Everybody Have Fun Tonight...Everybody Fung Wah Tonight

Heading down to New York City yet again, this time to play with Claude Von Stroke (aka Barclay Crenshaw), one of the hottest producers in the world of EDM at the moment at Sullivan Room in the Village.

From the moment this gig was confirmed, it had a weird aurora around it and I wasn’t quite sure how it would all turn out. In the end, it was fine…but fine and my gigs in NYC are not usually terms that go together. I usually have a horrible gig….or one that is completely fantastic. This time, the gig was “fine.”

Instead of flying (which has become quite a pain in the ass lately) or driving down with Cooch (my regular partner in crime), I ended up taking the bus from Boston. My buddy Mark Cox and I contemplated the Chinatown express (Fung Wah), but since they just recently had a bus with 40+ people on it FLIP OVER…we were thinking the extra $10 dollars for Greyhound made sense. We got to South Station for 1 pm. and boarded the coach for a 4.5 hour trek.

The ride down was very uneventful, quick even, until we got to NYC and hit a wall of traffic on 95 in the Bronx. We jumped off and tried to cut across the island, rolling through Harlem and the Upper East Side. Took us ONE HOUR to get from 112th street to 40th street. Got off, got our bags and headed to our hotel down in the Wall Street section of Manhattan.

The Holiday Inn Wall Street is more of a business hotel, but the amenities were great, the room was pretty big (by NYC standards) and they had an ironing board, computer with high speed access, mini bar, safe etc all in the room. For $150 dollars (Priceline) this was a great deal. We basically dropped out stuff and started walking up town.

We walked through Chinatown, crossing the ever colorful Canal Street. We walked up through Tribecca, and stopped at the Tribecca Café for a few beers and a bite to eat. After that we proceeded to walk to Greenwich Village, and hit two more bars. Every place was crowded and the weather was very warm for late September.

At 10 p.m. and more than 4 miles of walking later, we hailed a cab back to the hotel. The cab was a mini-van and so it was harder to see the driver, but he was breaking hard in the middle of intersection after intersection, and not really taking us where we wanted to go. As Mark leaned into the front to ask what he was up to, we realized that he was actually falling asleep at the wheel, waking up, and then dozing off again. Needless to say we got out (in the middle of nowhere on the East Side) and didn’t pay the fare. We then walked another mile (with a 12 pack of beer in tow) till we found another cab to take us back.

We left the hotel around 12:30 and headed to Sullivan Room to meet up with my friends Amos and Angel. Lisa was sick, Scotty B didn’t call back, Rich and Brianna couldn’t come out as he had to work at 8 a.m. on Sunday. Ryan didn’t call back, Jim T was going to Carl Cox vs. Danny Tenaglia at Pacha, and most of my other friends were not around. This was a bad sign, and I knew it would still be a fun night…but not like most nights when I visit NYC – when I am surrounded by great friends. Oh well, the show must go on.

Elon and Jen run the night where I was playing at Sullivan Room, and are great hosts. They welcomed me warmly and hit me up with some drink tickets. I heard Elon play for a bit and then Claude Vonstroke got on the decks.

One thing I can say about Claude is that (like a good politician), he is always “on message” with his music. What that means to me is he has a sound, and he sticks to that sound…never swaying far from what he is known for. That can be good and bad, but you can be sure that he will never disappoint the people that come expecting to hear music like the tracks he produces. The first hour was really great, with a ton of energy and one booming, electrified bassline after another…but honestly, after 60 minutes of it, I really wanted to hear something else.

I have played at Sullivan Room 6 times at least, and have never had trouble getting people into my sets. This time, was much more difficult. I got on at 4 a.m. and about 5 minutes later they shut the liquor….and lost about 50% of the already thin crowd. 45 minutes later, I was playing for less than 10 people, and they started bringing the lights up. While I love coming to NYC under any circumstances, it is too far to travel to play for 45 minutes and no crowd.

We left and headed back to the hotel to relax and get some sleep. Didn’t hit the pillow until around 7 am and slept till 12. We changed, packed and got up to the Port Authority in time to catch the 2 p.m. bus to Boston. Got back to South Station and 6:30 and got home to my apartment by 7. Another LONG 36 hours.

As usual, NYC is a great place and I really love hanging out and playing there. Hope next time, Serg is in town, more of my friends make it out, and I am able to play a prime time set. Until then…