Stories

Since my musical tastes tend to vary dramatically (I listened to 50,000+ tracks on shuffle on my MP3 player on a regular basis), I am often fond of things that haven't been done before. Anything new. Anything, even if not completely new, is still a sufficient twist on the old. Mashups that may not be perfectly in key but still sound good enough, two completely disparate genres melding together well... things like that.

During a DJ set at Neo, I tried to introduce as much new-not-new material that would be familiar enough to the crowd while offering a taste of something different.

It did not go well.

Despite being a goth club... I managed to clear the floor by playing the Vince Clarke Remix of Depeche Mode's "Behind the Wheel."

And that was one of the best Depeche Mode remixes in recent memory.

"I don't like this cover," one said to me.

So I tried to steer the set towards more typical versions. 

Even that didn't go well.

I had someone complain when I later played Faith Healer by Recoil, which in itself was a pretty big goth club hit.

"Who is this? I don't like it."

Now, I couldn't just say "Recoil" because that wouldn't have been a satisfactory answer to someone from a fickle crowd. So I said: "It's Depeche Mode and Nitzer Ebb."

"No, it isn't."

Sigh. And this was within 3 months of Douglas McCarthy headlining at Metro in Chicago.