Jawn P (left) and Top Choice Clique back in 1993 |
Boston can seem small at times, but when you start spreading outward (Revere, Quincy, Medford, holla!), you’re dealing with a serious piece of real estate. The MARINATE jump-off at JP’s Milky Way on February 23 will see residents TOMMEE and KNIFE welcome back Porn Theatre Usher NABO RAWB’s solo project MOUNT OLYMPUS STEEZE, which features production from ED 45, FARMER TED, and others. Also on the bill, and also celebrating a CD release, is JAWN P (Top Choice Clique). Both acts have been lying low, so this is a kind of welcome-back party. And even with another local deck wizard — ESOTERIC — on the bill, tix are still just $5.
JP still reps the gay community, typically at the Midway Café’s the NEIGHBORHOOD, a queer/trans throwdown the second Saturday of each month. Resident DJ D’HANA, of Chubrub Productions, spins a laundry list of club hits — from Wham! to the Presets to OutKast and the Slits. The self-described “community-based dance project” also features host GUNNER SCOTT, and the next one’s on January 13. For more information go to chubrub.org. . . . A new gay night opened in Cambridge a few weeks back at the new Shine club in Kendall Square, where there’s plenty of stainless steel and white pleather, as well as a ginormous soundsystem. Confronted with two bars and glowing columns that slowly change color, you’ll swear you’re in Miami. The gay night is called Seed and it features the turntable stylings of one MSLADYJ.
A little farther ahead is the 10th anniversary of Boston’s longest-running indie club night, the PILL. “The magical date is October 5,” writes Pill promoter MICHAEL MAROTTA via e-mail. “Though we’ve bounced around through five venues now, we’re fairly certain this anniversary will go down at Great Scott. As far as we know, it’s the third longest-running indie dance night in North America.” The Pill is truly the grand old man of the local scene, surviving the exit of one founder (DJ JEN) and the entrance of Marotta.
The Phoenix Landing’s Tension Wednesdays are headed into their second year with strength: on January 31 it’s the return of Red Light Productions founder and Boston club icon SHANNON SHALAKO. The evening is built around breaks, a genre with heavy elastic bass lines and snapping tech-funk grooves. . . . One dude who’s been MIA is Mass Muzik impresario PAT FONTES, who recently got back from Germany, where he holed up in Hannover. “I spent most of my days at Time Tools Studios,” he writes via e-mail, “where artists such as LOCO DICE, MARTIN BUTTRICH, TIMO MAAS, and others all have offices or studios. Their inviting attitude and outlook on music . . . it’s not only a love but it’s a way of life.” Fontes has a new mix called Dirty Days Vol. 3; check it out here.
