I spent this summer living out an adolescent fantasy, roaming the east coast playing music festivals between trips to Cuba, quitting my job, and moving back to Cali. It’s been a wild ride, capped by a suitably spectacular week in Black Rock City for Burning Man.
Between camping with and playing music at Something Freaky This Way Foams, DJing with Tasty as part of a takeover of Darwin Fish Tank, and the spontaneous set that ensued, I played music for 15 hours over the course of the week. Here are two 150 minute sets that I spun back-to-back the night of Thursday, September 3 and morning of Friday, September 4.
This was my first time spinning with my Tasty family from SF:
I spun this mellow, downtempo, jazzy, dreamy two-and-a-half hour mix for Camp Mega Mikoshi (referring to a traditional Japanese shrine) in Black Rock City at sunrise:
My sunrise set at Mega Mikoshi (referring to a traditional Japanese shrine) was an entirely unplanned surprise, driven by a nuclear physicist’s invitation at 6am — as I was closing out 2-and-a-half hours on the decks with Tasty at Darwin Fish Tank — to play for a camp of Japanese burners with a scaffold to watch the sunrise. I walked over, had a lovely time playing for sunrise, and met some of my new friend’s friends, including a Mike who serves as the Japan regional contact for Burning Man. As it happened, Mike had camped over 15 years ago with Brent, one of the Tasty DJs who played Darwin Fish Tank leading into my set a few hours before.
I’ve been noticing recently that DJing is as much about remixing communities as it is remixing tracks. Reuniting Mike with Brent presented a fun post-set adventure, a surprise as fun as the chance to spin this set in the first place.