Brighter Days Found In A Dark Basement In Brooklyn

Dirty Jean’s take on NYC nightlife’s return!

Last night marked the first of what seems will be a long stay in Brooklyn: Test Patterns at Don Pedros in Bushwick.  I was lucky enough to be included as one of the DJs in the maiden voyage line-up, along side Mr. Mike Servito (Ghostly International) and my old DJ partner and pal Kim Ann Foxman (of Hercules + Love Affair).  Curator, DJ Cowboy Mark opened up the night with a good dose of early Acid jams while the rest of us dove deeply into the evening with what if you ask me, needs to be heard in a sound-proof cement-walled Brooklyn basement far below street level.  LOTS of feel good 90s Chicago house classics, and just enough dub edits to remind you of what things used to be like when these basement parties were not so hard to come by.

Most DJs and party purists would agree that there has been a bad set of trends over the past five or six years in New York that have flat-out ruined a good chunk of our thriving nightlife.  Point your fingers at bottle service, ridiculous door policies, celebrities playing DJ, and of course the on-going crack downs designed by law enforcement to basically discourage most promoters from doing anything risky that could possibly attract a few in blue.  Club goers have gotten so stuck on this image of what a venue or party is supposed to be like, that we are now faced with a major loss in these bare-bone spaces.  Reminiscent of destinations like The Hole and its “anything goes” policy, Don Pedros brings back to life the idea of building a night with what you have and what’s most important.  Because really, as long as you have decent sound and a good set of DJs just looking to give everyone a good feeling, you won’t need celebrity sightings and 13 dollar well vodka to make it a night.

It made me and just about everyone in the room feel like it’s still possible to have a good old fashion throw-back, and it seems that is what people are craving again. My personal favorite moment of the night was when Runaway’s Jacques Renault begged me to play Show Me Love (a track I never leave home without but of course there is a first for everything).  I really did want to show him a whole lot of love, so I reached for the next best thing: 100% Pure Love.   And although it’s tempting to include that as this week’s pick, I am going to dig just a little deeper and take another gem from last night since if I had to put a soundtrack to the night, it would be this:  Brighter Days (Underground Goodies Mix) by Cajmere.

-Dirty Jean

(All photos taken by Brett Burton)