Boogie Night
Ladies and gentlemen, the Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest is nigh. Tie your mother down, put on your red shoes and get your ass to our second-annual over-rockin’ dance party. Friday at Jilly’s, five local DJs square off, one by one, for a trip to perform at the Winter Music Conference in Miami in March. A judges’ panel of Pitch staffers will scrutinize each contestant’s method, count the number of booties on the dance floor, then make the difficult call.
There will be drama. There will be dancing. It’ll be sick.
In fact, there’s already been some behind-the-scenes drama, which led to a hip-hop DJ from Lawrence known as Aether (one-half of Smooth Operation) to drop out of the contest. Luckily, we had plenty of backups, and our choice is Joe Kochen, aka Joko. Kochen is one of the few DJs in the area who spins funky, dance-friendly techno and electroclash, so seeing what this relative newcomer’s lithe, robotic beats do to the crowd on Friday should be interesting.
Our next two contestants, Xan Lucero and DJ PDP (Patrick Kelly), are still firmly in the house, pun intended.
As the Control Freeks, Lucero and partner Atom Bryce are practically royalty, having held residencies at nearly every major club in town. Lucero hasn’t spun solo much of late, but we’re betting he’ll stand tall on his own. Living in Seattle in the ’90s, the Denver-born Lucero played with the likes of Donald Glaude and DJ Dan. A Kansas Citian since 2002, he prefers the more aggressive, peak-time side of house music.
DJ PDP was a finalist last year. Though he wasn’t crowned champ, he threw down a tight set, and the mixes he sent in this year were too good to ignore. “House music is my one and only love,” PDP says, “but if you tell my girlfriend that, there might be some problems.”
Our next contestant, DJ Kinky (Luis Gonzales), is a relative unknown. He grew up in Mexico City, where he began learning to DJ at age 10. He eventually rose to the club circuit, presiding over nightclubs packed with about 2,000 throbbing bodies. In the five years he has lived in KC, the only club to host DJ Kinky’s sultry, electro-tribal Latin has been Mi Cocina. Bienvenido a Jilly’s, Kinky.
Finally, Michael Thomas, better known SVS (short for Spy vs. Spy), is well known in these parts. A diverse musician, his favorite styles are ragga and drum-‘n’-bass, and his recent demo Digital Punks shows he isn’t afraid to charge up the mix with a wicked rock and roll attitude.
It’s hard to think of any local night that showcases a more diverse array of dance music than our little DJ competition. So come out, dance to the underground, and help us decide which of these boys to send to Miami. Boogie Night We bet you look good on the dance floor, Kansas City.
