Cheebah presents Dj Cool C in Mickey Martins Sat Aug 1
Back to the scene of the crime in the words of The Incredible Mr Freeze as the return of Cool C brought the old jams to the alleyway in fine style this Saturday night. Limerick summertime seems now to be a quite time as the lure of Killkee and various holiday trails account for the absence of a few faces tonight for the return of Killkennys finest Dj (b-boys and tattooed club girls not withstanding). I also observed that the ever diminishing music fans that would previously have come out for a gig of this calibre seem to have now been replaced by a curious Saturday night crowd who now gravitate to Mickeys,checking out a soundtrack that offers a funky alternative to the chart and rock menus found in other venues as the weekend gets its party face on.
C is an underground type of guy who currently resides in Spain and through his djing, he threads rare sounds with familiar favorites as a type of event management for the weekend.This means that as classy girls swing to Diana Ross the dotted heads in the crowd nod to the fact that he swung in there via Frank Zappa. Very aware of how his soulwaxed contempories currently program sets, C knows he has to work twice as hard and does so by juggling Hiphop beats and scratch techniques with an open selection that dosent alienate the mainstream. He played an energetic 4 hour set that was crowd pleasing in an honest sense.
Hands up here, I'm the unashamed trainspotter who bugged out in the alley to Shut up and dances first single before saluting a neat latin set that led into C’s patented Simple minds cut up. And nobody has played early 90s rappers Hard knocks out since the days white boys rocked africian pendants either (story lyrics! cant front on that).
Mickeys staff put a lot of work into diverse daytime sounds so in theory a visting dj is denied a lot of staples should he seek the staffs fresh vote. Tonight this jury announced he was ‘better than last time’ and praised the Kraftwerk theme the night shall be remembered for behind the bar (not to mention he got the fire jugglers back in the alley as well!)
On a final note a general fatigue is evident as downloading music seems to have sapped the energy previously associated with hearing and enjoying a Dj play out . The primacy of heading into a spot for a few pints and listening to a selector ply his own wares must be respected. References and demands seem to have become telescoped within the false currency of the immediate download. If the option of ‘funky house’ ‘chunky indie’,Chart and/or RnB’ is not immediately on offer there is a tendancy to regard sets like Cool Cs as registering as ‘confusing’ to a mainstream weekend crowd (i.e he played a very diverse and paced selection of music over the course of the night). This of course shouldn’t be the case. The above thought did briefly occur to me as I wondered where the odd music head was but then scanning the smiling newbie faces I optimisticly felt that there was a new found apprication for a hardworking oldschool record player plying his wares in the alley on a summers night. Edutainment as KRS1 might say.
Paul Tarpey
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