Eyes & Ears: Toad & Friends By David Katz

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Terry Gotham

Tonight, I want to bring you a project done by some amazing friends of mine. They’re down to the wire and so close to their goal so I definitely hope some of you check your pockets to make this thing happen. TOAD is an absolutely fantastic piece of art that proves you can get both form & function right. The Toad roving mobile sound vehicle blew my mind at my first PEX back in 2011. The roving DJ was jamming out and there was this party just following it, wherever it went. The thing returned in 2012 with even more DJs, sweet lights and lasers. Freaking laser beams. It has gone to some of the best underground events in NYC when space & weather allows. My photographer managed to capture it being wonderful outside of the Kostume Kult costume give away for the kids at Figment last year. Beats, costumes and kids laughing, it’s a good thing, ya know? Not only is the tech amazing, but so are the people making it happen.

Boris, Lori & David are 3 of the Burner core that keeps the underground in NYC moving. No seriously, they sometimes actually have to grease physical wheels to keep shit going. Kostume Kult produces some of the most consistently awesome parties in NYC with DK as one of the leaders of that merry band. Boris has been DJing probably longer than I’ve been alive, and if you’ve gone to an underground party, you’ve probably seen an event or an attendee decorated by Lollygoa.

I hope they’ve crossed the threshold they need for funding by the time you reach this, and I hope you give afterwards too. Every dollar will go to make Toad more fantastic. These 3 will do everything they can to use that cash wisely. Trust that you’re not going to be poolside at PEX next year with TOAD showing up with rims or weird hydraulics. Dope ass speakers and a disco ball however? Very possibly. Get at the sets in this post and just imagine that following you around. Or not, if you’re not cool enough to donate.

Figment Flourishes in the Sun. (A Day in the Life, part 2 of 3)

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Terry Gotham

“Wow, that really is puppies all the way down”

At the sight of the absurdly over-sized PopDogs overflowing with puppies. They were cute, adorable, and populating the scene that pointed directly towards a very specific reminder of the serious problem that is canine overpopulation in cities. The popcorn analogy worked perfectly and the cuteness spilled out until you were reminded about how society digests pets and leaves a gigantic sick feeling in our society. I’d not really prepared for real “in your face” art, reminding me of reality, but then again I wasn’t really sure what to expect at all. However, I was already impressed.

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Apocalypse Wow.

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Terry Gotham

I’m not really sure how it happened, but there I was. At the pulpit, a sermon of bass and beats was being extolled through massive speakers, the floor was populated (not packed or empty) with fabulously costumed, friendly people, blinky shiny lights & lasers everywhere, and the deco was reminiscent of Sensation, except…I spent significantly less to get in the door. The new hotness in Gotham Burner camps, Digital Native & Entwined were making a very big splash with this End of the World party, as I expected when I called it the party of the month here. After watching DK make some magic in the basement, I’d wandered up to the main floor where I was stunned by the perfection of it all.

The space, an abandoned church on Bushwick in Brooklyn was both decorated beautifully & functionally. Multiple bars, a smoking space outside (with the amenities you’d expect from a $40+ entry fee’d club), good flow/people traffic and stupidly good music. I mean, I usually find myself in a space that has competent DJs but this was a night where, start to finish, there was quality dance music where it needed to be. The door, watched over eternally by the Immortal Elven Guardian himself, Guncle, led through the coat check to the first bar & dance floor, where the fantasy of doing naughty things in a church basement could be lived out to your heart’s content. Up from the basement, into the main area, with flowered plants made of light paper & gumption peppering the front of the space, there was a certain something to dancing where pews used to be, under the watchful eyes of the paintings on the ceiling.

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Shiny Silent Disco Balls, Gratitude & Balancing Acts.

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Terry Gotham

Sitting at the diner on Lorimer & Metropolitan, I watched the scores of people lamenting the dysfunctional G train with a quiet smirk. After finishing up the burger & red bull I’d ordered when we were forced out of the station like confused cattle, I made my way to the Electric Warehouse just as cold drops began to fall. Tonight, the unofficial Burning Man Decompression event for NYC was going down and a little rain wasn’t going to stop it.

I shook hands with my friend Drew, the producer of the event and congratulated him while he processed my entry/ticket rapidly. There were dozens of burners in stilts, top hats, fur coats, el-wire tuxedos and all manner of costuming that were aching to get into the space and I didn’t want to get in their way. After checking my coat I received what I have come to cherish at Drew’s annual event, my hug to enter. Every attendee is given an honest-to-goodness hug. Not a patdown, not a security check and not a grope. A straight up “thanks for coming, you’re cool, gimmie a hug” hug. Which feels great, and there’s a person of each gender so it doesn’t get weird of course. I get hugs from both people (because I like to live on the wild side) then head in to check out the Silent Disco. Two DJs I am totes crushing on right now were rocking out.

The Silent Disco, run by a clever fellow by the name of Michael White, provides each of the listeners in a space with can-style headphones, with a button to press to switch between two DJs spinning in the room. This solves two problems. First, you can have two DJs playing violently different music standing next to each other with no problems, and secondly, if you want to have a conversation with someone, you take off the headphones & the room is splendidly quiet. The consummate professional DJ Pony & the gorgeously talented DJ Orange Krush were opening the night there, generating the dance floor from thin air yet again, like two beat-matching magicians. Slowly but surely, burners, ravers, club kids, hipsters, girls in slinky dresses & heels, guys in camouflage pants & hoodies, all manner of person came in, put their headphones on and got down. By the time the duo were halfway through their sets, the tent outside the party was packed warm, with projection work on the ceilings and two simultaneous dance floors intermingling I went back inside to grab a bottle of water, suddenly being reminded how big the old trolley repair station actually was. 10,000 sq feet, high ceilings and places to hang lights & equipment galore. A friend was delighted to find his pictures were playing off of a projector, and a stream of amazing HD photographs lit up the bar. As I chatted with DJ Resy, who was taking the night off behind the decks to help out at the bar, I remembered what Gratitude was all about. Many of the people at this event haven’t seen each other since Burning Man, while others see each other daily/weekly.

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Party of the Month – End of the World by Digital Native & Entwined

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Terry Gotham

While there are dozens of parties every weekend here in Gotham, every once and a while, a special one happens that just may be different than its competition. Tonight, at an abandoned church in Brooklyn, I believe one of those will be happening. The Mayan Apocalypse is upon us, and as long as the music is good in the handbasket, come what may. And that’s why I’m naming this End of the World party, Terry Gotham’s Party of the Month.

The reasons are multitudinous & compelling. The two room venue will have plenty of art and of course the body painting that events of this caliber usually come with. The music in the cathedral starts out with DJ B3ar, a house DJ with a penchant for electro-swing, Alex Funk, discussed here previously for his dirty electro funk, Barney Iller, the impresario of bass and beats, and EZ, the king of the big room. In the mausoleum, the music is even more impressive, with two of my favorite locals, DK, of Toad and Kostume Kult fame, and DJ Pony, the consummate professional and Duke of Deep House. And of course, the door will be manicured by the only man that would still be fabulous while the world ends, Guncle himself.

If you remember Limelight, then there’s no reason to not want to come on out, listen to some great music and perhaps even close your eyes and pretend you’re back there one last time. If you have no idea what Limelight is, you owe it to yourself to party in a church at least once in your life. Considering the world’s gonna end today, what are you waiting for?