Diamonds ‘07

John Digweed is one of my favorate DJ’s out there in the world of dance music. And I’ve always looked for his shows when he’s state side. This past Saturday he was in NYC at PASHA.

Thankfully, the show wasn’t all ages, as the last time I went to Crobar NYC, and had to deal with an army of 18 year old soprano wanna bes the whole night who looked like they had stepped out of an episode of Dragon Ball Z. The mixed audience, of at least 21 years old was much better, and much more respectful. Its amazing how much a person grows up between 18 and 21 years old…

The one thing I need to call out as the best part of the night though, was the sound system.
I’ve been going to clubs to see these DJ’s that I like for a long time. I’ve been to Avalon in Boston, Crobar in NYC, Fluid in Philadelphia, etc… Some of them have had good sound systems, sometimes they sucked, but the sound system at Pasha was possibly the most amazing audio experience I’ve ever been in. Standing 20 feet from the DJ booth, my brother and I were able to hear each speaking clearly. The music was loud, very loud, but it was so clean that while the two of us did have to raise our voices near yelling, what we were saying was clear and easy to understand. The sound system was so precise and clean that there was no extranious noise that would drown out the frequencies of our voices while the frequencies of the music shared the same space. Both of us were stunned.

The club its self was cool, I only saw half of it, as there are apparently 4 floors, but this event was only on two of them. You walk in to a main bar area, with a large opening that looks down on to the main dance floor. On one side of this floor there are two shower stalls of glass, in which dancers preformed all night long. Can’t complain about that.

Downstairs was the main dance floor, with another raise platform for dancers, and then a large open area for the teeming masses of party goers.

Drinks were expensive, as I expected, but the air was clear since smoking is now banned in NYC night spots. Plenty of people were sneaking it, but it wasn’t overpowering. The HVAC system as well was really powerful, so there was plenty of fresh air. A problem I’ve seen at other clubs is that the air gets stale and stifling really quickly, not so at Pasha.

Over all, I guess, I still love the music, but the crowd gets worse every time I go to one of these. Not in the annoying Dragon Ball Z freaks, but just in the attitude. Age usually means these people don’t bother you as much on a fundemental level. But I’m sick of standing in line for an hour, even though I already had tickets on will call, with people who didn’t have tickets, and wondered who the hell John Digweed is… “Never heard of him, is he a big deal?”
Once I got inside though, I could tell there were a lot of people there who were there for Digweed, and not just the club name. So it wasn’t TOO bad I guess.

Next time I go though, I need friends to be there with me. My brother, who was along for the evening is a blast, and I love spending time with him, but he just got off a plane from Tokyo, and was pretty jet lagged ;)

A crew of diehard Digweed fans who I knew personally probably would have been the key to the evening.
Next time then.