When it comes to checking out DJs at Indy’s Meridian Room, we decided to do something a little different on this one. I’ve partnered up with one of my oldest friends, the person that took me to my first rave 25 years ago. Bunnie is now an official writer for graveyardradio.net and on this review, with 2 rooms and so many DJs, we jointly wrote our little take-away from this event. Her contributions to the article are in bold/italics, while my takeaways will be written out as you see it in this paragraph.
ALL TILED PHOTO GALLERIES COURTESY OF SNAPS INC. TAP PHOTOS TO ENLARGE AND SWIPE.
It’s was an absolutely incredible night at this premiere, very intimate, downtown venue. The DJ booth in the back room had a staircase going up to it, with VIP area and long comfy bench along the back for us to get prime viewing of each DJ. We had dubstep and bass music in that area, with house music in the main room up front. This was an amazing, intimate venue for underground music in the downtown area. For those who don’t want to shell out the cash for VIP at Invy to get a table, or spend the night standing, Meridian Room offers a ton of places to have a seat and chill. Big comfy chairs and love seats lined the walls, with bar stools and tables sprinkled around as well. I loved the dressed down and relaxed feel. I could even say it’s a perfect blend of coziness and plenty of room to spread out and dance. Myself, along with friends in my age group are very tired of being packed into a venue like sardines, with no personal space to dance. The main room was also fitted with large LCD TVs giving us mind melting visuals, along with various light and lazers to keep us more than happy in our intimate surroundings.
So coming right at ya, a run-down of each DJ from myself & Bunnie. I got to say, her way of putting it down in ink is no joke. I feel like I’m going to have to step it up, she got references, and a big vocabulary, with a serious dash of straight-to-the-point.
(He’s one heck of a hype man, isn’t he?)
JYNX – heavy, deep, reverberating bouncing bass, touches of horns and a slight horror/sci-fi movie type of feel, with hip hop rhymes and flavor. Nice drops, had people dancing (even me), bobbing heads. This is what dub should sound like – and it’s great to see a lady DJ w/some serious bounce in her step and infectious energy, all the way to the end of her set. If you’re rolling solo and need people to bounce with, you’ll be in good company during her sets.
ANGEL AURA – Angel opened up the main room with some smooth house music. Like I said in our intro, we had dubstep and bass music in the back, with the front being a place for the house heads to vibe. Angel did her homework, playing some classic sounding stuff, and dropping newer tech-house beats as well. It was a great warm-up set, to what would be a hot night of house music in the main room!
ALWAYS ERIC – Started out w/deeper, driving bass with some mid-range vocals, melting into well-known pitched vocals. Good definitive establishment of who tf is on the decks now. Hard breaks feel mixed with some dub, hard hop hop and broken vocals, a bit of dubby liquid. If you like to sing along with female vocals or flowing with solid male rap, in between bobbing your head, Eric’s got you. If you want to “walk it out,” Eric’s got you there too. Really hit hard mid-set with a bit of vocal and fast hard bass liquid goodness.
ADVENTURE NINJA – Bass house! High-pitched vocal samples with good wind-ups, not overly smooth or bouncy or beat-balanced for dancing, this is has moments of driven beats that make you jump tempered with tracks that have a good mingling vibe where you can walk around or (vertically) park on the dance floor, while staying engaged in solid tracks.
SWEATER DISCO – Once again, keeping the crowd guessing, Sweater Disco put down more mind bending house music, with some serious low end. Some really good tribal sounding beats, with some hints of funkyness in just the right spots. A very hypnotic set. Sweater Disco got pretty wild at the end of his set, hearing the Sasse Remix of Gorod Theme, and an unrecognized track I got a glimpse at on the decks, simple entitled “RAVE” He proved with this set that once again, he is the real deal, and exceptional talent.
URIAH G – The Steady, solid House beats you know and love, always freshly picked, served up with a side dish of classic vibes and ready to make you move! Uriah isn’t shy – he’s gonna make the whole room bounce, every damn time. Always a good vibe with this talented Producer, whether he’s on the decks or behind the scenes. If you don’t know, you’d better get on Uriah’s floor and learn!
“The Don of Indy” truly banged the box for for us once again. Not only did he throw down his signature, hard-driving tech-house, he mix in tracks that inclued lots of soulful diva hooks. This gave an uplifting feeling to some of the some darker beats he put down.
JPHILIP – New with an appreciation of the old, focus on driving beats with plenty of lows and mids to groove to – easy to see why the dance floor is full. Fun samples and some surprise breaks, reminds me of old classic acid-house with a little psy-trance and booty house vibe thrown in for good measure. Think Dee-Lite + Good Keoki + a touch of UK Hard House + ⅔ cup Infected Mushroom (if they were happier) + DJ Funk’s twice-removed baby cousin on cowbell… Yeah, it’s like that.
Or, how about this – imagine if the track “Walking On Marshmallows ” had several illegitimate love children with the entire soundtrack of Groove. That might be a good starting place. Deftly-added effects, great energy behind the decks with an obvious talent for sub-genre bending and brains well-equipped to play “oh, yeah? What about this?” with the fussiest of tangential music enthusiasts. Not a DJ who only uses the crossfader to mix, really good to see in the younger generation. For those of us who survived the Double E parties, I got some sweet memories of listening to “Spindle’s Voice,” if you remember that ish.
Beyond her hypnotic mind bending beats, what stood out the most was Beakbeat & more Breakbeats! One of the coolest set’s I’ve seen in a long time! Don’t know how many times I’ve been out at a show over the last few years and the DJ will drop some breakbeats for track, before going back to whatever they were playing previously, giving me great disappointment, and making me miss when DJs would just play breaks! J. Phlip gave us almost from what I could account, approximately 45 minutes of breaks. It was a welcome change from the usual sounds in the downtown scene. J. Phlip took me back 100%! This vibe definitely need to be brought more.
DJ WHIT – I was stoked to see so many talented woman that put it down tonight on this bill. DJ Whit’s set was top tier and she brought her crowd. I walk in the room and saw one of the largest crowds of the night. God damn! They were hype as fuck. Whit put down some heavy shit, getting the floor stomping and the heads banging. She rocked the crowd with big tracks from EAZYBAKED, YDG Flip, Pretty Sweet, and Baby Ice. It was one of my favorite sets from the night.
FRESHR – More dubstep. Boots with the furs trap mix was an absolute crowd stomper. The duos energy was an unmatched collaboration, playing to their crowd. Heavy, hardcore, & ghetto, the vibe they produced was pretty hype. They played some fun bass house type tracks as well. Their antics of back and forth first bumps, laughs, and smiles between the 2 as they dropped banger after banger, they were a fun pair to watch, both having an absolute blast. Fun set!
DROP MARTIN – Martin closed out the back room at the end of the night. I was not able to catch much, however it was obvious from what little I saw, Martin put out a vibe of confidence and stage presence behind the decks. Throwing down the few tracks I saw with fineness and a serious pressicion. Banging out tracks like “Showtime” by Tichi, really pleased the crowd.
COOKIN – Chill mids layered with tenor vocals as an opening salvo. This is the harder, better, faster big brother of down tempo house spiked up with heavier bass and thank God for that. Easy to digest, light enough to step to in the early hours, heavy enough to kandihop to if you’ve got the energy. Don’t mind some vintages from the 80’s, do ya?
Cookin brought some old-school vibes as we were walking out the door, that is for sure!
To wrap things up, one of the best St. P. Day parties I have been to. We had lots of new school edm, mixed with some old-school party people, and everyone had a great time! We was all family. We also had some tourists come off the street, then walk right back out after 5 minutes. I was outside hitting my vape and saw one walking out. “Trash music! STRAIGHT TRASH!” Okay bitch, this shit ain’t for you. Go to listen to your cookie cutter bullshit down the street. What can I say? People can’t handle our freak.
Speaking of getting freaky, your next chance to do it with Aliens On Mushrooms is going to be in less than 2 weeks, and freaky we will be getting
All the way from France, Hugel will be surving up a sick platter of beats for us April 12th at Invy Nightclub! Not to mention Gettoblaster in direct support, with Uriah G! Me and Bunnie are both locked in on this one. You can get tickets and tables by clicking here. We will see everybody there!