So some friends were in town and wanted to go out and were excited to hear that Stacey was in town for a night at the Sullivan Room. The five of us got there early and luckily avoided the $15 admission (saved $75) The Sullivan Room is closing for a bit to do some renovations, I think a new sound system is on order. So this was billed as a pre-renovation blowout bash. There were even 2-1 drinks till midnight...sounds pretty good right?
The unfortunate thing about it was everyone who spun sucked. It could be I'm suffering the let down from expecting too much. The opening dj's; Function (Infrastructure), Victor Ridi & Fong (Minitek), Sleepy & Boo (Basic NYC) played not one interesting track. The sets sounded like a mix of minimal tracks from the sale bin and a few old Transmat and Rob Hood numbers thrown in because Stacey was there. I was ready to leave more than an hour before Stacey started. But I decided to stick with it and have another drink. (more alchol seemed to help) 'Do NOT miss this rare NYC visit from the techno innovator on this very special night.' Said the flyer. As soon as Stacey took to the decks, I thought finally, amateur hour is over. Stacey started with a vocal sample of a guy talking about soul. Good sign eh? Well that was the last bit of soul I heard in the half hour before I gave up. Maybe it was that Stacey forget to restock his record bag with something new and ditch the pounding NYC house tracks circa 2000. Reguardless the New York University frat kids who showed up seemed to like it. Hope that gives you an indication of where the bar was set. I would have been mad if I'd parted with the $15 to get in, instead it was rather sad that there is still such a shortage of challenging and INNOVATIVE music in NYC. -dave
