20 Years Planet E with Carl Craig, Derrick May, Paul Woolford at District 36 with Sleepy and Boo (Basic NYC)

Friday, February 18, 2011

As soon as we walked into the elegant District 36, we were blessed by the pumping techno sounds of the amazing Carl Craig. We cut a rug when we heard him drop Onsunlade Pres. Nadira Shakoor Pride – (Johnny D. Remix)

About halfway through his set he dropped a SICK acid house track that blew our minds, which we fully expected from this Detroit legend. We worked our way up to the VIP lounge, located on the 2nd floor of the mid level bar. We were ecstatic to stand directly behind the DJ booth with a birds eye view of equipment,  DJs, crew and the dance floor. Carl was throwing down a digital set fully using the four internal decks of Traktor Scratch Pro, N.I.’s Kontrol X1 and a few other tricks up his sleeve.

When Derrick May joined the decks, the two entered into a filthy, bass driven tag team set. Techno was flying, all the levels were red lined and people were eating it up.  Playing on Pioneer CDJ 2000′s, DJM 1000 and other equipment we couldn’t see well enough to identify, Derrick was mixing it with that “Oh so classic” Detroit sound that we were begging for. He smoked the place up with his usual mixing style, dropping plumped bass while cutting the EQ’s right and left forcing us to dance.  I say “us” because unfortunately, the lack of dancers was extremely obvious. At one point, Derrick turned down all the music, leaned down to the PACKED but laid back dance floor yelling, “HELLOOOO!!!” It started to wake everyone up and the remainder of the night seemed to progress nicely. Mr. May, if you’re reading this…we were your dancers! We danced absolute non-stop for a little over 4 hours straight.

At the end of the night, Derrick teased us with ending his set, three times. Dropping a track, then another, then another until finally letting us go home, wet, exhausted from dancing and somehow still wanting more.

We like what you do Sleepy & Boo (Basic NYC). Great booking! Great show!

written by Julia Marie

P.S. Unfortunately we left our real camera behind so the only pics we have were from a phone cam. Either way, you can enjoy the few we were able to catch here.