Bad Boy Bill @ Crobar Review

October 15, 2004 1:28 AM
by

For a club rumored not to be bringing any acts, Crobar has showcased a dynamic mix of DJ’s with alternating styles. Saturday Oct. 09, House music's Bad Boy Bill hit decks in company of NYC’s DJ Boris.

Since the early days of House music BBB has been spinning in Miami, having won the HOT105 DJ competition in 1987 (back when HOT105 was a dance music station). Going way back, I hoped Miami would reciprocate the love, giving BBB support for this event.

At the door, Shelley Novak once again was hard at work making sure the balance of the crowd was perfect (Not too clubby with a touch of beautiful), Called a b**** by many but really a nice gal.

Crobar's quintessentially clubby look makes for a refreshing surprise every time, showcasing all kinds of dance of music that “fit” the club. We are very fortunate to have varied selection in our little corner of the U.S. however Chicago House is almost always a bit of a mission to find.

Bad Boy Bill, in turn, was bombarding Crobar with Chicago influenced house that had a packed floor jumping. The inexplicable feeling that we often call “good vibe” wax inevitably felt the moment we stepped in.

I didn’t see the normal faces of the night but the place was packed nonetheless. Bad Boy Bill’s turntables were set up behind those of Crobars’ and he was displaying a true turntable wizardry switching vinyl smoothly and rather quickly.

It’s a style that’s very interesting because it keeps you on your toes and keeps the set in flux. It’s also a style that’s difficult to execute because in order to keep the audience interested each following track has to be more dynamic than the previous (a technique well executes by Jeff Mills as well).

It is imperative to have a sense of Balance between mixing, technical ability, audience response and PROGRAMMING (an element many DJ’s have forgotten to take into consideration).

The tracks had nice elements of deep and funky house with enough thump to keep Miamian’s happy …. Actually very very happy, so happy in fact he dropped his own production of “You make me happy”.

The place was on fire, the energy level was high and the party people did what they came to do. It was great to see Crobar in full swing with the crazy party-goers freely having fun.

It was a definite party with a packed club. I was really surprised to find that the upstairs VIP room was semi-empty especially considering the source awards were in town (since the VIP room spins mainly hip-hop on Saturday).

In fact in the main room, there were scattered groups of hip-hop looking bunches, fist pumping to the house beat (I have never seen that before).

At around 2:30 Boris’ set began with a nice build up from interesting progressive house, not too thumping and culminating with some borderline tribal stuff. This NYC DJ kept the crowds alive, following BBB.

Also armed with great technical ability he gripped the dance floor and kept on squeezing until the very end. And no matter which style of dance music I go to hear “Lola’s Theme” seems to have been re-mixed to fit every style. Of course being a familiar tune, the crowd reacted with shouts of appreciation.

Boris pounded the dancefloor up until the moment the lights were turned on. The floor was still packed and Miami said goodbye to it’s visitors with its’ usual floor banging, hand clapping and appreciative shouting.

I love the feeling you get when you leave a club feeling satisfied, even hungry for more, from a well executed set with great tunes. The visiting duo did great sets that had Miamian’s in a state of frenzy. It was a night not to have been missed by quality house music lovers.