Ed Banger in New York

(photo taken by Rebecca Smeyne for myopenbar.com)

Uffie, "Hot Chick"

Uffie, "In Charge"

I'm fully recovered and rested from my Thursday night odyssey to New York City, so I wanted to discuss how great and crazy a night this was. I took the 6:30 Chinatown bus, rolled in at 8:30, met the two people most responsible for this show in the LES and headed to the show at 10ish after some Weeds viewing. In possibly the coolest event of my young life, LF and MF took me to the front of the line and got me right in. Cheah!

The place, Element, was a great choice, a huge place right at the corner of Delancey and Stanton, with a giant dancefloor and a balcony for people watching and privacy. There was also a room off of the dancefloor that had couches and shit, but I never really settled in there. Things didn't start to pick up until DJ Lauren Flax came on around 11 and killed it. She dropped a set of electro-y hounge bangers, including the night's first spin of Justice vs Simian's "We Are Friends." It was a short set, but all I know is that I look forward to checking out her weekly White Lightning! and anything else that she gets her hands into.

First up from the Ed Banger crew was DJ Mehdi, who I actually knew the least about. He would set the tone for the night, spinning predominately house, dance and new electro tracks, building the tension and release thing and generally killing it. From there, SebastiAn and Para One did their things, finally giving way to Feadz and Uffie's live set.

This was the highlight for me, one of those rare moments when you have the chance to be a part of something new and original, before it's removed, where suddenly the artist is on a stage and far away. Uffie was standing about 3 feet from me at all times, closer to others. The crowd was great, a rare NYC moment when appearance didn't matter and enjoyment did. Uffie was great, commanded her tiny space on the stage and kept people interested and dancing. It was everything that one hoped Lady Sov's show in Philly would have been, as both are small in stature but their songs can make up for that easily. In fact, I totally have a crush on Uffie, as she has style to burn. Ladies, rock hi-tops and one piece tennis dresses. For real.

After that, the night is kind of a blur, as the DJs started to switch off frequently, keeping up the dance music until 4:30. It wasn't until the last 20 minutes or so that a hip hop song came on, which was my only disappointment. I thought that there would be a little more variety in the songs, a little more of a showcase for their influences. It didn't really matter, as I was sober as can be and exhausted and not dancing anyway. It's been 2 weeks of sobriety now (although I did have 2 PBRs before going to the club) and can I just say that it's awful. For real, it's boring and less fun, but necessary right now.

The festivities ended at 4:30, and your hero decided to take the first bus back to Philly rather than crash at someone's place. Unfortunately, the first bus was at 7 am, not 6, which meant killing two hours downtown. The city that never sleeps? True, if you're talking about the rats. Otherwise, sorry NYC, y'all ain't livin' up to the hype. I walked to 14th Street, checked out the synagogue I went to for Rosh Hashanah, walked down 2nd Ave., cried when I saw the remains of the 2nd Ave. Deli, headed over to 1st, found nothing, went to A and had a meal at Odessa. Shout out to Odessa's for being the best late-night option and bringing the good diner food at good prices. From there, I walked down A, saw some punk kid who had pissed himself leaning against a wall, remembered why I'm not drinking now, went to the McDonald's on Delancey and Stanton and learned that they stop serving fries at 4. Had a soda, listened to some neighborhood kids use the F-word more than me, made my way to the bus. All in all, not bad. It was kinda exhilarating being on some No Sleep Til Philly shit, to be honest. It was also kinda sad being back in the LES, seeing some old haunts. Definitely was on some emo shit all night, never a good look.

I want to thank my bol Project Matt for taking care of me and making sure that I was okay. Also, huge shouts to Matt and Lauren, who really pulled off an incredible show that went without any hitches and brought together one of the best crowds I've seen in NYC. These two are simply going to run New York nightlife in the next few months, hope that I will be able to help them out in some way with their big (and I do mean BIG!) plans. Finally, Ed Banger Records left me no doubt that they will be one of the labels to reckon in the next few years.