Inbound Thinking

Knowing that Jay Prouty was on opening duties for this night was all the motivation that I needed to be there. Jay is a good friend of mine, so it was great to see and hear him again. It had been a long time since we last hung out and I really dig Jay’s music so I was really looking forward to hearing it at Estate. I got there a bit after 10 and it was completely dead. That just happens to be the way Estate works on Friday, nobody shows up until midnight, at least that has been my experience there.

Jay paced himself and played some bass-heavy, groovy stuff to settle people in. The music progressed really nicely and by 11 the more upbeat tracks came out and the dancefloor was filling in. We got word from management that Dan + Donald’s plane was running late so Jay was going to have to play a bit longer than expected, no problem there. Jay cruised right through to midnight when there was finally a crowd and plenty of dancers when the headliners arrived.

After Dan and Donald got their gear set up, it was on with the show. I definitely chose the word show deliberately here. Dan was playing the tracks, working on his own trio of CDJs and using the DJM-800 to tweak out all the builds, giving that extra push to rile up the crowd. Glaude was spending most of his time playing a drum machine and scratching over the tracks. Donald also played with some a-capellas over the music, and inevitably ended up scratching those too.

It was entertaining, and the crowd was definitely into it. But I just couldn’t help but think that it was too much of a rehearsed act, a touring show that was going to be the same night after night. Of course I have huge respect for each of these guys as DJs and producers, so don’t get me wrong, I still had a great time. My only real problem with the night was that the audio was at total ear-bleed level. Just way too loud to be enjoyable. I understand when you have so much bass that your internal organs shake (that’s basically how Avalon used to operate) but when you have the mids and highs cranked it’s just totally uncomfortable.

Overall it was a very good time. Jay did a great job with his time and played some grooves that the Estate crowd normally wouldn’t be tasting. DJ Dan and Donald Glaude put on a great performance and got everyone into it, so what more can you ask for. I’m glad I went to this show, it was a necessary change of pace.