@taylorsimonson/Instagram

Araabmuzik w/Flosstradamus, Teengirl Fantasy, Nick Hook
East River Park
Monday, August 20

Better than: Drinking Red Bull to get through just about anything else.

Watching the Manhattan-by-night sightseeing cruises pass behind East River Park's Summerstage during last night's Araabmuzik-headlined show, you had to wonder how the ship's tour guide was explaining the scene they floated by. Hundreds of teenagers—some atop each other's shoulders, some whipping bottles of water into the air, one wearing an "MDMA-ZING" neon tank, and far too many smoking cigs (among other things) behind their mothers' backs—screamed, raved, flailed, and booty-popped to Waka Flocka Flame before collectively bouncing into a moshpit for a remix of Baauer's "Harlem Shake." "To your right, you'll see one of New York City's many diverse music festivals," we imagine the tour guide told his voyeurs.

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Ian Meyer

The Rub.

The Brooklyn collective of DJ Ayres, DJ Eleven, and Cosmo Baker celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their now-legendary rap party The Rub this weekend. While their monthly rager moved from the now-shuttered Park Slope club Southpaw to Gowanus' much larger Bell House, the party remains a house-party-away-from-home for many New Yorkers, with the three DJs and their guests serving up hip-hop classics old and new alongside dancehall, R&B, funk, and stints of disco/house in an environment that encourages dancing over everything else.

The Rub has always been something much larger than just another dance party, and my first time there, back in its Southpaw days, is something I'll always remember (I've gotten emotional about it once before). At the risk of sounding clichéd, the night left me with the distinct feeling that this party was representative of the growing underground and DJ community, which was a more inclusive, more interesting, more demographically diverse group than I had ever seen before. Not only were Ayres, Eleven, and Cosmo some of the best DJs Brooklyn had to offer, they trusted the talents of their friends and the open-mindedness of their audience enough to build a relationship based on mutual love and friendship as much as it was on pure entertainment.

In honor of the Rub being around for a decade (the party in its honor is tomorrow night at The Bell House), SOTC asked some of its friends to share their memories.

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Dracula is the image most frequently equated with Trouble and Bass founder and DJ Drop the Lime. "It's because I'm a night owl, always showing up everywhere," says Luca Venezia—and he's a New York night owl at that. Born and raised downtown to artist parents, Venezia has lived through three decades of the city's growing dance community: hardcore and punk shows and warehouse raves in the nineties, his own drum-n-bass and breakcore experimentations in the early aughts, and the early days of the now-massive DIY bass and electro scenes in Brooklyn via the Trouble and Bass collective.

While electro, club, grime, and bass influences have always been the most prominent in his better-known dance productions, Venezia has always had a slightly odd rocker undertone to his live performances: He identifies as much with rockabilly as he does with dance, and credits Elvis Presley as one of his idols as a performer. With last week's release of his new album Enter The Night (Ultra), Venezia brings his rocker edge to the forefront with a sultry, downtempo collection of songwriting that rely on techno minimalism and more subtly knocking synths to back it up. The result sounds something like a score for an an old-timey Western directed by David Lynch.

SOTC talked to Drop the Lime a few days before Enter The Night's release about the growth of the New York dance underground, how rockabilly and electro aren't all that different, why sex and music are inseparable, and the motivation behind his new album.

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@saytj1/Twitter

DJ Premier at the Kool Herc tribute.

Kool Herc's Birthday/Sutra; Normalized Dance Night/Niagara Bar
Thursday, April 26

Better than: Reading about how NYC's nightlife is dead.

Last month, in the spirit of March Madness, SOTC created a tournament with the aim of crowning the quintessential New York musician. Popularly dubbed the Godfather of Hip-Hop, Kool Herc made it onto the bracket as a representative of the Bronx, though he was knocked out of the running early. Readers voted Bette Midler on to the next round instead. It's funny, really—an over-the-top diva pitted against an understated, genre-defining man of the streets—but the legendary DJ's understated familiarity is part of his charm. (As our bracket lobbyist noted, the 57 year-old DJ can be seen riding his bike around the Bronx during warmer months.) And at his birthday celebration at Sutra last night, it couldn't be any more apparent that as far as New York's rap community is concerned, Herc will always be the guy who made it happen for them all.

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via @AtFordNews

The Honey Brothers (with Adrian Grenier)
Random Warehouse on Tenth Ave.
Wednesday, April 18

Better Than: Would Turtle's band be Saigon?

Let's get this out of the way now: Adrian Grenier was member of new-wave folk troupe Honey Brothers before he was Vince Chase on Entourage and not the other way around. The band even had some influence on the show; Vince's endearingly aggro agent Ari Gold got his name from Grenier's bandmate (whose website notes that he was neither asked nor paid for this identity theft). And as someone who has recently documented a number of very strange events that hosted actors-turned-musicians, going into last night's Honey Brothers show knowing that the HBO star has been in his band for seven years gave us some hope.

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@MONADREAMGYRL/Twitpic

The-Dream
S.O.B.'s
Sunday, March 11

Better than: Seeing Terius Nash tonight (I hope).

"I'm too rich to play with high-class bitches," retorted The-Dream at his show at S.O.B.'s last night. Said "high-class bitch" was a lady he had pulled from the audience to seduce on stage during an especially touchy-feely rendition of "Purple Kisses." With the sold-out venue watching, she squirmed uncomfortably around his whispers in her ears and wandering hands and, as a result, Mr. Nash was quick to swap her out for a more willing fan. Girl No. 2 was more than thrilled to wrap her arms around the singer and lean into him as he kissed her neck on stage. The whole scene had half of the audience hollering in appreciation as the other half watched through their hands, mouths agape, although it was probably a mistake to expect anything less from the oversexed bedroom crooner.

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via Red Bull Music Academy

Oneohtrix Point Never
The Studio At Webster Hall
Tuesday, March 6

Better than: Being in an actual coma, I suppose.

There were only twenty or so people left standing in Webster Hall's basement at the end Oneohtrix Point Never's performance last night. The majority of the audience had slowly trickled out not too long into Daniel Lopatin's computerized solo set for Red Bull Music Academy, which came on the heels of a brief lecture. It wasn't exactly his fault; the producer's sprawling, noise-laden cinematics aren't really made for group consumption.

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Bryan Derballa/via Vice

[Hipster Puppies joke.]

Vice's Fashion Week Party
Westway
Wednesday, February 8

Better than: Not getting into the secret Skrillex show.

Last night, the line to get into West Village's middle-of-nowhere dance club Westway wrapped around one block in one direction of the door and down two blocks in the other. The strip club-turned-scenester hangout was hosting Vice's Fashion Week party and "doggie fashion show," you see. And despite the maddening flurries of snow and confusion surrounding the mobbed door, hundreds of hip hopefuls braved the cold and, more importantly, the shame of being seen waiting in line at a party where "knowing someone" is the only way you're getting in. The media entrance was no less of a clusterfuck either; the line hosted at least seventy fashion writers, party-o-graphing tumblrers, and nightlife bloggers. (Shout out to GuestOfAGuestOfAGuest.com.)

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Diana Levine/Bushmills

Elijah Wood
The Wooly
Thursday, February 2

Better Than: Reading about Bon Iver on the internet today.

After attending a party called Macaulay Culkin's iPod two months ago, during which I watched the love of my kindergarten days supervise a six-hour playlist and the twenty-somethings that were confused by it, I joked that Elijah Wood, a fellow childhood love and Culkin's on-screen rival in The Good Son, might have better taste in music. Apparently the Internet has ears: Last night we were invited to a Bon Iver hosted party featuring a live DJ set by none other than Frodo himself. And what sane person passes up free drinks and the opportunity to tell Elijah Wood that we loved his work in North? Not us.

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Buraka Som Sistema
Bowery Ballroom
Wednesday, January 11

Better Than: A Tae-Bo workout.

Confetti shooting party-poppers, mega-blasting Super Soakers, sexually charged underagers, and plenty of ass-shaking set the tone for Buraka Som Sistema's New York tour stop at Bowery Ballroom last night. The Portugeuse dance collective is taking the celebration aspect of its newest release, Komba, literally.

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