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This week I made a resolution to cut down my gallivanting. The past
two weeks I’ve been going out every night and I just don’t have
the charm to get reprieves on undone and incomplete homework and
chapters left unread. I was going to get into major trouble soon if
I didn’t correct the errors of my ways. Cinderella could end up
back in rags, homeless, holding a kalabasa in place of her trusty
13-year-old Civic.
Monday slid by I skipped Rockeoke and I stayed
up catching up on work. Tuesday came around and so did temptation:
Steve Aoki was back and spinning for the Rogue anniversary party and
a BMW launch. I had seen him last December and was very impressed.
I’ve always tended to gravitate toward rock clubs and my favorite
neighborhood bar, Big Sky Mind and steered fairly clear of the
isdug-isdugan or things that go oonce-oonce-oonce. But for Steve I
make an exception. He just has a way of making me move, shake loose,
dance and sweat—not to mention get hugged by my girlfriends.
Steve Aoki is a Los Angeles-based DJ and record
producer. His half sister is model and actress Devon Aoki who I
enjoyed as the lethal Miho in Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City. (Some
say he is also the evil twin of Razorback’s Louie Talan—who also
happens to be a record producer).
There are a few things I really like about
Steve—one is the way he just throws curve balls at the dancing
crowd. He’ll put in Daft Punk’s dance anthem “One More Time”
then some pounding beats to make you dance harder and then out of
nowhere, a song from the seventies hair and metal band, AC/DC. The
first time I saw him, he sandwiched Rage Against the Machine’s
“Killing in the Name” in the middle of the electronica. Not
everyone can get away with that.
Then there’s the way he works with the crowd.
Some DJs get absorbed and lost in their musical space while spinning
but Steve just loves standing up on the platform to encourage the
crowd, he stage dives, he dances and he sings along to the music he
plays. He’s this incredible livewire who obviously loves music and
loves what he does to bits.
Spotted taking in Steve’s set were
photographers Wawi Navarroza and Eddie Boy Escudero, model Joey
Mead, Taken By Cars vocalist Sarah Marco and neighboring columnist,
Tim Tayag. I left at an hour decent enough to allow me to write this
column without the help of morning coffee. So I’m not entirely a
careless miscreant and there’s an ounce of discipline left in me
yet. One hour of dancing to a Steve Aoki set was a temptation worth
caving into. And I’m glad I’m not finding out if he’s worth a
missed deadline.
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