Rating: NNNNN
Trashy fun
The 80s vibe suits the sounds at La Copa ‘s Trasheteria , a monthly electro/acid house/disco punk night featuring Andrew Allsgood , the Robotic Kid and Eeni Meeni . The music is split between classics and current tracks inspired by the early days of underground dance music. I checked it out last Saturday and discovered that the crowd tends to get there late but the room does fill up eventually, drawing a mix of hip fags, fashionable girls and scenesters.
Unfortunately, the sound system needs some maintenance. One of the turntables was consistently quieter than the other for the whole night.
On the other hand, this kind of music isn’t really about the mixing, so if it’s a bit rough around the edges no one really cares except for the DJs.
Fun night, and cheap. Keep an eye out for flyers. It’s not promoted as heavily as some nights and seems to rely more on word of mouth.
Punk-funk revival
Toronto is falling in love with the sounds of post-punk disco. A monthly party dedicated to punk-funk called NoTO started up Thursday night at the Silver Dollar , featuring Will Munro and Stuart Berman behind the turntables. (Denise Benson is usually part of the night but was double-booked.)
Munro and Benson made a previous attempt at this concept a few months back at Surface , but not many people came out and the venue didn’t really suit the music, so they’ve revived it at the more appropriately grungy Silver Dollar.
The crowd is a mix of music nerds and flamboyant gays, which sounds a bit weird but isn’t that different from the crowd at Munro’s better-known monthly, Vazaleen .
The plan is to start bringing in live bands as well, and future events will most likely happen on weekend nights, so watch out for the flyers.
Larry’s party
As respected as Larry Heard is as a producer, many were unsure what he’d be like as a DJ. His last appearance here saw him playing in puddles of rain, ruining a good portion of his records and causing technical problems. Last Friday at Una Mas , though, he showed that he is indeed a good DJ and not just a producer doing it for some extra cash.
After good warm-up sets by Dale Arsenault and Victor , Heard stepped up to the decks and started off his set with some slow and sexy deep house. After pulling in the crowd, he brought the tempo and energy up with techno and house classics and continued mixing the old and the new all night.
Dopey does it
Local turntablist DJ Dopey deserves some love for winning the title of DMC World Champion over the weekend. He’s always been an impressive DJ to watch because he knows how to use his skills in a more musical way than a lot of scratch DJs. This win should bring a lot more favourable attention his way, and maybe to the city as well.
