the sort of Nickelodeon nostalgia I loathe, but this was nice, just a short clip of the theme’s admittedly catchy melody without any fanfare surrounding it.
Co-Pilot: There were a lot of handguns and hair at this point on stage just getting down with just about ALL OF the dancing within the venue, minus a handful of people up front, but just the constantly rattling thought of WHY people don’t dance; I didn’t dance because nobody was dancing and didn’t want to be the only one acting a fool outside Papaya doing some Texas strut on occasion, slowly.
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Pilot: Following ZONA b2b ENGINE b2b REGENT STREET was D/P/I, the touring act of the night (as Dark Twaine (a.k.a. OHBLIV) had travel trouble due to a blizzard). D/P/I’s source material was much less clubby and more diverse, but with the same trappy triplets and warped glitches.
Co-Pilot: D/P/I taunted the crowd with a full X/Y 360-degrees of pure HIGH DEFINITION sound that not only encompassed the knob board from which he conjured this magic, but while playing in the foreground of Jono Mi Lo’s digital-wobble visioned projections — to the left of the stage, old 80s workout videos flickering in a grime of VHS wipes — the music shut down the visuals being cascaded, and kept digging into elements of psyche only concocted through the pure grace of sound.
Pilot: When it’s one dude on stage with a laptop, there should be no obligation to look at the stage. The audience would be much better off dancing, talking, enjoying themselves however they pleased; here, however, everyone was faced squarely at the stage the entire night. Fair enough, it’s natural to look at the stage, nothing really wrong with it, but in this case it became somewhat painful to look at the stage as dude’s who didn’t need to be there piled onto it, each of whom made finger-guns which they threw liberally in the air to the beat-of whatever track was playing. So I bought Pop Chips with my co-pilot around the block and ate em up for the last set.
Co-Pilot: As a trusty side-kick, I had no reason to fret against Papaya’s hate on the hair and handguns going OFF on stage, but deep down, I think he just wanted to BE one of those hype-guys. (Important digression, please do not omit.)
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Pilot: LORD SMS had the headlining slot (and played for as late as I wanted to stay on a Tuesday night) and looked as though he’d very much appreciate these ‘other dudes’ to exit stage left, but they didn’t and he politely acknowleded them as they boosted up his set, which he was at that very moment trying to concentrate on completing. Saying LORD SMS was typical fare for his set would be apt, but entirely underselling his mixing style, sounds, and hype, only this time he included whistles and some heavier WEIRD noises, atop of a bass pounding so hard my co-pilot apparently heard it around the corner with his pal Barnaby. His set was dynamic and fresh, highlighting the moment-to-moment diversity between footwork and hip-hop that makes his work interesting.
Co-Pilot: My boii Barnaby flew in from Calgary for this event, was delayed 37 hours, and didn’t get a hit of green until LORD SMS’ set, so he and I dipped mid-set, and walked around a heavily policed neighborhood trying, but failing to smoke out, thus we gave up, went inside, watched the rest of LORD SMS’ set crumble the core of Palisades, and walked backstage to meet up with a slightly soused Papaya and D/P/I, and congratulate LORD SMS.
Pilot: After SMS finished, I smoked weed in the bathroom with my co-pilot, D/P/I and Barnaby, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the evening. Barnaby and D/P/I were talking about going to a music museum in Calgary a few months back, and being able to play instruments they could only describe. Then they began making the noises of these instruments louder than the music being played in the stage area, which helped reinforced my positive stereotype that everyone from Canada is super-chill and friendly, including LA’s D/P/I. But we quickly packed it all up and split, as my co-pilot was working at 8AM the next day.
• Jono Mi Lo: http://jonomilo.flavors.me
• ZONA: http://zonatapes.bandcamp.com
• D/P/I: http://chanceimag.es
• LORD SMS: https://soundcloud.com/LORD SMS