We arrived at Clock at around 1AM, to enter a club that was packed but not fully, just enough to rave in your own space. The sound system juiced up just enough power to live up to EDM, but on the expense of clarity, as the highs were too acute, cascading the mids and consequently the vocals and melodies to a certain extent. The DJ booth was high, way up high, you actually had to climb a ladder to get to it, which reminded me of my gig in Mute (and when Johnny almost fell from that ladder
). A pair of CDJ200 and a DJM600 were being raped by DJ Tim, who was playing ear-shattering Tech House that got the walls vibrating and the crowd rotating. The kind of DJ that pushes his gear to their extremes, utilizing all sorts of effects and tricks to spice up the set, and everyone seemed to enjoy that, except for us trancers perhaps; as I was telling Hani: "no matter how open minded you are to other music genres, when your mind is intoxicated with Trance, you just can't go back".
But don't get too excited, not just yet.Tim's set was supposed to end at 1:30 or 2AM max, to give Johnny the opportunity to take over at peak time and deliver his much-anticipated set. But it didn't. It was until 2:45AM that Johnny took over the lead, which in local clubbing is way too late for the main DJ to kick it off. Were he to start at, say 2AM max, the crowd would have easily stayed in full till 3:30 or 4, but to take over that late signifies a much earlier departure of the crowd - that's just the way crowds work. The first act of unfairness directed towards Johnny was precisely this: being given the leftovers instead of the optimum.
To get a tad on the brightside, let's talk about this Johnny person. You'd think that a radio DJ can't deliver a serious set? Think again! A wise choice of tracks, classy mixing, sincere interaction, and a not so serious attitude that you can't but smile back at, despite the high calibre DJing he puts up! It's really rare to see a DJ who looks so comfortable with what he's doing, as if it were just another walk in the park for him, yet delivering right up to your expectations. Johnny has the sort of playfulness which reminds you that Trance can be enjoyed in a less serious way as well. People often underrate the influence that the DJ's attitude may exert on the dancefloor, but those who were there last night know what I am talking about. Johnny really makes you "happy" to be at his gig, this is who he is as a DJ, this is his musical definition, and this is one of the non-material criteria I highly value about a DJ, which nevertheless is quite a rarity: having an identity. In that set that, alas, turned out to be much shorter than we had anticipated, and that wasn't even allowed to strike its peak, Johnny didn not shine; he radiated. He radiated positive vibrations, the only positivity that emanated from last night, and that emanated bright enough to heal the wounds inflicted by the awful, shameful organization. It's truly amazing how music, when delivered by its connoisseurs, can alone be enough to drift your thoughts and feelings from the all the negative energy that surrounds you. To our good fortune, on the night of Saturday the 23rd of September in 2006, we had DJ Johnny as our Trance connoisseur.
As the musical ignorants started migrating the club since they stopped hearing Walking Away and The Drill, Johnny kept a steady smile on his face, careless of the injustice imposed upon him, and of the mistreatment of his fans, of us. Yes, mistreatment, major mistreatment. The night's negative vibrations were not strictly restricted on the organization, but on customer service as well. I have been clubbing for years now, but I do not recall a club that disrespected its clients as much as Clock disrespected us last night. Envision this scenario: Johnny just mixed in Can't Sleep, your hands are in the air (since us commercial cheese listeners still do that and will always do that w 3a 3aynak ya téjir), your eyes are shut, a careless little smile is drawn on your relaxed face, you are getting ready to sing along the intoxicating vocals, ready to bounce along the forthcoming beat, when suddenly and out of the blue the club's lights are turned on. Yes, way on. A message they were trying to deliver, one we ignored. At this point there were only a few of us left, but we were not ready to abandon Johnny, not just yet, not until he was all done so that we walk him out the way a DJ of his calibre merits. Arms stood firmly in thin air, eyeslids remained shut as a cellardoor, and the night perpetuated, for us and our DJ at least. As if that wasn't enough already, by the time Real High was mixed in, the bouncer yells out to us the following: "yalla 3a byoutkoun, khallsouna ba2a, 3ande sheghel bokra el sobo7". Raw class! Needless to say, the manager/owner/whatevertheseguysliketobecalled didn't even bother to say a word; again, customer care! Control Freak was on Johnny's playlist next, but by then that same bouncer had already stood up on the bar to tell Johnny, the DJ, the only good thing about the entire night, to tell him the same thing he had told us; a mediocre bouncer ordering the DJ the stop the music because he had an early wake up call? Truly, I may now die knowing that I have seen it all.
But one cannot but point one thing out here. It's a positive thing, and so it obviously had to do with Johnny. If I were in his shoes, I would've gotten so mad that my reaction would've been unpredictable. But Johnny preserved his usual calmness, maintained that innocent smile on his face, and played out the last track till its very last beat. By doing so he sent out a clear message to whoever's behind last night's negative vibrations, one of an authentic trancer, as trancers are not merely music listeners, but people of a certain culture, that of peace and forgiveness. Till the very last beat and the crash that signals the end of the track, Johnny smiled, and smiled, and smiled. I will keep what happened after the music was forcefully silenced to myself upon Johnny's request which I cannot but respect, but I feel compelled to yell out one thing: what happened last night was wrong, dead wrong, and needs to be retributed. I demand that Clock allocates to Johnny another event, one in which he starts much earlier, one in which the damaged customers get made up for. It is only if this happens that I would be willing to go to Clock again in my life.
Positive Vibrations, the event was named.
Negative Vibrations alone, the event projected.
Positive Vibration, just one, saved the night: Johnny the DJ, Johnny the person.[/align]
ing manner in which we were kicked out of the place, but you all get the picture now. So I'll just say a few more words about the man of the night and get this post done with:
) I played the music I wanted to play and that you wanted to hear but surely not ALL of the set I wanted to play (i'd say 25% of it).
hope each and every one of you will be able to attend another "proper" gig and sorry again for all the incidents.
