Photo by Hey Mr. Riot
If you were at The Beacham this past Tuesday Night then you got to witness true greatness as the #1 scratch DJ on the planet graced Orlando with his presence.
He’s not just the guy from Duck Sauce, or the guy who put out that catchy hit “Barbara Streisand”, this is the guy who at 16 years old was a DMC World Champion and has played venues worldwide for years before acclaiming fame from those songs. He also was Kanye Wests touring DJ while everyone still hated him, this is A-Trak and he put on a 2 hour CLINIC.
When I arrived to The Beacham, Henry Fong and some other guy I didn’t recognize were finishing up their set and I saw that they werent using a computer so that was commendable to see in the year 2011. Anyways, they finished up, then A-Rock and Nova started their 4-turntable set, which I had never seen before outside of maybe a song or two. Those two were more than impressive the way they went back-and-forth with each other I must say. I know A-Rock didn’t wanna completely steal the show, so he held off from playing the new Flo Rida single.
After A-Rock & Nova, the man himself was ready to take the decks. Starting out with a blistering scratch routine like only he could, A-Traks set was full of Disco-Funk with a touch of Electro flavor. If you have ever listened to one of his Fools Gold Radio entries then you recognized most of the tracks but he kept it fresh by throwing in enough tracks not played. The absolute highlight of the set for myself and The Donk was when he pulled out the Dirty South Hip-Hop. Dropping “Tupac Back” by Meek Mill, followed by the highly unexpected “Tony Montana” by Future. To hear these tracks with the bass that The Beacham provides was sooo fucking sick. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, he drops my favorite rapper, Juicy J, and his “Who Da Neighbors” track off his Lex Luger produced mixtape Rubba Band Business 2. Sadly he only played the chorus but that was good enough for me. After he was done with the Dirty South, he went right back to the dancefloor and did his famous Daft Punk scratch routine for their hit “Robot”. Now, I’ve seen this routine on YouTube but it still is just mind-blowing to see how much control this guy has over two 1200s (check out Mr. Riots Facebook for a clip of the jaw-dropping routine). I was also surprised to see that A-Trak, once a very vocal spokesperson for Serato, had switched his tune and was using Traktor for his performance. Now whether they paid him to start using their software (most likely) or whether he just had a true change of heart, I do not know but I did find it interesting.
Now the show was amazing, the venue had incredible sound, but there was one let down and that is the turnout from Orlando. This show was very reminiscent to when DJ AM came to town years before his death and he played at Club Destiny on I-Drive and there was LITERALLY 50 people there total, one being a young Brian Dawe.
When I first heard about A-Trak coming to town I was sure that it would be a sell-out show, without question. With how many times we bring Steve Aoki, Diplo, Avicii, etc. and the turnouts they receive as if they weren’t just here less than 6 months ago, I was sure that the city would show up in droves to see someone way more talented than those guys and brought here much less (and I like those guys so no disrespect…well, maybe not Avicii). I’d say there was maybe a total of 400 people there, and that is being extremely generous. Of course all the local DJs were there including myself, Rincon, Y-Not?, Justin James, Justin James’ hair, and Justin James’ 5 o’clock shadow, among others, but where was everybody else? Our good friend @TheHollywoodHog took his talents to Roxy that night and said it was packed and that was for Chuckie, another DJ who has been here 3 times in less than a year. Chuckie and A-Trak are obviously two totally different DJs when it comes to track selection, but when it comes to skill and technical prowess, A-Trak will blow that guy out of the water blind-folded. This night truly showed that Roxy and the Smile For Camera guys can seriously book any DJ they want right now, even if it is that DJ standing on stage brushing his teeth into a microphone with a 128-140 bpm bass-line, and the kids will flock to it no matter what. Kind of sad really, but good for them.
All in all it was a great show and afterwards A-Trak came down to take pictures and meet everybody in the crowd. I, of course, had already left at this point and I could kick myself in the ass for doing so. If you were one of the few people in the crowd then you know you witnessed something truly great and I hope the small crowd didn’t taint Orlando from having the opportunity to have him play again.
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