ROTATION - Gabe's Oasis April 28th Tristan Watkins(Brothas and Sistas) Moonraker(Brothas and Sistas) Terrence Parker(Detroit/Intangible)
Full Disclosure: I work at Rotation, doing sound, and all the people here are my friends. Those who know me know I try and tell it straight, but I want my biases out in the open. Tristan Watkins is old school Iowa City -- not only was he the first guy to start a weekly event in a mainstream club here, he went to grade school here. So it's always great to see him back at the turntables. He started out the evening caning Chain Reaction and Basic Channel records, gradually building to a storming finish. Tristan knows how to play it for both the heads and the kids, and I think he had it both ways -- he's got nothing to prove at this point so his sets are always exploratory, risky undertakings, made more exciting on nights like Saturday when he's really in the groove and hitting the outside shots. Moonrakker did a similar gear change in his set starting out with hip hop and ending up in drum and bass. His D&B sets have always been storming, but Saturday he played a mix of old and new tracks that burned bright. As much as I like drum and bass, I've been bored by most of the D&B DJs I've seen loately -- they're all chasing after the same small pool of records every month so they all sound the same. It's really nice to see someone take some chances to bring out the peculiar energy the best tracks have. Terrence was returning to Iowa City after having to cancel his last scheduled appearance due to his ear problems. And I think I speak for everyone here that he gave us at least twice the show to make it up to us. He even brought a big box of mix CDs and gave them all away. Gabe's was as packed as I've ever seen it for his set, and there were 250 sweaty crazies totally going for it down front for his entire set. With Terrence you always get all the food groups of DJ'ing -- mixing, scratching, tricks, and killer tracks. But more than that TP on the decks is just like TP in person -- generous to a fault, honest, and someone whose mother must have taught him to always try to make everyone he touches feel special. It's hard to even write about TP without sounding corny, because we've all been marketed fake sentiment so often that we are uncomfortable around real deal. The fact is that he touches people with his music, straight up. And it's impossible to exaggerate how much Terrence's appearances here have meant to the local scene. Of all the 'name' DJs that have come here, he's the one who has been the most supportive of what we do here. From doing in store appearances, to radio shows, even down to the point of subscribing to and reading our local mailing list. He's been a true friend to Iowa, and we hope he remains a frequent visitor. And his in store Friday was remarkable, not so much because of the music (which was great) but because the whole time he was spinning he was talking non stop to people at the counter. When he gets a head of steam up on a subject he's positively testifying. The last person I've heard speak who was as articulate and positive as Terrence was Jesse Jackson, and I think TP can give him a run for his money. So the bottom line is: Iowa Love TP, and Saturday night, he loved us all right back. And isn't that how it should be? kent williams -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
