Switch There’s more to an incredible club night than just the lineup, and frankly, there’s only so much a venue can do about it. Take for example, seminal DJ destination Smart Bar. An unusually empty night can leave high-profile DJs like the Rapture searching their bags for the next record to play before the last one ends in an uninspired effort, only to return a few months later to a packed post-Lollapalooza event and, dare I say, (rock the) party like a rock star. So for the best night at Smart Bar, you’ll have to set the Wayback Machine to February. There’s something about a packed Chicago club in winter, where cabin fever compels even the laziest hermit out in search of social release. Along comes the Chicago debut of Dave Taylor aka Switch. Perhaps best known now for producing most of M.I.A.’s latest album “Kala,” Taylor was still on the rise, riding high off of hit remixes and original productions that had just started getting his name out. DJs across the board were snatching up his fidgety house mutations, and even Tommie Sunshine declared Taylor “the king of electronic music right now.” Detractors might hate on his self-indulgent exercises in bottomed-out breakdowns in the booth, but Switch had the crowd in the palm of his hand that night, exploding the floor with every big choon, particularly his own remix of The Futureheads’ “Worry About It Later.” February 9, 2007
Audience choice: Justice and Dark Wave Disco DJs
Best audience comments:Dancing with my friend Sheila Burns until we were very good friends, as tired from laughing as from dancing;I don`t think the words `Smart` and `Bar` have been married in any other context.
On Vacation: One Night in the Voodoo Museum The driving rain banged off the tin shelter. Putting my head back I realized I was alone with a group of strangers, inside the Voodoo Museum.
El of a Night: Twelve Hours on the Red and Blue Lines While I ride CTA trains a few times a week, I was interested in getting a better sense of what conditions are like on the El at other times of the day. So I hung out on the Red and Blue routes from 5pm to 5am.
