Urban Marinade

We continue our look at Miami Music Week by closing out our Wednesday in South Beach back at Dream Nightclub. This time we were the guests of Gareth Emery and Garuda Records at Gareth’s Northern Lights Re-Lit Album Release party. I want to throw a hugh thank you out there to Sophie with Garuda who not only took care of us but was such a delight to meet and hang out with throughout the week. Gareth certainly has an amazing team behind his label.

Now on to the real story…the party. Oh my God, what a great party! I think every moderate to big name in the trance music movement was in attendance at this party. Blake Jarrell opened the night. Menno de Jong and John O’Callaghan took over the decks after Gareth. Nic Chagall and Stefan Bossems of Cosmic Gate were hanging around. Markus Schulz dropped by. Sid van Riel and TyDi were mixing it up with guests. I think Ralph Kyau and Steven Albert popped in for a bit and DnB powerhouse John B. was showing off some of his great fashion. Rob and I were hanging right by the DJ booth and at one point I turned around and realized we were basically in the middle of the trance music world. I looked at Rob and basically asked, “how did we get here?” =) Read on for more on the party and photos from the evening…



One thing that really hit me while we attended this party was how large and yet really small the dance music world actually is. It was like an epiphany to my relationship with the lindy hop world and competition dancing. In the dance world, there are pro dancers from all over. More than you can really know. Most only see each other at big dance competitions. But they’re all pretty tight because they share this common bond of traveling, teaching, competing, etc. It’s like an inner circle of the dance world that, unless you travel a lot and compete, will never know. It was the exact same thing I saw here at Dream on Wednesday night. You have this collection of successful DJs from all over the world. They really only see each other on occasion if they spin together at a club or play at the same festival. But when they come together it’s like a giant family. Miami is the one time per year that literally brings them all together. Wednesday at Dream was their night to party. It was my first real look into that inner circle of the internationally touring DJ world.



I think the thing that really stood out to me was how laid back the night was. You’d think with so many big names in the dance world milling about, there would be tightened security and overzealous managers protecting their clients. But nope. There was none of that. It was a party. It was a party by an amazing DJ for other DJs. The dance music fans in attendance gave it even more energy. And Gareth Emery absolutely destroyed it this night. His set was one to be remembered for the week.

I wish I could say more about my images. I’ve been messing with this whole no flash concept and probably wasn’t quite ready to try it throughout the whole night. I know my older lens certainly wasn’t ready for it. It’s actually a shame I didn’t buy my 2.8 lenses until after I returned from Miami. They would have gone a long way in capturing better shots. I also think I felt rushed to do what I needed to do. I got in the booth twice, but both times I was in there for maybe 5 minutes. Clearly 5 minutes isn’t enough to feel out the lighting, get the settings straight and capture those classic moments a DJ has with his crowd. My favorite shot was when Gareth turned to me and threw the peace sign. Thankfully I had my flash on and it fired.

Hopefully I’ll have more opportunity to show Gareth what I can do. Maybe next time I’ll relax a bit more in the booth. It’s definitely hard when you’re standing next to one of the great DJ/Producers in the world and someone you call one of your favorites. Regardless of images, we were just thankful to share that night with the rest of the dance music insiders that attended.