- My life has been really, really unexciting as of late with work consuming every ounce of my being. However, a ray of light shone at the end of my tunnel- the long awaited return of Danny “Mother F-in’” Howells to New York. Danny has long had a presence in Gotham, especially after his residency at Twilo.
Everything changed for the lad from Hastings when Bindra & Co. made him a monthly resident at Vinyl, which later became Arc. His marathon ten-hour sets became a staple in most clubber’s monthly schedule. The music twisted through variations of techy-prog-techno-house-dance-type-music. (How ‘bout that for a genre.) The one trademark of his sets was that you never knew where he was headed.
Unfortunately, Arc’s closing last year has left a Danny void as he has not yet gotten his mitts on an extended set in NYC. Luckily, last weekend marked his return to West 27th in support of his critically acclaimed Global Underground Miami mix.
I had only been to Spirit on one previous occasion, and it left a rather bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps I could not leave the memories of Twilo go, perhaps it just wasn’t a good night, but I was unsure that I would ever return. I’m glad I did. I got to the club a little later than anticipated, as Friday night has become the new Monday morning around the office, but the queue moved quickly and I was soon inside. As soon as I entered the main room I could feel the vibe was a positive one, the lighting guy seemed to be in-tune with the music, there were not too many shady-type characters in the crowd, and system sounded pretty good.
It seems that Danny’s usual way of going about his extended sets are to slowly build the sound for half the night and then bang it out. He had the very responsive crowd going for it from the moment I walked into the room. It took a few minutes, but I met up with a dear friend and headed to the dance floor. I immediately forgot all the headaches in life and got down to getting’ down. The tunes were grooving, bodies moving, and not too many people were bumping into me = bonus. That Motherf’er kept the tempo just right playing some stuff off his second Miami CD and James Holden’s mighty remix of Britney Spears-Federline’s (better type it now before it all blows apart) “Breathe.”
As the night progressed and my stamina waned, I kept trying to rest, but then he would get into a really good patch of tunes and I’d be back out on the floor. The atmosphere just seemed so relaxed with everyone talking, laughing, and most importantly, dancing! Things started to clear out a bit around 4 and you could move around anywhere and have space to get down to the now-playing dirty house, intermixed with the occasional techno bomb. I did take some time to just watch Danny play and I must admit that I was impressed (yes, I was impressed) by how far he must plan ahead in order to keep all the tracks properly sequenced over such a long span. Respect.
Unfortunately, exhaustion got the better of me, finally forcing me to leave. The only downsides to my evening were my inability to find people I was supposed to meet up with in the club, and the fact I had to cut my night short. However, as I left walked to work three hours after exiting the club, I knew I just had a good night out. Once again, New York’s favorite “Motherf-in’” DJ delivered, and the crowd was really up for it. I hope that Spirit has finally got itself sorted and I cannot wait to return!