Writing a post about Bootie now is, like my mom would probably say, a little like closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out, but sooner or later you've gotta close it or else your hay is going to blow all over the yard and scare your chickens.
Or something.
Anyway, BootieLA is a party that happens the first and third Saturdays of every month at a club called the Echoplex. It's the brainchild of two SF-based Producer/DJs who go by A plus D (aka DJ Adrian and Mysterious D), and held down month in and month out by resident DJ and co-founder of BootieLA, DJ Paul V.
For more info, pictures, and for what amounts to a love letter to Bootie, click through the Read More link below and take a look.
To call me a Bootie groupie would be an understatement. For years I've been making my weekend, month and travel plans around the first weekend of the month, trying to be in town as often as possible so I can make BootieLA. The club got started back in 2005 when I was working Relativity and looking for something interesting to do. I came across Party Ben's Boulevard of Broken Songs online somewhere and was immediately hooked on mashups. I found and downloaded a bunch and then emailed the DJ to say thanks. He put me on his mailing list and I heard about Bootie a month later. I didn't know anyone then who would deign to go out to Echo Park to a club (it was even less hip with the Hollywood crowd then than it is now), so I went alone.
And damn was I glad.
To paraphrase a great definition: A mashup is when you take two songs and mash them together to make an even richer explosion of musical expression. At Bootie, they spin all mashups all night long. New and old, hip-hop and country, Soundtracks and silliness. First timers are easy to spot because they're never sure what to expect and always delighted. You can see it in their faces - they haven't been paying attention, getting in, getting to the bar, getting drink in hand, then they hear "This is why I'm hot" and run to the dancefloor, only to stop when Def Leppard interrupts Nims' vocal stylings with a little Pour Some Sugar on Me. Soon, however, the newbie recognizes that Nims ain't mad - he loves it, and a strange and beautiful duet ensues. So there we are - a few hours a month of musical silliness, inventiveness and all-around goodness.
Bootie's crowd is about as eclectic as a club crowd can be, which, for LA, is a great thing. There aren't any velvet ropes guarded by a list-toting brunette, just a guy that checks your ID and Tony who takes your cover and gives you a CD and Boom - you're in. There's a line if you come right before the cover bumps to $10 (from $8), and recently, there's been more of a line because the last year has been very good to us, but the club is rarely super-packed and the Echoplex has such a large lounge area that you've got plenty of space to get away from the always-busy dancefloor.
Adrian, D and Paul V are joined onstage by a rotating cast of special guest DJs - folks who've come from Europe, Asia and even right here in LA. Different DJs bring different sounds, ideas and projects with them (this month's was a DJ who spun his set on two iPads and a Mac). Tearing up the dance floor month in and month out with skits, costumes and plenty of pizzaz is R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance). There's lots of unauthorized stage dancing, too (more or less, depending on the month), but nothing that comes close to the fun of a few folks doin' it for the love. Also regular is Joe Drunkrockers - our resident party photographer from way back who snaps a ton of cool shots every month. Checking his site for our pictures is like a sport - a where's waldo of dance club absurdity.
Back when I started going to Bootie, I literally couldn't pay someone (or someone's admission) to go with me. I just didn't have a friends list deep enough to include someone who was happy with great music, an inclusive atmosphere & decent drink prices in exchange for going to Echo Park. With every person I've ended up bringing to Bootie over the years, it's been the music that's convinced them - that one moment when they're in my car and the perfect mashup that speaks to them comes on the stereo, or maybe something they overhear playing on my workstation. Once convinced, everyone who goes loves it. I think of the extended family of people I've introduced to Bootie (and friends of friends) as a family tree - one of my people, those for whom I'm responsible, at least in theory. They're always in good hands with the mixmasters on stage, but I still flit around and chat and dance and generally bother my people all night. Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's fewer, but there's almost always someone from the huge list of my people at Bootie. Last year there was a time when there were probably 25 people a month going to Bootie as a direct result of me - quite a change from the way I started, and the best way I know how to say thanks for all the music over the years.
Anyway, below is a tiny representative sample of pictures from Bootie - it's 70ish pictures snapped over 4 years (a search of my /pictures folder reveals almost 2000 shots). I'm grossly over-represented in the album, but in this case it feels right, or as right as looking at your own silly face topped with a bandana is likely to get. You don't have to look at them, but no Bootie post would be complete without some pictures.
