Bassline Revival

Thanks to a heads up from a fellow blogger, well, ex-blogger, I found out about this party. Otherwise, I'd have been none the wiser. It'd been a while since Junior had played NY. Scratch that. He played the Hammam party at Pacha, the afterhours to the Black Party. It didn't register on my radar as I didn't have the desire nor the where-with-all to go.

Last I'd seen him was President's Day weekend at Cielo which was a less than auspicious night, party-wise and personally, etc. etc…

But I digress. Moving on…

Friday
Aforementioned (ex)blogger and I were potentially going to accompany one another but he begged off the day of. Perfectly fine. We'll catch up again soon enough.

I was intent on going regardless and going alone. I could have called friend Frank but I just didn't feel like wasting all the excess energy involved with running here, there, hither and to. He is surrounded by erratic and unstable forces.

The downside was that I didn't have a party buddy, a fallback guy. Those who go out understand what I mean. A friend can be a tether, something to focus on. It's been a long time since I'd last gone out alone like that. (Oh that's a lie.)

Bassline was the name of the party which was also the name of an underground club Junior had been involved with before his Sound Factory days.

The club is called The Standard at 150 Varick Street between Vandam and Spring Sts. For those familiar, it's the old BuddhaBar space in TriBeCa. It's a very cute space. You entered the club and are directed downstairs to a bar and sitting area. Wak through that space and back up through a different set of stairs, you come into the center of a pleasantly sized room, very much the Discotheque feel. The room's AC was over-compensating at first, but as it filled up, it couldn't maintain the cool in the room.

The crowd was the usual cast of characters from clubbing and Juniorites. Some handsome gym bunnies, twinkish boys and, oh, a porn star, Colton Ford. Unexpectedly ran into M, whom I became friends with through friend Frank… oops. Heh. He hadn't spoken to FF in a while so I'm okay for not asking him to come with me.

Music spun his usual blend of diva vocal house, mixing in some new tracks like Rihana's S.O.S., you know the one with the "Tainted Love" back beat. That sounded awesome and rocked the house. One stellar musical moment for me, Junior dropped "Like I Do" by For Real.

A bit of history, back when I was a wee clubber, growing into my club shoes, I'd heard Junior spin at the sorely missed Palladium. The party was called Arena. He'd played "Like I Do" then and I spent the next week, tracking down this track. This was well before you could easily research the lyrics via the web. I remember reciting the vocals to Steve Travolta, who'd been spinning at my gym, the DBG on 16th Street, trying to figure it out.

"don't run away from love when love hits… something… something"

Eventually found it, I stopped obsessing and all was well with the world.

Well, when he dropped "Like I Do" at BassLine, he layered it on top of a dark, dirty bass line, unidentifiable until the lyrics hit. A classic moment. Throw in more screaming divas and tracks like "Movin' up" and you've got a Junior night. A respectable evening, not spectacular but enjoyable.

Regrettably, I was reminded why I'd guaranteed myself some disappointment when I went out with certain expectations, expectations not of Junior, not of his music nor of the club.

Long short, club love come, club love go.

I should be smart enough to know this, but I fall for it now and again.

Le sigh.