- Traditionally, Memorial Day weekend in Miami Beach is not the place you want to hang out at, as a House music enthusiast. This first official American holiday is the center stage of a large hip hop series of weekend events on the beach and a reason to skip clubbing for many locals. This year, Friday night’s vibe at Crobar’s main dance floor was the exception. All the right elements for a stellar and funky gig were present, until closing time!
I arrived early, anticipating traffic delays and masses of people strolling through South Beach’s main avenues, Washington and Collins. The club’s theme for the weekend was quite creative, I must add, camouflage and American flags everywhere. ‘A salute to America’s heroes’, as the marquee stated. Needless to say, I was not expecting less from Crobar, having celebrated their anniversary the weekend before, this posh nightspot was ready to keep the party going, rain or shine, hip hop and House. None other than Subliminal Records’ own Erick Morillo had everyone jumping and singing along by 1am. A producer and a talented remixer, this New York native and former student at the Center of the Media Arts, charmed all the club’s patrons, and even captured a huge part of the VIP upstairs area regulars to the main floor.
At close to midnight, the main room was starting to get a crowd and got warmed up to the sounds of local DJ, Juan Mejia. Gradually, as Erick dashed into the DJ booth and took over, the real party began. I was most impressed with the energetic flow of tracks and the all around charisma Morillo brought to Miami. From the outset, he began funky as well as tribal, and worked the crowd amazingly with vocal tracks like ‘Insatiable’ by Thick Dick and ‘Freak’ by Josh Wink. [No surprises here as the WMC 2002 Subliminal Party at Crobar proved the same level of intensity]. As you will see from some of the photographs taken, by 2 am it was off the chain, as us Americans would try to illustrate the atmosphere. More progressive sounds graced the dance floor late into the night, almost warming up the after-hours aficionado playing Green Velvet’s ‘La La Land’ and Harry “Choo Choo” Romero’s ‘Keep Your Head Up’. Oh yes. With an upcoming record release late this summer, Erick Morillo delivered his goods fiercely on this fine Miami soiree at Crobar.