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The DJ is God

Club 550 and Saturday night Stompy

Other Club Reviews

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Club 550 was my nighttime home this past weekend. Friday night I went to this club for my first time – I’d heard of this club before, from friends as well as other websites, etc. My guess is that this out-in-the-middle-of-Bayview-industrial-warehouseville is relatively new -- being the feisty and committed entertainment reporter that I am, I didn’t find out. But here’s a few things I did find:

Future Primitive Soundsession (2/26/99):

I wish I could pretend how very damn hip I am by rattling off all the previous Future Primitive Soundsessions (FPS) I have attended, or all the FPS CDs I own. However, I have never been to one and I only own one CD, the awesome live recording of Session 4 with Shortkut (of local gods, Invisibl Skratch Piklz) and Cut Chemist. If you don’t have that yet, go forth and get it). As it is, I’ve had the intense desire to check out some FPS nights (sometimes they happen at Justice League, sometimes at the revamped Storyville club) for about a year – hope that helps my hipness cred, b-girls and b-boys -- things just always got in the way. I tend to spread myself thin among too many things – that’s why I’m pseudo-hip, not authentic-hip.

OK, enough excuses. Friday night, it was my friend, Indie Girl’s birthday – we met my friend, TripHop, at a designated spot and headed on down to a very special $15 Future Primitive Soundsession titled "the 45 session" at Club 550. No fewer than eight DJs played, in the following pairs: Cool Chris and Romanowski; Peanut Butter Wolf and Rasta Q-Tip; Z-Trip and Nu-Mark; and DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist (yes!!!).

Seeing DJ Shadow’s name elated me, as I’d missed his show the previous weekend at Justice League with Blacklicious. By the time we got there around midnight, there stood a healthy, but not intimidating line in front of the club. About twenty to thirty minutes later, we entered a well-crowded space. After being charged $5 for a gin and tonic, we headed onto the main dancefloor. The DJ was set up on the right and there was an extremely ugly go-go cage made of thick gray metal tubes, on either side of the huge doorframe.

The place was packed but not to the point of not being able to breathe. The crowd, a great mix of hip hop fans, b-boys and b-girls, as well as adorable rave kids, was already having fun. I have no idea, which DJ was playing when we came in, maybe it was Rasta Q-Tip. But shortly thereafter, the stars of the show emerged, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, and got down to work. They gave us a nice big phat salad of samples varying from Star Wars dialogue to some obscure McDonald’s ad ditty to an old skool Beastie track. My one complaint is that the club should raise the DJ platform/stage above the audience, so that the audience gets to see these jazzlike virtuosists perform their lightning-speed, octopus-like improvisational magic, and see who is doing what at which time. The New Year’s Eve Mix Master Mike (also of Invisibl Skratch Piklz) show at the Transmission Theater was not only an ear wonder, but an eye opener, as it presented the DJ on a high enough stage that everyone could marvel at him in his Bionic-Man speed. However, the Future Primitive Soundsession crowd beat that lame bridge-and-tunnel, singles-cruising New Year’s crowd hands down.

The Skratch Piklz have made the Bay Area the center for hiphop scratching and beat juggling experimentation – you will never think of scratching the same way again after you hear these guys. For instance, the Skratch Piklz are so damned good, they have been practically banned from major DJ competitions. Out-of-town DJs like Cut Chemist and Radar make frequent treks here to support the scene. Go forth and support these geniuses, if you’re at all into seeing DJ history being made. As we left the show, TripHop expressed it well: "I’m going to be grinning for a very long time."

Stompy – at night! (2/27/99):

I believed that Stompy parties only took place during the day on three-day weekends, and from the look of the crowd last Saturday, I guess, I was not the only person to be mistaken so. Later on, I hooked up with a super sweet rave Jake, who told me that apparently they have nighttime Stompys on the last Friday of every month.

HypEr Girl and I went there at the unfashionably early hour of midnight – the party was supposed to start at 10 pm -- and there was not a soul waiting in line out front. With trepidation in our hearts, we walked in to find the left part of Club 550 closed off and the main dancefloor (reasonably packed just 24 hours earlier) horrifyingly empty. The place was so desolate that the bartender practically jumped to sell us bottled water and even offered us a big toothy smile. What a different story it was from the New Year’s Day Stompy at VSF. Six hours after it started, I descended into the writhing mass of VSF’s main dancefloor, where upon my glasses immediately fogged up.

We decided to wait for Club 550 to fill up, and hung out upstairs at the serviceable banquettes, lining the wall. It took almost two more hours, before the club did not look quite so embarassingly stark. In true Stompy style, the quality of the crowd remained high, but lacked quantity. Not ENOUGH people came to Club 550 Saturday night!!! That fantastic humming energy level was missing in action, and the DJ was clearly visible throughout the night. Well, it was nice to have room to cut the rug.

The Stompy flyer listed "special guest DJ DIZ (Silver Network/Guidance), plus Stompy Hi-Fi Players Preston, Jon, Tasho." I have no idea who played when, but the last two DJs were both amazing. The first one was a very young-looking boy (or it could’ve been a girl – other people in the crowd couldn’t decide either), wearing khakis and a military-type beret. The last DJ was black and thirty-something. Both exuded self-confident style. In true entertainment-reporter form, I tried asking a couple club employees who they were, but they professed ignorance. I gave up trying to do research, and focused on having a good time instead. Both DJs played edgy, hip house, a little different from the deep and smooth-as-butter house at New Year’s Stompy. HypEr Girl and I made some new friends and hope to see them at the next party, be it Stompy or Come-Unity or whatever (thanks again, Jake!). Moreover, at 5:30 am it was a refreshing change to return to a car parked just across the street.

True believers! You know who you are! Get your booty-shaking souls out to the next Stompy and help raise the energy level! Note to Club 550 – please remove those cheesy go-go cages.

Club 550, 550 Barneveld, San Francisco

Upcoming attractions:

Grooverider, Brit drum and bass pioneer and frequent cohort of Goldie, spins at Nikita March 12.

Roni Size, drum and bass god, opens for legendary rapper, KRS-One at Maritime Hall March 21. I’d be there, except for the ultra-steep $25 ticket price.

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