DJ Carbon

For the Ferrigno Fresh viewpoint…

Midwest DJ Throwdown – Round 1

It’s been a crazy few days to say the least, but you prolly don’t want to hear all about that. What you do want to hear is about the first round of the Midwest DJ Throwdown. So how am I gonna do this? I’m going to give you my initial inputs based on what I heard last night, then I’mma go back and watch the Ustream and tell you what thoughts changed.

NjnTrbl – True to form, Marc said “I don’t care what you want” and bucked the system yet again, opening the night with a DnB set. It was fun, and on a personal note, a walk down memory lane of sorts.
Mark Marino – I was disappointed. Tracks were all mixed clean, but there was no apparent flow or planning. So it was clean, but just felt like he rolled up to the club and this is what he would play on any given night off the top of the head. I expected more (fair or not), especially considering his recent participation in the Redbull Thre3style
Edgar J – I didn’t know it at the time, but I got a little preview of a lot of the elements of this set on Wednesday night, when we did a 2×4 set at Rock Island Live. A good diss opening, calling out all of the DJs (especially likes the Parlay from Pirates of Caribbean, good call), but I don’t like a pre-put together diss that you just press play on. Mix the elements. Scratch them. The latter part of his set, by design, went way back. It was fun, but a bit too cheesy for me. There were some mixing flaws (apparently some monitor issues didn’t help) that were a bit rough at spots as well, but range of tunes overcame that. He also dropped some live mashups which were nice.
Famouz – JJ came out with exactly what was expected. Uptempo electo club steez. It was all mixed pretty much flawless, don’t recall any wrecks. I think it was waaay too monotonous for me. The tracks were mixed so there were no real buildups or breakdowns within the tracks, and no ebb and flow between them. It just felt like one big thumping tune, and that just isn’t my style. There was some variety later, but not enough in my opinion. But kudos on clean mixing. Also dug doing something different with the jumper box. It was something different, and proves he was putting thought to his set.
Parle – I dug Parle’s set. His mixes were clean as well, and he did show some thought as well. I dug the Marino disses for sure. Liked the doubling and snare scratching just to add activity. His BPM transitions felt clean and natural and he really worked his tunes well. The problem was there were no real “can’t believe he’s playing this” moments. I thought most of the tunes were pretty predictable for a party rock set, and didn’t get out of the box.

Overall – Njn was playing for himself, respected, but won’t win with that. Marino lacked flow and variety, but was pretty clean. Edgar had some mixing problems, but his variety made up for it in my opinion. Also, he was one of the few to drop some live mashups and blends. Famouz was clean, but there was nowhere near enough variety, in tracks and mixing style. Parle was nice, but predictable track selection. Also, with the no “premade mashup rule”, I heard 3 questionable tracks (ice cream pain job vs run DMC, Yeah vs Low, and Paris vs Gucci Gucci). Not sure if the judges did anything, but it’s possible. So walking out last night, I had no idea how the judges would call it (and so much of this resides on how judges feel), but I thought Edgar J would take it home.

-=Tunes in to UStream and rewatches is all=-

Njn – Yeah, he kinda went in. DnB will always have a soft spot for me, but i was def more tearout.
Marino – Scratch in LL, then go to Cat Daddy? Then transition up to Day N Night Crookers Remix. Then transition down to Welcome to Jamrock, which transitions back up, then to Mortal Kombat club break with Lil Jon. Just didn’t have a flow to me. It felt like the songs were mixed only because they had a matching BPM. That said, he did have some good track variety (I def dug The Seed, Bustin Loose), but without flow it just didn’t work for me.
Edgar J – More rough spots than I recalled. Old School variety to open, then uptempo club steez. And a good shifting back to downtempo, and then the old school. One of the only ones to do mashup steez and cut it up. Got cheesy, but I think that in hindsight that it stood out a whole lot because no one else went outside of the standard contemporary club set (hip hop or electro). He was really using an open format.
Famouz – More impressed going back and listening to it. I think the opening beat me up so much with the non-stop pounding beat that I just heard it throughout the rest of the set. My opinion went up after listening the second time, but I still think dropping 5-10 min of something that does not have any “techno” elements would have been a good look. Some straight hip hop, rock, funk? I think that would have gone a long way. That said, everyone will forever doubt anyone using a controller and a program that has the possibility of autosync. That’s just how it is. In a battle, those things don’t have a place. The only reason I don’t make the same statement in regards to Njn, is that Njn isn’t expecting a W, he’s just making a statement.
Parle – I think similar to JJ havin too much electro club steez, Parle may have had too much hip hop. Also, dug the Marino diss, but by only having the one, it doesn’t feel balanced. I also like the way he would just drop a track to transition BPMs. It was always clean, but so many DJs are afraid to not beat match 2 songs. I liked the drops, and the half time/double time at 130 BPM to add variety. Hey did get more uptempo clubby and mainstream in the mix that I didn’t initially recall, moreso than I remembered. And the Bump N Grind outro prolly had the mos audience connection of the whole night (doesn’t hurt that it’s end of the night and everyone is FADED, but it was a damned good look).

So in the end, I could have seen any of the last 3 taking it in all honesty, depending on the judges. My feeling last night was that Parle probably should have won based on mixing, but Edgar J had variety. I think I feel that way even moreso after listening to it back a second time. Egar was sloppier that I thought, and Parle had more variety than I originally thought (and JJ too for that matter). The fact that everyone else did not go that far from expectations (with track selection) probably helped Edgar J take the win. If more of the other DJs played more variety, his would not have stood out as much. Congrats to all the DJs that competed and threw down in week 1.

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Moombahton Invasion!!!

Wow. Final Friday is gonna get INSANE! I was originally planning on keeping it local for the next 2 months, only because I wanted to raise up some $ to try and bring in some more regional talent.

That changed pretty quickly when I got a message from the homie Brent Tactic. He was bringing Sazon Booya into KC and wanted to know if I was still goin with Final Friday Bass. For sure that was happening, and then he asked if I wanted to have Sazon Booya come down and play.

Too good of an opportunity to pass up, so plans were made, and the event is set. Final Friday Bass this month will be a Moombahton heavy edition with Sazon Booya, Brent Tactic, Marcobiotics, Powerlifter and myself. That’s one hell of a fucking lineup.

Sazon Booya
Man….Just watch some videos, and I don’t think I’ll need to say much more.

Also, some people have heard me play some heavy Moombahton steez, but the some of the lighter stuff that I play in the early goings of a Wednesday. Just to show you some other stuff, peep game

Adele – Set Fire to the Rain (Sazon Booya Remix) by Sazon Booya

Need I say more? You need to be out on Friday to peep the dancefloor wreckage that is going to happen.

Brent Tactic

I’ve known Brent for a minute, and appreciated his musical tastes for longer. Homie is on a whole different level from most music heads. His knowledge runs deep, and unlike some with so much goin on, he still retains pop sensibilities. Dude is a beast with such variety that I always walk away after being put up on something new.

Peep this money Moombahsoul mix that Brent recently put out….

Brent Tactic – CouchSessions.com Moombahsoul Mix by brent tactic

Powerlifter
I want to do a live version of this video on Friday. But with more stage diving.

Marcobiotics
Dude has been all over hustling and grinding with all kinds of bass mentality. Last saw him at “Lost In Bass” and the dude just killed it. Flipped so many genres so fluidly, all while puttin the subwoofers to work. Def needed him reppin at Final Friday Bass.

Marcobiotics Global Dub Festival KC 2011 (CD-friendly download link in description) by Marcobiotics

And I’ll start things off. What more could you want. Work off some of that Turkey and get down with it. It’s gonna get insanne

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Halloween is Fast Approaching…

So I thought I’d share a few tunes you should def be dropping. Firstly, Duck Sauce just released this video and it is EPIC! That word is abused, but this is appropriate. Just stupid fun and hysterical.

Up next, a couple dubstep tuens I’ll be working in on my Final Friday bass night.

First up is a great tranisition track made by Wick-it that goes from 100+ to dub. Will def go hard for a bass night, but for 99% of Halloween parties, I’ll stick with the OG.

Michael Jackson – Thriller (Wick-it Remix) by Wick-it the Instigator

Also, Figure has put out an ARSENAL of bass heavy horror themed tunes just in time for the season. My personal fave is Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetleju—errr…. Mebbe not.

Figure – Beetlejuice (Dubstep Mix) by Figure

Been trying to find some other items on the Moombahton tip, but haven’t had great success. Some tracks are good and haunting (and will get played), but I was hoping to find some that had just a slight amount of cheese, but no such luck so far.

Sadly, most Halloween remixes are a dime a dozen, and most that I have come across just are not worth playing at all. I prefer the slightly more obscure tunes, but I typically play those at any time of year (i.e. Goodbye Horses and Cry Little Sister). In any case, hope you all have a great Halloween and hope to see you on Final Friday Bass night at Rock Island Live and/or Caboose on Saturday, where the lovely wait staff will be body painted up.

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Let’s Get Crazy!

Well, the upcoming schedule is getting FRIGGIN CRAZY! Last week, we had the opening gala for the Tallgrass Film Festival and it was awesome. The asylum was incredible. If anyone out there has photos (or knows of any), please let me know, as I would love to see em.

Next up, I get to have a party with Scrub Club! Gonna be one hell of a show.

I’ve known Mad Hatter for YEARS, and he asked me to participate in this show. I’m mad humbled by the opportunity. Last time we did a show, he reminded me that I was the first person to ever hand him a mic. Needless to say, he’s come a long way. The guy always puts his all into his performances, and that is not easy. Much love and respect for what he’s doing, the shows he puts on, and his dedication to his craft (and scene).

After that, we’ve got Final Friday Bass up at Rock Island Live again. I’ve got two cats that are HUNGRY to bang it out! Nashtadon and Weapon Specialist.

The whole idea behind this Final Friday Bass night is to have an environment for those over the drinking age to get down. There’s been a whole lot of house themed nights and various genres, but with the huge response that I’ve gotten to all things bass related, I thought it was about time to dedicate a night to it. So last month it started to a HUGE response. Up next, we are gonna feature all kinds of talent in the region, and let the bass go BOOM! So Final Friday, we are going to get loose. Expect Dubstep, Drumstep, Moombahton, Glitch Hop, and all things in between. Basically, anything bass!

Then on Saturday, we’ve got a CRAZY Haloween party goin down at The Caboose. I’ll be rocking the turntables and the lovely Caboose ladies will be rocking some incredible body paint. Needless to say, it’s gonna be an INSANE night!

And then just around the corner, a straight up Jam Session at Rock Island Live. Really looking forward to this one. All kinds of potential for an incredible night of entertainment.

Then Thanksgiving weekend is going to be CRAZY with Wednesday Night Dance Party AND Final Friday Bass! Seriously?!?

Not to mention, in December, the Midwest DJ Throwdown begins! Man, rest up when you can, cuz there is gonna be some crazy fun times before 2011 is over!

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ICT Hip Hop!

Just need to show some love to the boys that continue to do it up and I def got a lot of love for. Fam first. Buckhead artist Manish Law has been keepin busy. He’s back on his vlog shit (if you need to get familiar, cop the mixtape I did with him for all the original vlogs). The new one is lookin dope, and production value has been seriosuly stepped up. Peaceful did some nice work. Also, you can peep out Manish’s new site www.itsthalaw.com, great work done by The Web Design Hub.

Next up…wow. The latest from Mr .Com. Heard the track at first, and I’m still not sure where it fits, but I know I like it. Not a club joint, but def beyond a mixtape joint. And then I saw the video by Josh Hernandez and he just DESTROYED it (as he has pretty much everything else I’ve seen). I strongly suggest you search for “Imprimis Media” on facebook and click on that “Like” button. Video took the song to a whole new level.

Josh also did the video for Chris Barnett, which I should have posted a while ago. He did phenomenal work on Yao Ming, and the subsequent follow up, Flaws. The tracks are ill, and Josh’s vision just takes each of the tunes to a whole new level.

There are plenty of other guys grinding, and I wish em all the best of luck, but I wanted to put a little spotlight on some locals that have been killing it IMO.

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Dubstep Invaded the Dub K!

Holy shit!

I could just leave it at that and that would be perfectly acceptable. For real, that kinda sums it all up. If you were there, you know, if you weren’t, I suppose I should fill you in.

Firstly, let me give a little background to the night.

The awesome people at Rock Island Live have allowed me to rock out there every Wednesday for over a year now, and we have had great success. They even let me get down some Final Fridays, but nothing was quite taking off as I was hoping. I have been getting huge amounts of dubstep requests on Wednesday’s, and the response has been really phenomenal. So, I figured we should try to take to a whole night.

So, in putting on a night and bringing in people to play, I put on my promoter hat (hadn’t worn that in a looooong time) and tried to figure it out.

So who to have come through? It really wasn’t that hard to figure out the list.

#1 – J Skratch. Team Ferrigno member and all around awesome dude. He’s combined with me for a number of 2×4 sets on Wed nights, and when we’ve gone in on some dub goodness, it’s always been to great results. Good to go.

#2 – Craveone. Craveone (along with his lovely wife Gaia) has been putting in WORK as far as making dubstep available to the public in Wichita for YEARS! Their monthly, Horizonz at Lizard Lounge (which is coming back in November after a short hiatus), has been a fixture on the EDM scene since 2007, and Dubstep has been the most common thread there with Craveone, Gaia, and a ton of special guests dropping bass gems month after month. So for being that pioneer of dubstep in the ICT, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that he needed to be a part of it. Not to mention we got crazy history as we started Jungle Recon records in 2003, after having the Jungle Recon crew started in 2000ish? And I MC’d with crave since…man…Let’s just say it’s been a loooong time.

#3 – Right as I was talkin about putting this together, another person who’s contributed a LOT to the EDM scene, is the one and only NJN Trbl. Marc hit me up that he’d been looking for a place to drop a 2-step / garage set that he’d been working on. Not dub, but this night was gonna be dub filled, so a little something smother, but still bass, to open up I thought would be a great look. That being said, Marc has been huge in creating an audience for EDM in the downtown area. My man has been GRINDING! His events have been in damn near every venue available downtown, and he’s kept pushing.

#4 – Well, Evil Bastards. ‘Nuff said right? I mean, these guys are EVERYWHERE and just blowing up. I had met Tim a ways back and —-[[[ Insert Zack Morris TIMEOUT ]]]—-

OK….so, i was looking for my old post where i put up video from Horizonz where I met Tim, and realized I already did a whole post about who I brought and why….so….wow….I just wasted a SHITLOAD of time typing all this. Oh well…..

So….How did the night go? It was freakin incredible. Great turnout. Great vibe. Great tunes. Great people. From my perspective it felt like a jam session. We were all just throwing down, having fun, it just so happened that we had an audience that was rockin the eff out with us.

Njn opened up and took me WAY back in time with his set. I couldn’t record it cuz he used my rig and I had to shutdown my laptop while he was playing. Didn’t think about that when we were setting up. He was groovin, and def got the mood set right.

After that, it was a J Skratch/Craveone/DJ Carbon session. I’m mad that I didn’t get J’s opening recorded (i was rebooting my machine as he started out), as he KILLED it. Rockin doubles and just cutting it the eff up. We all got loose. And I need to apologize for some of the mixing. Something was wrong with my left deck and it kept glitching up (you will hear some screwups if you listed to the mix). Need to get my decks serviced or something, as I think it’s a faulty connection. In any case….

So we had fun going in every direction and getting loose. The thought in my mind, which for the most part held true was I would be melodic, J would be funky, and Crave would tear out. It was kinda like that, but we all kinda went everywhere (crave took it to Drumstep and some Glitch, and I even got some Moombahton in). I dug it. And I think the crowd did too.

Next up, Evil Bastards. Wow! That was awesomely fun. I was messing around and dropped some acapellas during their set, which was super fun and they were just killing it. So fresh. They really just destroyed it man. I’m glad we were outside, cuz if inside, we woulda torn the roof outta that fuggin place.

Speaking of being outside, it worked out really great because we had Keepers of the Flame in the alley with some great visual entertainment. Fire staffs/palms/poi/hoops/breathing and just all kinds of dopeness.

After that, it went back to the previously mentioned trio to wrap up the night. Man. There was lots of drinking, partying and shenanigans for sure. Great vibe. Sadly, the set recording does NO justice to the night, but the public asked for it, and all the DJs said it was cool to put it out. So you can thank them all for putting down such a great night and allowing you to relive it some.

It is uploaded in 1 hour segments for easy consumption. You can stream it or download it from my mixcrate site.

www.mixcrate.com/djcarbon

Based on the response, I’m guessing we will have another bass filled night in the near future. Thanks to all those who were a part of it.

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Fingers….

I normally don’t post a random video up on here, but I’ve watched this every day (several times per day) since I first saw it. Friggin incredible.



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Dubstep Invades The Dub K

So….I suppose it’s time for me to try and throw a diff kind of party. Been a loooong time since I’ve thrown my hat into the “promoter” arena (I mean, I promote my own gigs, but as far as booking others and all that), but I think it’s about that time. Final Fridays at Rock Island Live are gonna get pretty crazy. First up, we have “Dubstep In The Dub K” (FB event)(above flyer courtesy of Kevin Wildt.

Dubstep has been getting ridiculously popular. I was kinda over it for a bit, but the demand for it has been insane as of late. And the response to on Wednesday nights is huge, I get constant demands for more. It has even crossed over to largely mainstream venues as well. I’ve gotten requests for it at all kinds of other mainstream venues, and other heads in town are getting more of the same (sidenote story: J Skratch was spinnin for the ICT Roller Derby event and a cute little 12 yr old girl comes up, “Can I make a request?” “Sure I get plenty of Beiber, what do you wanna hear” “Do you have any Skrillex?” “What?!?”. 12 year old, speaking slower – “Do – you – have – any – Skrillex?”). So I thought what better time and venue to throw an event dedicated to it. I know others have been puttin in a lot of work in the scene in this town, and much respect to their efforts. I think it’s pretty crazy/dope to have a spot in Old Town on a Friday doin it like this. Thanks to Rock Island Live for letting us have the night.

So, who to invite?!? The first answer was easy. Crave One! Crave has been putting in WORK! I would prolly say he’s the first head around here to really get into it. And not only that, but he brought a shitload of attention. Him and his wife, Gaia, had dubstep regularly featured at Horizonz, their monthly that ran for several years at the Lizard Lounge (side note – it’s coming BACK in Nov!). They brought in well reputed names in the scene, and are probably responsible for introducing a shit ton of people in the ICT to Dubstep as early adopters. Not to mention, me and crave are homies from way back when we started Jungle Recon oh so many years ago. But that’s a story for another time.

Who else, you know it’s gotta be the homie J Skratch. I take great pride in the fact that I rep Team Ferrigno, all the more so, that J reps it just the same. It’s a crew unlike any other. J regularly gets down on Wed nights (I’m sure you all already know that), and we have gotten down on some 2×4 sets of dub with really crowd pleasing results.

So who else in town do I know puts it down proper. EVIL BASTARDS!!! These guys have been blowing up to an INSANE level in a fairly short amount of time. Doing big shows (i’m not gonna give you the whole bio) all over the damned place, and highly regarded from the 2 DJs I mentioned above. Good people and one hell of a production team, i’m really lookin foward to it. This is a disclaimer now, when these guys get on, be prepared for some tear out steez.

And last, but certainly not least, NJN TRUBL. One of the main reasons EDM has a presence in Old Town at all, and his efforts have brought awareness to a whole lot of heads. He hit me up with a 2 step set, and I thought it’d be money to work in, as the night is all about the bass. So there you have…

Also, this is a Dubstep night, but we will have a few ventures into other genres from time to time, but in the end, it’s all about the BASS.

So you for sure should come out. I promise, there is gonna be all kinds of shit goin down. At this point, we will have 3 DJ rigs setup on stage, and who knows what kind of impromptu sessions might break out (see last time we were all out at Horizonz, an all out skratch session broke out with me, J Skratch, Crave One, and Cutter J)

And lastly, last month, I opened up with 45 min of some Dubstep steez, just to get me thinking about it. Lots of melodic steez with a dope vibe. It’s def not the best, as this was also me trying out some tunes I’d never played before, but in the end, it’s a good vibe and an enjoyable listed, so I thought I’d put it out for you all. Sadly, couldn’t stream it on soundcloud because of copyright, but here it is for free download.

DJ Carbon – Live At Rock Island Live – Dubstep Opening

EDIT – Signed up for Mixcloud, so yo can stream if you like here

Enjoy the tunes, come to the show.

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Kevin Wildt

So, I owe a huge THANK YOU to Kevin. He once asked if any bands needed flyers, and I responded that I would love a Wed night flyer. He obliged. A month later, with no asking, he sends me this awesome new flyer, and after hearing about the “Dubstep In The Dub K” event, he sent a flyer for that.

I went to his “Hemmorage” show and was impressed (to put it mildly). Guy has a talent in all kinds of visual mediums, and I highly recommend you check him out. From these flyers, to incredible photography, to insane video (I’m sure most of you reading this have seen Powerlifter’s first video, “Buffalo“).

EDIT- Had to add in a link to this video from his Hemmorage show. I loved this.



Check out his site (and store) and enjoy the show. www.kevinwildt.com

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311 Concert & Rock Island Live Afterparty – 2011.07.06

Wow. What an awesome night this turned out to be. Allow me to give you the behind the scenes rundown (at least what I know).

So I leave the day job a little early only to be informed that they were about an hour behind on stage setup, and everything has been pushed back. I wander around and the security guys were super helpful and I haul all my stuff down (after debating to setup in the heat) to the Block Party stage (1st and Topeka, in front of the Orpheum). The last thing I wanted to do was be the cause for any delays, so I setup and was all good to go. As time progressed, there was finally some sound checking going on. I knew it was getting late (7pm, which is when the doors were supposed to open) and 311 was on stage sound checking. There was also an opening performance by Riverside 65 and XV. So, I pretty much assumed I was going to get bumped. Disappointing, but I know how these things go. So at 8, they are finally getting ready to open the gates and the lead stage manager asks me if I can move my rig on stage (I was setup ground level, stage left, assuming I would just play in down time). “Sure, no problem”. So we move me on stage at 8 and they tell me to start playing as people start pouring in. As I’m playing my first track, I’m looking around dumbfounded as there is NO sound on the stage. I can’t hear a thing. I’m not about to wander off and ask questions, as I think I only have a few minutes, so I just make due (I later find out that 311 uses in ear monitors, hence the lack of stage sound). At this point, I have no idea how long i’m playing at all, but hell, I’mma play every song like it’s my last, assuming I’m only going to get a few minutes.

So I am tearing through tracks left and right, and finally after playing for about 45 minutes, the stage manager tells me to wrap it up at 9:00 (about 6 minutes left). That’s the first time I actually breathe and try to figure it some kind of way to wrap it up. The entire set was done off the cuff (I did use my “countdown” set in there, which was preplanned), with no planning other than throwing a bunch of tracks into a folder named “311″ that I thought would be appropriate. In the end, I ran through 80+ songs in just over 53 minutes. WOW!

It was pretty incredible and I got a great response. I think at first some people really didn’t know what to think of a DJ being on stage. I wish I had my mic (got disconnected when I moved onto stage) so I could talk to the crowd some, but it was great. Some people dancing, plenty singing along, and at the end, a really humbling and overwhelming round of applause. I took my phone out to take a picture of the crowd (from what I later found out, it was 2,200+ at the peak of the night), and snap — >ERROR – SD CARD FULL< FML.... It was a great night.

DJ Carbon – 311 Opening 20110706 by CarbonDJ

And mediafire link for when I remove it from Soundcloud…
311 Opening Set

I later found out (had already figured) that XV and Riverside 65 were bumped. I was pretty bummed about this because, for all that I enjoy what I do, these are the guys that deserve lots of shine and love in the ICT music scene. From what I understand, because of the running late, it was easier to put me on stage than a full band (which would have setup, sound check, and breakdown time). So they threw me on there, knowing I could go right ahead and be out of the way really quick. I’ll get into this more in a minute, but everyone should seriously check out XV and Riverside 65. Great stuff.

So right after I was done, there was a drumline performance. I was completely unaware of this before the night, but here’s some footage I found.



And then the 311 show went on. Here’s a great little vid I found online (you can see me at around the :35 second mark)



Sadly, I couldn’t stick around, as I had to get to my standard Wednesday night festivities over at Rock Island Live. The initial plan was XV would do a DJ set with me, but due to the problems, they decided to take their full 311 stage show to Rock Island Live. Thankfully, Matt came through to cover soundguy responsibilities, and I started the show just after 10. I set off the night with lots of OG sample sources, did a couple sample flips, a few mashups, and then tried to get the energy up some. A bit of chaos as the stage was crowded and sound checking for the band. Around 11+ the 311 concert let out and we started to get pretty hectic. I faded out at Riverside 65 took over. Here’s the link to my opening set.

DJ Carbon – Opening Set from 311 Afterparty at Rock Island Live

Riverside 65 -> Great instrumental band with lots of funk in their style. I really dug them (awesome to see Jace in the band, who I went to HS with when I first moved here. Hadn’t seen him in over 10 years). I know I’ve seen them on events quite a bit (a few with the homie Cutter J) but never been able to make it out due to conflicts. I HIGHLY recommend checking them out.

Then XV joined them, and they got LOOSE! I was a fan of XV already, but really took it up a notch with his live performance. I’d seen video snippets of him online from various shows and tours, so I kinda expected a great show. I am happy to say, he didn’t disappoint. Great energy, great vibe, and incredible presence on the stage. It made me that much more disappointed that he couldn’t perform at the 311 show, because I have no doubt he could have converted some 311 fans into Squarians. That said, in a completely selfish thought, I was humbled and honored to share a show with him at Rock Island Live, and geeked to be able to see the full 311 set with band. He killed it, and deserves a lot of love and support from his hometown. That said, there was an awesome display of fan support happening. Rock Island Live is a 21+ venue and many underage XV fans went to the 311 show just for him. They couldn’t come in, but that didn’t prevent them from having a tailgating session right outside the fence in the alley and mounting on top of vehicles and doing whatever they could to enjoy the show from just outside the doors (glad we were setup outside!).

I had no idea what to do to follow up such a great stage show, but I managed to get goin. It’s weird doing that on a Wednesday. At a normal mainstream club, it’s real easy to dive in at midnight and play the “bangers” and get some flair in there, but Wednesday nights are anything but a normal club. It made me realize how much I enjoy building a Wednesday night over a couple of hours with an ebb and flow. Also, there are lots of volume drop outs cuz we were having a drunken singalong for a good portion of the night, and that really doesn’t translate to the recording, but hell, i’mma put it out there for ya. Man, just listening to this, I completely forgot Manish got in the scene too with some Sing Along Song. Man, I was a bit everywhere that night, and it was pretty damned fun. In just over an hour I went from classic hip hop, club banger classics, rock steez, live perf, local 8 bit party music (I wonder what that could be? hmmm….), dubstep, 90s alt rock stuff, Drum N Bass, then….well hell. Nevermind. You get the point. Very random. Very eclectic. Listening to it now, it just sounds like such a complete mess, but I know it went really well that night. And it brings a smile to my face. Enjoy!

DJ Carbon – Closing Set from 311 Afterparty at Rock Island Live

Also, thanks to everyone for the support. This past year or so has been the most incredible time, and I owe it all to those of you who have been super supportive and always trying to share the good word. So if you are a fan, and are on facebook, please give this page a like.

www.facebook.com/carbondj

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