"Took me all the way back way back way back way back" Theo Parrish blew me away last night at Pontiac Cafe. The back room inside of this little love shack was rammed with dancers, a sweaty funkbox with people GETTING DOWN, hip-to-hip, hands in the sky, Theo completely wringing every ounce of soul out of every selection to a very receptive crowd who was clapping, cheering and hooting and hollering throughout.. some people not just swaying or bobbing heads, but full-on bustin' out dance "moves" and stuff!
Refreshingly diverse crowd in terms of ages and races. You just can't stand still to a set like that... Traxx among others just collapsing on the floor at certain points(!). Theo was putting that budget sound system through it's paces, every so often the amp would peak out and override him (shut off for a few seconds), and people just cheered louder for more and went even more nuts when the sound came creeping back. Everything from classic vocal soul to his own tracks to percussive african rhythms, David Mancuso era loft classics and proto-jack tracks with just the minimal stripped down bleep or groove. To sum it up, Dave Siska turns to me and says "this is the essence of jack." Then he'd take a minimal track like that and built it all back up with some rhodes piano from another Larry Levan style track or just add more drums until it's just a big pile of percussion hitting you in the chest, and all you can do is move to it. Wow... -- Matt MacQueen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.reverbmag.com archived radio shows --> http://macqueen.com/radio
