sad times sounds like he was playing some footwork too... guess its an acquired taste. i would have been out the door and never back in that club!

this is a disgrace. but why get top dj's booked at clubs like these? wasn't this the club from jersey shore?

sad times.

Don't know the in's and out's...But that just sounds crazy...What did they exspecked?...He's DJ Shadow no',...Peace*

I've seen this happen. As a punter & as a DJ, every time it has made my whole stomach turn & my heart drop. It disgusts me. I think the reason I have such an averse reaction is the disrespect, but not the disrespect for the DJ. It is in fact the disrespect that management at many places can have for their clientele. Even actual tastemakers don't hold their own people in such disdain. Let us not cast pearls before swine? Who are you calling swine mate!?

I've seen Masters at Work taken off the decks so that Wyclef's DJ can go back (yes you read that right, not actually Wyclef. Just his DJ, who I am sure he is lovely too. Although he did come back on with whatever that 8 mile soundtrack's main song is), Dennis Ferrer being taken off at Mansion & now…. wait for it… DJ Shadow getting the same treatment at that same club Friday night. Just take a breath, be brave & let the man do his job.

My personal favourite has to be when the Funky House producer Michael Gray had his hit with 'Weekend', a catchy commercial number sure, but when he took a booking at a shazzy club he played House music (as you do), management complained & he jokingly said 'Should I just play 'Weekend' on loop?' the reply… 'Could you do that?'. He should not have taken that booking but the story amuses me enough to give me a break from the discomfort.

It can be tough as a club owner/manager putting up with a few unruly punters, when in a crowd of hundreds you are having to deal with two or three people (who may just like to complain) sounding off about how they don't like the music. It could feel like popular opinion in that given moment but just as sure as the 'squeaky wheel gets the oil' so often it is decided that action must be taken. When doing nothing & letting the guy or girl performing, who lives. breathes, & cares more about music in a day then many would would consider in a life time, do their job.

To do this stuff right you've got to get in people's heads, it takes slightly longer to get some people their than others. It is about getting everyone their on to the same page, because once all get there we are together & that is the point. I don't have a doubt in my mind that DJ Shadow knew where he was going, but you didn't let him get there & caused people to lose out on that opportunity to see him.

A lot of people will say, this place (Mansion) is for douchebags & LMFAO idiots, but I don't ascribe to this way of thinking. Music can open people up, help them see the light. Douchebags need nudging in the right direction for it is a spiritual redundancy form which they suffer. I am not saying we send Villalobos on a short tour of the Jersey Shore but still we have got to keep pushing little by little. Just because people don't check RA every day, don't know who Theo Parrish or don't really have an opinion on the digital vs analogue debate doesn't mean they don't have the right to get loose. It is a human right & privilege, an absolute necessity. The only true douchebags are the management at this club for not being brave enough to take some flack for an artists that could not have proved himself more.

Yet another victim of the bottle service and table reservations set. Isn't it time all ya'll learned. From the agencies doing the booking down to the punter paying their bills. This is the death of your music. Boycott them.

only in the U S of A

I never planned on commenting on articles/posts, but I've had a change of heart after reading about this kind of thing happening. People are overlooking a very important angle: DJs getting kicked off the decks is becoming nothing more than a publicity stunt. Think about it. I'm not saying Shadow himself is guilty of this, but if you want to blame promoters, booking agents, and the like, remember that they are in it for the money. If DJ So-And-So gets "kicked off the decks for not playing commercial enough" it gets everyone talking about it, just as we are here. Honestly, I would never have known, nor cared, that Shadow was playing in Miami. Now I do. I haven't listened to Shadow in almost 10 years and rarely have I even thought about him. Yet after this incident he's at the forefront of my mind when it comes to good DJs, producers, and masters of the sample.

Not trying to make this a conspiracy theory, but really, if you think that promoters and whatnot are above gimmicks to get publicity, think again! We're only seeing the very beginning of this kind of thing. And just because no one's ever going to admit to it doesn't mean that it can't be true.

For the record, I LIKE DJ Shadow (Fixed Income FTW!!!!) and I would have written the same thing no matter who was kicked off the decks. This just happened to be the one that caused me to opine!

Why the fuck does this keep happening, who are these promoters who book these acts (which they clearly have no fucking clue who they are) only to publicly embarrass them in front of roided out frat boys with room temperature IQs & fake tans so bad it makes them look like retarded George Hamiltons from hell.

If I was Shadow this is how I would have reacted

hey, i'm sure he still got a nice lump of cash....

He was just booked at a bad place. Theres plenty of places with good music in Miami, and that isnt one of them. Nobody who gives two shits about quality music goes to those clubs.

Very good piece, agree wholeheartedly. The promoters should've just let him play on, if it didn't go down well then just don't book them again but to kick them off is disrespectful. Not only that but had he been allowed to play on for longer, the crowd might've grown to like him - like you said, it merely takes time to get into "experimental-sounding" music (from a commercial ear POV). None of us liked this music on RA from birth.

Bullshit on so many levels.

Why should Mansion and clubs like it even book DJ's who don't play the sound their clientele prefers. It's just a waste of time and money for them. Yeah the argument is they could attract more people but if the people they attract are not willing to buy bottles or consistently buy $18 drinks, why bother?

If people in the crowd or reserved tables or whatever dont like the music why did they buy tickets? If the club wants someone to play commercially why even bother booking someone? Just put a playlist of chart tunes on. It makes no sense to me to book a DJ for their musical selection and to then dictate what they should play, the promoters might as well be Djing then but im pretty sure it woulda cleared a whole lot faster if that was the case

The real question is ...why would anyone go to Mansion ... time and time again acts that are considered underground will never prosper in such a hostile work environment. Shadow should have reviewed the club before signing on to such a disgraceful display of this magnitude.

I used to love shadow back in the day but in the past 5 years I can't stand his music. His boiler room set was a joke, way to not read the crowd or give a shit about what people want to hear. As a dj it's about finding a balance between your individual style and the vibe of the crowd. Lately I feel like he's taken the attitude that he's an 'educator' rather than a dj and that's a very selfish perspective to have when people have paid to see you based on your previous work. I remember reading an interview where he said he 'recalibrates' his audiences ears every few years. Honestly I think that is pretentious bullshit.

Now I'm not saying that's what happened here, mansion is a douche emporium and it was the promoters fault for booking an experimental artist for a commercial crowd. Still I think shadow takes himself a bit too seriously nowadays.

I agree about his Boiler Room set, but, to put it in perspective, it may be that he did that only for Boiler Room. If this is what he's been up to lately then he might be at fault too. Then again as a lot of people are saying, it was not a proper place to showcase DJ Shadow's talent irrespective of the role he's been assuming lately.

As for DJ Shadow's music, I still do listen to his older stuff and I haven't lost faith in the guy yet. I think he's kind of trying to find a place in the messy and scattered hip-hop/bass/glitch-hop/whatever-hop scene.

Isn't this the same place that Dennis Ferrer was booted off too?

Sound like a classy venue.

'Dennis Ferrer being taken off at Mansion & now...'

Should've read all the comments first.

oops

I don't agree at all. The boiler room thing wasn't so much a DJ set as it was a performance of old-school shadow-style turntableism. In that type of thing crowd-reading isn't a factor in the same way, as all the samples have to be put together correctly anyway. It was obviously quite different to the stuff he was playing when he got booted. so the comparison is meaningless.

@maxwelldub says "... Lately I feel like he's taken the attitude that he's an 'educator' rather than a dj and that's a very selfish perspective to have when people have paid to see you..."

I'm a student of the drums, I'm also a teacher of the drums too ah-heh ah-heh ah-heh

i do think they are doing it for the free publicity. first Dennis Ferrer, now this. they know who they're booking too.

Opium Group, which owns Mansion, also owns Set - if Mansion is for spring breakers and LMFAO-ers, Set is for the grown, jet-set and gold-digging crowd. they've started booking "underground" acts at these two clubs over the past year, from Guy Gerber, Seth Troxler, Danny Daze, Damian Lazarus... they know full well who they're inviting. the question is why they choose to disrespect only a handful (2 so far).

you see the a similar trend in Moscow, which one can argue has a very similar clubland to Miami - money and silicone are valued highly, along with status. they book renowned underground DJs at venues where most girls walk around in 4-inch heels. total culture clash. those places are just out to buy coolness, not nurture it. i suspect that in Miami it's become a power struggle, to not only buy coolness but bend it to management's will.

Shadow got off good, walked away with a moneybag. maybe it's time for DJs to boycott these shenanigans and show Mansion just what their money's worth.

oh, i remember the shit Mansion pulled last time too, going into an exchange with Dennis afterwards over Twitter, saying even the best DJs have "off nights". they refused to acknowledge the possibility of their inferior taste. these people really got the numbers in their bank account confused with the ability to recognize good music... #ego

The only country in the world where something like this could happen... Thumbs up to you again, USA!

Enough using this as an excuse to bash America. Thanks.

'MURIKA !!!!

His booker/manager sounds like they suck more than anything else. 15% fee is more important than having an artist play a good show.

The audience at Boiler Room don't dance though so how are you meant to read-em?

.

Shadow's highly questionable material of the last five years or so aside, given prior incidents at this place this can't be seen as terribly surprising. It's not like Mansion is going to accommodate DJs (with particular tastes) at the expense of the bottle-service goons filling up the joint.

not surprised. you grow up listening to clear channel and cbs run top 40 stations your whole life and here comes some old guy with vinyl like its the fucking 50's or some shit and playing retarded music he and other weirdos enjoy.

There's going to be growing pains as electronic music becomes increasingly accepted by the US mainstream. Pretty embarrassing for everyone involved though.

Yes, because one shitty club in miami is a perfect representation of a country practically the size of Europe.

Sure Shadow has been pretty off the mark for a while now, ever since The Outsider came out, but you can't blame the guy for trying. I can see how somebody wouldn't want to just make the same type of Pre-Emptive Strike era music or keep doing 45 only sets with Cut Chemist. It's really not a surprise that he tried to make a hyphy album either considering he was a bay area radio hip hop jock first before his MoWax stuff came out. How many times can he play Organ Donor before it starts to drive him crazy?

As for his boiler room set there seemed to be plenty of trainspotters that were entertained enough by what he did even if it was a bit dry.

/thread

i agree.

i agree. he's partially to blame for not doing his research, but don't tell that to the fanboys and girls. and when i saw him at ultra earlier this year, i got the same vibe as you. he takes himself too seriously. he went on some stupid rant about being a "real" dj.

Again in Miami!!

Vinyl's not cheap, but it's a very real & live way to mix and feel the crowd. If the crowd is used to pop princesses using computer coded 'mixed in cue' software and auto cue, then let them keep that shit. It some instances it works well with a producer short term but very rare to have a both 'a good producer who at the same time is a good DJ'. Fuck them DJ Shadow you don't that Bullshit from arse sniffling shufflers!

I really enjoyed his boiler room set
Boycott Mansion Miami

The rest of the world can't come close to your own ability for bashing yourselves, literally and metaphorically.

America...fuck yeah!

yet more evidence to show that the USA has the worst music scene on the planet.

Yes, fuck Detroit, fuck Chicago, fuck NYC.

Sounds like they didn't realize what his "All Basses Covered" dj set was going to sound like. A buddy of mine and I went to see Shadow in New Orleans just a couple night before this. I'm thinking, "I'm going to see DJ fucking Shadow and he's going to rock the place like every other time I've seen him". But to my surprise, it was a Bass/Trap music night and that's what he was playing. After sitting through 2 hours of this waiting for Shadow to come on, then he's starts playing they same kind of music. I gave him 45mins and slipped out. Not at all what I expected Shadow to play, but to each their own. You still don't kick a legend off the decks though. Geez...

Well said. Mansion just booking people blindly. Then they get pissed when the DJ's don't play according to their sound. As others mentioned, this isn't the first instance of them asking someone to leave.

They are always doing something stupid. Years ago their thug bouncers beat up college students and forced them to pay bottle service tabs. And if you've been there before, you'll know their crowd and club sucks.

Fact...also venture to claim most of these haters have never stepped foot Stateside, which makes the ignorance wreak even more.

brilliant.

lived in america for almost 2 years, it definately wouldnt happen elsewhere, in most countries people book a dj because they like what they do and are interested to hear them play, even if it turns out to not be what they expexted nobodys gonna kick someone off the decks, especially if theyve already been paid!

im not sure what mansions criteria for bookings is, but they're doing it wrong! some places in the US have the right idea, but big clubs in vegas and miami, not really about the music as far as i can see.. fucking 'EDM', brostep, glowstick ravers, skrillex et al, vip bottle service etc. all whats wrong with the music scene over there. gimme a dark concrete room with a few locals doing it for the love anyday!

electronic music is growing in popularity in the states again, but i think its fair to say bar 4 or 5 big cities, and very small pockets in a few more, the rest of the country is left listening to muck. and calling it EDM. a prime example being identity festival, toured half of the states playing "EDM", and not one slightly interesting name on the lineup (eg. Arty- Bingo Players- Doctor P- Eric Prydz- Excision- Le Castle Vania- Madeon- Nero- Noisia- Paul Van Dyk- Porter Robinson- Showtek- Wolfgang Gartner.. christ)

They are deleting the negative comments from their facebook page.

Probably the worse thing they could possibly do...

https://www.facebook.com/mansionmiami

HAHAHA THE FANS ARE ON A RAMPAGE!!!