It used to be that the disc jockey’s biggest enemy was a club with no dedicated sound system. Not unlike a wedding DJ carting in a carload of speakers, monitors, mixers and turntables, a freelance club DJ from a decade ago would need to set up a whole rig to do a gig, adding hours of work to a four-hour spin. In time, though, most clubs worth their salt simply invested in the needed gear, making life a lot easier and more portable for the lonely DJ, who now needed to pack only a crate full of records or CDs.
But the traveling yeoman DJ faces a new enemy in some parts of town: the computer.
Able to process and store thousands of cuts of music in a relatively minimal amount of time, even a modestly priced laptop can now take the place of a DJ, especially when programmed by someone with a canny set of ears.
That’s the case at the Alternative Music Pub, a cozy room at the corner of Boyle and Manchester avenues in an area of Midtown known as Forest Park Southeast but rebranding itself as The Grove. New clubs, like Atomic Cowboy and the Kentucky Club, are set to debut this year, lessening the sting of losses like The Mangrove and JaBoni’s. Finding its own niche, though, AMP hasn’t been as defined by the neighborhood as other rooms on this emerging strip of Manchester. And as the club’s name would suggest, music’s at the core of what they do.
Playing sets for a primarily gay-and-lesbian clientele, owners Neil Harris and Rusty Woody build their nights of music around a couple different themes, with retro a mainstay.
From 4 to 9 p.m., the nightly happy hour is given over to the kind of new wave that’ll bring a smile to those in their 30s, with cuts from Morrissey, Talk Talk, Culture Club and A-Ha in regular rotation.
On Mondays Harris and Woody program modern rock like The Killers, Green Day and new Garbage. Thursday nights are retro, and the owners play various compilation DVDs of modern rock “classics,” with an emphasis on the music of the late ’80s and early ’90s, so expect a good dose of The Cure, New Order, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Lush, Dinosaur Jr., Ministry and other Brit and American acts of that era. On Wednesdays, the sound system kicks out only female artists, and you’re probably going to hear the likes of Miss Kittin, Peaches and Bjork. Make your gender-specific
requests accordingly.
Tuesdays are a bit of free-form, as are Fridays, though a somewhat heavier edge is in play on that evening. On Saturdays, meanwhile, the club edges into the electronica vein, though they don’t highlight the disco-divas that are playing on PA systems down the block. Instead, it’s more of a progressive mix of Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Moby, Orbital, Dirty Vegas and acts of that ilk.
With 3,000 hand-picked songs at their disposal, Harris and Woody do a nice job of mixing and matching, keeping the sets both thematic and flexible, no easy feat. Over the course of an hour or two, you might be treated to anything from Jimmy Eat World to Suede to The The. That the two are programming the evening between mixing drinks and entertaining the regulars only gives their skills an extra thumbs up.
Quick hits
Speaking of quality DJs about town, Lori Layne, a yesteryear spinner at the late, lamented Tangerine, has begun to work at The Royale, gadfly Steve Smith’s latest venture, at the corner of Arsenal Street and Kingshighway Boulevard. A recent set included The Only Ones’ signature track, “Another Girl, Another Planet,” which showed that the layoff didn’t affect Layne’s superb taste in obscure pop cuts one bit.
Josh Kohn has been playing with the group Red Eyed Driver lately, adding a touch of muscle to the group’s pure pop sound. Playing the unlikely location of a South City parish picnic recently, the band had an assurance and edge that was clearly chalked up to the arrival of Kohn, a veteran player who neatly complemented the honey-dappled vocals of guitarist Bryan Hoskins and keyboardist Andy Patania. Rounded out by the sharp rhythm section of drummer Jill Aboussie and bassist Todd Dorsey, the group’s clearly got more punch with Kohn on board. Here’s hoping the new lineup stays together for a bit.
Eric Hall‘s three-week, multi-act performance piece at Dunaway Books, “Ancora il Più Estinto II,” was a real treat in May, with musicians and noisemakers tucked away in all corners of the two-leveled bookseller. Translated from the Italian as “staying as soft as possible,” the event’s intrigue came from the core idea that depending where you were in the store, the performance would be a completely different experience, with various players countering the sounds spilling over/around the neighboring stacks.
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2005.
