Deep Dish at Urbanwave
So the all-exclusive Camel Party took place at Taboo on Friday and it was seriously well represented by the people lucky enough to receive invites in the mail! A series of Apple Macs lined the walls, checking people into the party- so, mobiles or paper print-outs in hand, each person was ushered to get booked in- kind of like being at the Traffic department although instead of being fined and forced to hand over large sums of money, your sent into a little piece of house music heaven. Ok wait, I take a bit of that back- at R40 a round of drinks- just for me- and that was just for a double SoCo and Coke (I was trying, yes WAS TRYING) to stay away from the Vodka for the evening…) the piece of heaven did have a price tag- but Camel made up for it by throwing boxes of ciggi’s around like confetti- except- I don’t smoke…. Moving along…
Now I was a Taboo virgin until this night (*Gasp, Shock, Horror, Whatever*) and bearing in mind the questionable marketing style employed to haul ass to the party, which resulted in pretty much all the friends I invited not receiving that golden ticket, meant I was kind of disgruntled and was expecting to hate every moment! Alas, I was to be so wronged! And I don’t like admitting I am wrong- and it would have been so much fun to bitch about how ridiculous this whole ‘exclusive’ sharade was, after a catastrophic mess but it was far from, it was incredible- not even incredible but INCREDIBLE! So you must know…
My old favourite, Ricardo Da Costa was warming the plates as I arrived, and there was a neat little buzz about the place. Party people found each other, hugged, danced and sighed in relief, as the prospect of dancing next to someone who didn’t know the difference between Gold Fish and Deep Dish was too much to bear and would make any dedicated house head an instant mass murderer. (And yes, that did happen and yes I had to very diligently put my axe awaaay and try not to snarl!). The happy reunion saw our first group trip to the bar- and the beginning of what could have been a one-night (all next day) trip to Sweden for me and the Vodka sessions… I did try though, I did!
When Roger Goode came on, the outside dancefloor swarmed into a mild frenzy- maybe because people thought this was the main man of the party and Deep Dish was the pizza special from Debonairs that was going to be served after… hehe, I’m cynical, I’m sorry!
No, the man has pulling power no-one can refuse and it was good to see all these different people partying together- and that, if anything besides the music, was the beauty of the whole affair! This wasn’t your typical night at Taboo- and it was very evident! There were dedicated parties from the underground likes of Truth and Sutra who ventured out to blink into the glitter ball that is the stylish club Taboo. And we all ‘made love and listened to the music’ together- it was a seamless crossing of Sub-cultures and not as pretentious as one seems to assume about them party-goers in Sandton! So we had ‘Vodka’s to celebrate’ and refueled for the next installment of the evenings festivities!
When Roger bowed out, a thanking cheer turned into a welcoming roar as Sharam took center stage- and he immediately took the music down a twisted road never to be returned! He banged out a dirty progressive set and early on dropped in the ‘Say Hello’ vocal- which, of course, everyone knew – his guaranteed party-starter -and from that second on they ate anything he fed them- the crowd went bonkers! -And there’s no better word to say it! Nine West heels were grinding all ‘round and everyone really let loose. It was awesome to watch…and dance… and watch! While playing, he even signed random pieces of paper, CD’s and an ass. Yip, what a guy! (party pics (ass included) to follow shortly) And the great Techno Tannie; who’d I’d only ever heard rumours about- a house head, I am told, from the really good old days, who’s love for the dance scene never died; made a rare appearance and shook it up with us young’uns as the Dish wrapped up his set – aaah, love it!
Having held the crowd for a good 2hours, Sharam gave Dean Fuel the reigns and the boy with the cap took them willingly and kept whipping the crowd with a sexy dark set himself. My Vodka session came to an all time crescendo at this stage when I was offered a glass- yes, A GLASS of vodka by the now partying Sharam after I tracked him down for an introduction. He’d been harassed by the ‘Vinyl Frontier Guy’ and was most relieved I’d saved him! He was pretty chatty, and took the opportunity to interview ME to see if I had the credentials to in turn interview him…Hmmm… Interesting!
The dancefloor fury died a little, leaving the real disco-dancers to own the floor- which they did without hesitation and gave Mister Fuel the opportunity to get really grungy- Sandton hasn’t had a lashing that hard in a while! I was so proud! The beat went on and on until the wee hours and it was past 5 am when I snapped out of my vodka soaked trance and made way to my car- long standing all alone!
I was literally shocked, and I make NO reference to Vodka here; into one of the most amazing events I’ve ever been to, (VIVA the cancer causing camels!) and my response to those who missed the boat, skanky email database thieving marketing and all: Naaa na na naa naaaaa!
Having said all that, I found myself at a loss on Saturday, wondering what ‘cool’ happenings were rocking the city that night, and came to an awesomely earth shattering conclusion: ‘I had been to one of the best parties of my life the night before and nothing but being given a flight to Ibiza in July could top that right now!’. And so, I took a chiller, the best way I could think how: DVD’s and a DeepDish pizza…
