Samo Sound Boy and Jerome LOL of tastemaking L.A. house label Body High are out on the road right now DJing with some of the classic house and techno DJs that have inspired them: Juan Atkins, Anthony "Shake" Shakir, and DJ Pierre. They've sent us some letters from the road, and you can download a free compilation here to get yourself in the mood.Our last weekend of the Body High tour was all back on the West Coast with Anthony "Shake" Shakir as our guest of honor. Thursday, we started at home in Los Angeles. The party was booked at the Standard Hollywood, which neither of us had ever played at before. The Standard bills itself as party-friendly but as soon as Sam started soundchecking this dude from the hotel told us to turn it down 75%… Not a great sign but we started out anyways.
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Our label manager and good friend Joaquin Bartra kicked things off and played an excellent set. Jerome played next and was sounding great but the hotel guy kept coming up and turning it down saying he was going to have to comp all the rooms above the club because of noise complaints. We were getting pretty frustrated and wondering why they had booked a show that obviously needed decent volume instead of just booking some guy on a stool with an acoustic guitar. Still, we persevered and managed to have a good time with all our LA friends who came out. Unfortunately, the club didn't have a full turntable setup, so Anthony Shakir wasn't able to play at all. Bummer! Joaquin covered for him, like the ever dependable friend he is, and closed out the night in good form. All in all, the night was a good lesson for us, and we will probably be sticking to warehouses from now on in our own city. Not all gigs are perfect—you learn that quickly when DJing.
Friday, we flew up to SF where we were playing at 1015 Folsom. On the drive to the airport, Anthony entertained us with stories from Detroit about DJs, the layout, the politics… It was cool to hear it all from his perspective. We then tried to go to this dope-looking ramen spot, but it was insanely busy so we wound up at a random Japanese place was a bit here and there. If you've been following these entries you know we've been eating really well all tour, so it was kind of just a matter of time until we hit a dud. Again, that's life.
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Gettin' bingy wid it.
We headed over to 1015 and got things going. Our good friend Cedaa was handling opening set duties. He honestly killed it and it was great to see him play for the first time in awhile. A fun fact is that we actually both played at Cedaa's first show ever in Seattle. That night he brought his own CDJ-100s to the club and destroyed it and he's been a great friend ever since. Much respect to Simon. We both had good sets and then Anthony took over and did his thing. He played a really wild all-vinyl set highlighting a lot of excellent Detroit material, including a Kyle Hall track that he had literally never listened to until that moment. Only a legend like him could pull off a move like that.
Saturday, we flew down to San Diego to play Bang Bang, a relatively new club downtown. Joaquin joined us twe all enjoyed California burritos for dinner, an SD specialty. (If you don't know, a California burrito is a steak burrito with guacamole and french fries inside.) Bang Bang was a really interesting place that had a sushi restaurant at the front and a packed bar on one side of the dancefloor. The energy was great all night and the staff was super accommodating—definitely looking forward to coming back. After the club, we drove back to LA—we've all learned to take a little 15-minute nap at a gas station in the middle of the drive so we can get home safely.
The three-weekend tour has come to an end. We learned a lot of things, travelled to amazing cities, ate amazing food and met great people. Much respect to everyone who was involved with making this happen and we'll see you all soon.
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Our label manager and good friend Joaquin Bartra kicked things off and played an excellent set. Jerome played next and was sounding great but the hotel guy kept coming up and turning it down saying he was going to have to comp all the rooms above the club because of noise complaints. We were getting pretty frustrated and wondering why they had booked a show that obviously needed decent volume instead of just booking some guy on a stool with an acoustic guitar. Still, we persevered and managed to have a good time with all our LA friends who came out. Unfortunately, the club didn't have a full turntable setup, so Anthony Shakir wasn't able to play at all. Bummer! Joaquin covered for him, like the ever dependable friend he is, and closed out the night in good form. All in all, the night was a good lesson for us, and we will probably be sticking to warehouses from now on in our own city. Not all gigs are perfect—you learn that quickly when DJing.
Friday, we flew up to SF where we were playing at 1015 Folsom. On the drive to the airport, Anthony entertained us with stories from Detroit about DJs, the layout, the politics… It was cool to hear it all from his perspective. We then tried to go to this dope-looking ramen spot, but it was insanely busy so we wound up at a random Japanese place was a bit here and there. If you've been following these entries you know we've been eating really well all tour, so it was kind of just a matter of time until we hit a dud. Again, that's life.
Saturday, we flew down to San Diego to play Bang Bang, a relatively new club downtown. Joaquin joined us twe all enjoyed California burritos for dinner, an SD specialty. (If you don't know, a California burrito is a steak burrito with guacamole and french fries inside.) Bang Bang was a really interesting place that had a sushi restaurant at the front and a packed bar on one side of the dancefloor. The energy was great all night and the staff was super accommodating—definitely looking forward to coming back. After the club, we drove back to LA—we've all learned to take a little 15-minute nap at a gas station in the middle of the drive so we can get home safely.
The three-weekend tour has come to an end. We learned a lot of things, travelled to amazing cities, ate amazing food and met great people. Much respect to everyone who was involved with making this happen and we'll see you all soon.