- In Upstate New York, the dance music scene has been growing exponentially and a lot of that has to do with Signal > Noise, a bi-monthly party in Rochester. On Saturday, July 16th, Signal > Noise, in collaboration with Sole Rehab, threw an event celebrating Pride Week with Gay Marvine and d'Adhemar. "We saw it as an opportunity to work together, provide something we couldn't do separately," said Signal > Noise's Rob Dunn. "We wanted to cultivate, grow the community."
The two crews spent three weeks renovating the upstairs at 45 Euclid. Before, parties were held downstairs, where the dance floor was long and narrow. Even though it sounded great in there, it was also claustrophobic when packed. Upstairs, the rectangular space has high ceilings, windows and a vaulted skylight. The move was a smart one, but as with any new project there were some things in need of tweaking. The bar and bathrooms were still located down a flight of stairs, which meant a lot of coming and going. (Signal > Noise has already mentioned that they plan to build a bar upstairs.)
Rochester's Jim Kempkes started off the night with an all-vinyl set, followed by d'Adhemar, a resident at Pittsburgh party Honcho. d'Adhemar watched the crowd intensely as he played, his eyes locked into the ebb and flow of the partygoers. There was no holding back during his set—lovers got close to one another, a woman in a gold body suit grooved by the speaker, and a man with dreads and a sequinned dress pranced about.
The large room meant there was lots of space to dance, but it did cause sound issues. The beginning of d'Adhemar's set was muffled by reverb, largely because of the distance between the two speaker stacks. Around 12:45 AM, he pushed the mixer a bit harder and created a more robust sound than the room needed, but still it was not enough to satisfy the audiophiles.
Gay Marvine went on at 1 AM and rode the groove for the rest of the night, one minute adopting a power stance behind the decks and the next bouncing about joyfully. His set followed on from d'Adhemar's, leading with high energy techno and weaving in edits as the night progressed. The night hit its peak when he dropped Spank Spank's "Jam Session," the track's upbeat tempo and tantalizing strings bringing the crowd to its knees. Just before 3:30 AM, a group of men tore their shirts off and the black material covering the windows behind the booth was ripped down to expose a twinkling view of desolate downtown Rochester.