The Juice Box

Rating: 4.5 Out of 5 Bottles of Water!

by Steven Satyricon

Once again this year, the August installment of Industry was Local Talent night. I know that there are many of us on the SF dance scene who are always saying that our city has a bumper crop of extremely talented DJs, so it’s nice that Industry gives them this showcase to shine–and shine they did.

I arrived at Mighty shortly after midnight to find the club respectably filled with people who came early to catch the opening set by DJ Russ Rich. I’d hoped to get there early enough to catch at least the tail end of his set–since I’m a great fan of his super high-energy vocals and penchant for pulling out the oldie-but-goodie house tracks–but alas, it was not in the cards this night, though I heard from others that he brought it, as usual. My companions and I made haste to the dancefloor after checking our coats, to find Jamie J already on the decks and keeping the crowd enthusiastically hopping. We quickly found the spot our Posse had claimed, shucked our shirts and started to dance. The energy on the dancefloor was exuberant and friendly; another great thing about Local Talent night is the hometown, familial vibe of the crowd. I was also introduced to a number of visitors who were clearly getting a very warm & cordial welcome to SF. Jamie was delivering his typical prime-time anthems mixed with driving bass lines. Everyone seemed to be feeling the groove, and we were well-primed by the go-go talents of Travis and Miss Miller for the performance to follow.

Shortly after 1AM (by my estimate), Suzan Revah, Joanna Parks, and Race Cooper took the stage for a very sexy and almost-Cirque-du-Soleil-athletic interpretation of Jamie J’s own remix of “Nasty Girls”–a splicing of Inaya Day’s cover of the original Vanity 6 track with the even more recent version by Jipsta. Without going into too much detail, the scenario involved the girls cruising Cooper in a bathroom and became a dominance & submission scene (with plenty of grinding choreography thrown in). Now, opinions are mixed on the topic of performances during dance parties, and I know a lot of circuit folks aren’t crazy about such “interruptions”…but there’s a big difference between performers coming onstage to enhance the impact of a particular song during the continuous mix (which is how performers generally do their thing at Industry), and stopping the music dead and then having the performance (for example, Alexis Jordan and Erika Jayne’s recent turns at Sundance). I for one cut my teeth in the circuit scene in the late 90s in Atlanta, where the weekly circuit club ALWAYS featured at least one performance every Saturday night–again, taking the stage during a continuous mix for a particular song–and I’ve often missed this complement to a night out. So personally, I love it when Industry features such shows (and all the better when it’s my besties who are onstage). I heard plenty of hooting and hollering in the crowd, so apparently I wasn’t the only one.

After the performance, Jamie seemed to crank the energy of the music up even further, and we worked up quite a sweat, glued to our spot on the floor. Eventually some of the muscle bear crowd started arriving, in anticipation of James Torres’ set. Sometime around 2:30AM Jamie handed the decks over to James, who cranked the bass and really started to hit us hard with the after-hours sound. While I did enjoy the music he was playing (and was particularly pleased to hear “Hey Hey” by Dennis Ferrer), I just didn’t seem to quite find my rhythm, dance-wise. I bounced around until a bit past 3AM, but then opted to catch a ride home with another friend who was leaving. There was definitely still a solid crowd on the dancefloor, buckled in for a long ride into the after-hours, though, and I have little doubt that James Torres gave them what they wanted.

So I managed a healthy dose of dancefloor cardio, along with a heaping helping of hometown comradery and some of the best DJ talent our city has to offer. I got home still soaked in sweat and with a smile on my face that had stayed there all night; what more can you ask for in a night out at the club? Industry reliably delivered another winning event and reminded us how lucky we are to be living in a place so ripe with Local Talent.

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Tags: Industry