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Everytime Christopher Lawrence comes into town, my friend Tage makes me bring her to see him. We’ve been going to see him spun since early ‘98. The first trance tape I ever heard was Prophecy (back in ’97), his Rise cd was the first trance cd I’d ever bought. So it’s both tradition and nostalgia for me to hear a Christopher set. After I took a nice 90 minute nap, I picked my friend up from her house and left Thousand Oaks by 10PM (early for her).
We listened to the new Christopher cd, Un-Hooked, on the way there. There was an unusual amount of traffic and gridlock in the intersections around Vine & Santa Monica Blvd. All of the parking lots around Circus were filled. We pulled into a tiny parking area that’s gate was still open, but found no spots. Then I had to back up, being careful not to scrape any of the packed-like-sardines cars. We drove around the neighborhood looking for street parking, when finally I remembered where we’d parked another night. Just west of Highland, adjacent to a Public Storage building, there was metered parking. It’s a nice spot—not too far from the club and well lit (plus free parking). I prepared my vodka & Red Bull and took a half-pill of Ripped Fuel. When I had a good buzz going, we quickly made our way to the Groovetickets tent to pick up our $20 presale tickets (it was $25 at the door). With that, we were ushered to the front of the line, searched and let in. Security didn’t seem very strict when searching. I think they were mainly concerned with weapons. It was about 11:15PM by then. (I hear the club was filled to capacity sometime after midnight.)
After dropping Tage off in her spot, stage-right by the speakers, I made a bee-line for the restroom. I laughed as I saw a girl in line inside the men’s bathroom. The girl’s bathroom was three times as long for most of the night. Just as I walked out of the bathroom, a random guy greeted me. He knew my name, but I honestly told him, for the life of me, that I didn’t recognize him. It was Eric S., someone who I went to elementary school with (and was about the same height, too). I asked him how the hell he recognized me and he said that of course he’d remember the “other” Eric at our school. But also, that we’d met at the Arena (with Erich Haemmerle) across the way on Halloween weekend. Now this was a bit alarming, because I had absolutely zero recollection of this. Even though I was very drunk that night in October, and events later that morning overshadowed anything that had happened previous, it was still scary that I couldn’t recall that I’d met before. I think coincidences and random encounters are special, so I would’ve made a mental note (apparently not). I found out that one of his roommates was deejay Kristina Sky (who I’d randomly met at Grooveriders in Sherman Oaks last October). I was beginning to feel like we really are all plugged into the Matrix.
I went outside to use my cell phone, and a guy with two girls came up to me. He asked if I could let his friends into the hidden corner (behind the hooka lounge) to pee, because they couldn’t wait in that long line. Women sure were resorting to desperate measures because of those lines! I stepped aside and chatted with him while they were doing their business. The conversation led to computers, and I mentioned the Commodore 64. He told me he loved the game Bruce Lee. As his female friend came out of the corner, she had a three-foot-long barbed wire spiral attached to the back of her dress and was dragging it with her. I told him that I’d never seen that before!
I wondered back into the club and checked out the smaller house room. They were spinning some good deep house in there. Gabriel & Dresden were spinning a four-hour set in the main room, but I was conserving my energy for Christopher. I ran into John, an old acquaintance of mine, outside the double-doors by the bathroom. While he was telling me about a new club he was promoting downtown, I spotted a triple-folded bill at my feet. I promptly picked it up and put it in my pocket. It was $20 (that was the cost of my ticket to get in). Usually when you find money, it’s in the darkness on the dance club’s floor. This was in a well-lit, heavy traffic walkway right outside the bathroom. I guess luck was with me that night!
I explored the upstairs lounge, found a seat, and cracked open my 6” glowsticks (pink & blue). Downstairs, Christopher was just stepping up to the deejay booth: it was about 1:15AM now. I saw a guy standing next to me and he was shorter than I was (5’4”). I joked with him about how there’s always one guy shorter than me at a club, and he shook my hand. I met up with Tage again by her speaker, where she was chilling with Matt, a guy she’s met previously at Circus, and an Asian guy who was at his first party. I guess Tage had given him my green bracelet glowstick. I let him keep it, but borrowed his two blue glosticks (so now I had two pair). I danced towards the back of the club, where there was more room. I like to clear a space around where I dance, kicking empty water bottles and flyers/napkins toward the walls. I can’t remember doing that in a long time, but I used to play “soccer” all the time when I first started raving. Eventually, as I’m apt to do, I hopped up on one of the pedestal’s in the middle of the dance floor and just went off. Christopher’s set is just relentless, with no big build-ups or breakdowns to catch your breath: just record after record of pounding, European hard trance. I believe he spun a very hard remix of Lost Tribe’s “Gamemaster” that I really enjoyed. I danced until the last record was spun, around 4:15AM.
We went up to talk to Christopher after his set was over. I wanted to get my original pressing of his Rise cd cover art signed, but I’d forgotten it in the car. Tage encouraged me to ask him if he needed a CDR copy of his Contact promotional cassette to check ebay. He laughed and said to share it with my friends. I told him that Rise was my first trance cd I’d ever heard and that Tage turned me onto it. He said, “I guess I have her to thank then.” I asked him about another set I had that was similar to rise, and he said that it was probably his Prophecy promo tape. That was actually the first time I ever heard trance. I mentioned how everytime I saw him back in 1998, he was spinning with Thomas Michael (he agreed that spun a lot together). Tage asked him if he’d lost weight. He answered that he had because he was getting “love handles.” When the Asian guy told Christopher that this was his first party, he joked back “It’s all downhill from here!” Props to the security guards who didn’t hassle us by letting a bunch of us stay and talk to Christopher.
On our way out of the club, I came across two nice hats that I’d picked up. After washing them, I’ll give them away to friends. I also picked up a Polaroid photo of an Asian couple sitting together on the couch behind the deejay booth (if this is your lost photo, email me). Matt walked with Tage and I to my car, and I drove them to his. As I was driving home, I grew very hungry and got some fish and chips at Jack in the Box. As I ate, I watched a Saturday Night Live episode I’d taped earlier that night with Queen Latifah. There was a hilarious fake commercial about shaving your pubes that I’d never seen. With that, I went to bed, sometime after 6AM, and awoke after 10AM. Does anyone else have as much trouble as I do after drinking Red Bull all night? |
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