While chugging along quite well, February isn't the absolute perfect month that I imagined. Which is fine by me. I think when everything is going perfectly, you don't take the time to savor how good things are. Slight disappointments (the Bears losing the Superbowl, Duke losing to UNC, the freakin snow, etc) make things that go really well seem even better. It's like having the bad point the way to the good, without the bad being truly awful and overshadowing everything. This past weekend was my birthday and that phenomenon sums up the whole experience.

I spent Friday and Saturday (and a little bit of Sunday) with two dirtybirds, Tanner and Jess (that's us in the pic above, a tech house trio in Chicago). Finally getting to meet Tanner in person was great. It's weird how in the information age you can become good friends with someone without meeting them face to face. Anyway, Friday night we had some freakin great sushi and then headed over to Smartbar to see Switch!

Mr. Dave Taylor (aka Switch, aka Solid Groove, aka Induceve, aka dubsided frontman, aka that's him in the picture working his Abelton controller) was just about everything I hoped he'd be. The slight imperfection at Smartbar came from the opener, Lee Foss. He opened with an uninspiring and truly unfocused set (where the hell did that Littlemen track come from and why did he play it on a night that should have been all tech house?), but as soon as Dave Taylor took the decks, everyone in a PACKED Smartbar was ready to go. The sound, of course, was breathtaking and the tunes (especially the new ones he unveiled, including Switch remixes of The Whistler, Golden Skans and something with a Decepticon noise) were obviously mindblowing.

But two other things got me about his set. The first was how much fun he was having playing his music. You'd think if you're recording tunes with the Neptunes and M.I.A., if you've remixed P Diddy, Faithless, Robbie Williams and Fatboy Slim, if you make basically the hottest fucking house music on the planet right now, you could be complacent, stand behind the decks, smoke a cig, and look bored. But not Dave Taylor. He got up there and was pumping his fists, singing along on breakdowns, jumping up and down (and almost falling over from being so un-sober). It was fantastic.

The other part that wowed me was the crowd reaction. I have never seen a crowd anticipate every new song that was about to come in. Hell, sometimes it felt like they were waiting for every weird noise or breakdown (especially with his Futureheads remix where I could hear people singing along to every chopped up word). I don't know if it is the Switch sound, or his songwriting, or his performance ability, but never ever have I seen someone hold a crowd like he did (except for maybe Fatboy Slim back in 2000... yes, Fatboy Slim). Truly awesome and one of the best sets I have ever seen in my seven years of clubbing at Smarbar.



Saturday I went with Matt, Jess and Tanner to go get some deep dish pizza. Tanner was doing a sort of culinary tour of Chicago. In a bizarre way I'm proud that the two foods he wanted were deep dish pizza and hotdogs. Ha! Jess was playing Smartbar that night and after hearing her set (which was exactly the kind of set that should have been played before Switch), I left with Mike and Meske and other Jess (Mike's girlfriend) to do some drinking... that ended with me passing out way before everyone else (as pictured above... awesome). Passing out early sucked, but what can you do?


Sunday, I went to go see Barack Obama speak at the UIC pavillion. That's what it looked like up from our balcony seats. The slight imperfection here was a group of hecklers that were chanting for an immediate end of funding for the war in Iraq. It threw Obama off his game just enough that there were no goosebump moments after that (he was making an amazing speech about health care at the time, and usually health care stump speeches bore the hell out of me). It was frustrating because of all the people to heckle over the war, Obama seemed like the worst target. Yes, I understand that these hecklers were specifically protesting for an immediate ending of funding, something Obama is opposed to. But what other candidate has been so anti-war from the beginning, has proposed a definite time to withdraw the troops, AND has an actual chance to win? Sorry Kucinich fans, Obama is the only one that fits that bill.

Anyhow, Obama still was quite moving to see (despite the heckles, and despite the awful music choices before and after speeches). I filled out a card to volunteer for his campaign, so we'll see where that leads. He's also got a pretty cool online community called My.BarackObama.com. I'm going to create an account and see what exactly is going on there, but it seems like the natural way to organize young people (who I would say made up about a third to a half of his audience in Chicago on Sunday).

All in all, this was a fantastic birthday weekend and if anyone involved with it is reading it (including Barack Obama), thanks for the memories.

I'll Play it Damn It

Neither Switch nor J Phlip played this tune this weekend, although they both had ample opportunity (shame on you both!). The original Black Joy track isn't too different than this Solid Groove remix, but Dave Taylor seems to give it a little bit of a helpful push to make it more of a early night thumper, as opposed to the slow, Moodymann-ish burner that the original was. You can find the Solid Groove remix, along with a Stefan Goldmann remix, at the world's best record store, Juno or on Freerange's site. I'm sure this will get plenty of plays from me in the next few weeks and maybe even into the summer... feels like a late night summer tune.

Black Joy - Untitled (Solid Groove Remix)