Claude VonStroke “Bird Brain” Tour Blog Week 2
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Week 2 – San Francisco – Friday – Mezzanine
Track of the Night -
It’s hard to pick a track of the night when the crowd was so incredibly up for it on almost every track. But this one had that extra little inch of airtime of feet off the floor. When the break hit ALL hands were in the air. It’s one from our Dirtybird 5 year birthday compilation out this March.
SF track of the night
Silky King, Tala & Zoi – dirtybird (mp3 clip, direct link)
San Francisco Overview -
I only played one gig this weekend because it was a special weekend where I debuted the album at home in San Francisco. This is where i live. The city that influenced the music. I adore San Francisco with all my heart. So needless to say I was a bundle of nerves going into this party. Not because of what i would play but because i wanted to see if my home town would come out and support. And of course they did. Everyone came together. Big creds to Boz, our label manager who really turned the screws on this event – and Luke, our office assistant who hammered the internet as well. Thanks as well to Dax, Emma, Andrew, Mareissa, etc. So many people helped I can’t possibly list them all but when i saw over 500 people dancing before it was even 11pm I knew we were golden!
Let’s begin with the tequila. My wife’s friend Jen called me up the week before and told me she was working on marketing a new brand of Tequila. She asked me, “Do you need tequila for anything??” Ummm, yes please? So she sent us 3 huge cases for free and we staged a free tequila bar for an hour from 9-10! Tequila is a particularly frisky, sexual liquor. Perfect for dirtybird. A nice wild liquor to prep a huge wild crowd.
Christian Martin went on and had 500 dancing by 11pm. A new Dirtybird attendance record for sure. He played a crazy mix of dubstep and house, featuring some new tracks he did and also some by his brother Justin. I was going to play a clip of his new track Polar Bear but he wanted me to play his new remix of Monster Island which in my opinion sounds like Matthew Dear and Ectomorph met up with a Cali breaks crew. Sweet. Thanks to Chris for opening up. That’s one cool thing about the db crew. Everyone takes turns and has no problem supporting their friends. On rotation I open the party two or three times a year as well. It’s all in the family here in SF.
Monster Island (Christian Martin Remix) – C VonStroke – dirtybird (mp3 clip, direct link)
By 11, everyone was ready for Solar. We don’t usually have guys from outside dirtybird play our events but Solar is probably my favorite DJ in the city and i wanted someone who could build the room and not play every dirtybird track in my bag. Solar is from a crew called Sunset who were doing parties before we even had a label. Their crew still puts our park parties to shame and is the reason we even do park parties. Solar and Galen and J Bird and all those guys are the real SF party visionaries we looked up to when we were starting dirtybird. Anyway, Solar came on and really smashed it for 2 hours straight. He showed us why he has been one of the best DJs in San Francisco and the USA for many many years. He played the perfect lead in set of weird trippy tech house. Not too big, not to small, just solid solid oddball party music. It was a real treat to have him on the line-up. I wish i could post a clip but thanks to Solar’s genius I have no idea what any of the tracks he played were called!
By the time i went on the room was mayhem. There were 1000 people heaving inside Mezzanine. I was loving it. Half way through my set I dropped this gem from Heinrichs and Hirtenfeller which really made an impression.
Heinrichs & Hirtenfeller – Down – Dekadent Schallplatten (mp3 clip, direct link)
There was a dood so fucked up in the front that he was crashing into the Dj setup. His girlfriend kept dragging him back out on to the dance-floor. I watched him flop about all over the place. The best part was that even though he was way past being able to function he was still trying to dance. It was kind of like watching the guy in Monty Python who gets all his limbs chopped off and keeps trying to fight saying “it’s merely a flesh wound!.” Funny.
After about 2 hours of hands in the air madness I dropped a drum n bass track and switched it up to some big nasty techno shit. The sound was really proper and I was really enjoying myself in there. During this whole thing Luke gave out about 500 cd albums as a gifts to the people. Overall, It was one of the best Dirtybird nights ever for sure. Thanks so much to all the people from SF who came out!!! I love you all.
TOP 7 SAN FRANCISCO
Places to find cool shit on Haight St. – I have lived in SF for 12 years and actually on Haight St. for 5. There are a million shop on the Haight, some trying to be cool and some legit. There is something for everyone but here’s where i shop.
- Upper Playground which is technically on Fillmore but is like 3 doors off Haight. A staple of my wardrobe for the last 12 years. Local artists like Sam Flores and Jeremy Fish have made it big off the back of this T-shirt store. At one point in my career when i was working on film and i didn’t have any free time i was just buying t-shirts here instead of doing laundry.
- Amoeba – Is this the last place on earth that feels as big as Best Buy but only sells music? including vinyl records, rare genres, used cds, collectors items, etc. This is the best music store in the USA and probably the world. It is a criminal offense to visit SF and not go here. Only gripe is that you can’t listen to vinyl before u buy it.
- TRUE – As opposed to the way over-priced and “trendy” Villains shop on Haight (which is still worth a visit if you are rail skinny and like French house music) – for me the best shop on Upper Haight is True. They always play great mixtapes and have the big boy XXL sizes in the best brands. A nice T-shirt collection as well.
- Ali Baba’s Cavern – People get really crazy about their favorite places to eat on the Haight. Some people would demand that the sausage place Rosamundi’s be in this spot or the breakfast joint, Pork Store – or even Citrus Club, the Tai Soup shop. But in my opinion there isn’t a better sandwich on Haight than Chicken Schwarma sandwich from Ali Babas. That shit is niiiice!
- FTC – I don’t even skate anymore but i do know that this is the shop to go if you do skate. Rumored to be an anagram for “Fuck The Cops” this tiny shop has made a real name for itself across the country. I took my nephew in here one day to get a new deck and they didn’t give us an attitude – quite the opposite. Love the old collector’s decks up on the wall as well.
- Kid Robot – The Always fascinating Japanese toy shop. Whether you buy something or not you need to stop in. Justin Martin wears Kid Robot Pajamas FYI. It’s not higher on the list because it has multiple locations. (not just SF)
- Trimmers – totally ridiculous and non-deserving that this makes the list but I’ve been getting my hair cut here for 5 years and the guy who works here runs the Haight St. Fair – so he’s for real.
