I’ve been a fan of Green Velvet since I was 16. Although, back then he was still known as Cajmere, and he’s from Chicago. I didn’t hear I’m live for the first time, though, until years later at the Santa Ana Star Casino here in New Mexico.
They had this nightclub in the back of it called the Stage, and although it’s not the place I imagined seeing such a legend for the first time, looking back, I don’t think it matters.
What I learned that night, and have been reminded many times since, is that the place or time or even crowd doesn’t even matter when it comes to some DJs. Some DJ’s just know how to bop. And this DJ is the best at that.
There are two images I remember so clearly from that night and I’ll try and explain them now. First, was the image of Green Velvet himself standing up at the decks right before his first track. His green Mohawk clear and bright, along with those futuristic glasses he always wears. He looked like a super hero up there. I’ll never forget that.
And then he dropped the beat and everything started vibrating. I mean everything. The floor, the walls, my drink, the inside of my brain. He absolutely hijacked our senses from the get go, and he knew exactly what he was doing the entire time. It was a fabulous display of sound and vibrations, and it’s still one of the best nights I’ve ever had on the dancefloor.
The second image I have of that night was when it was over and they kicked us freaks and weirdos out of the club, and into the casino. We were not yet ready to go, and yet I can’t imagine anybody had the power to even gamble. As I walked slowly out into the open game floor I found my fellow ravers lying out and against anything they could. I was not the only one who had been affected by this DJ.
It was similar to after a festival where everybody is so tired they can’t go home yet, and yet that’s usually after a full day of music, thousands of steps, and multiple sounds attacking multiple senses.
This was just one DJ. How could he overwhelm us so? How could he be so powerful, and so in control, so outrageously, that he literally left us sprawled out on the carpet after he was done. How? And who? With the answer to both being the same. That’s Green Velvet.
Green Velvet is the definition of legend. House music is like a tree. It started from one seed, and from there grew many many roots. All of those roots help makeup what our culture is now, and in that light, Green Velvet isn’t just part of the culture. He helped create it. He isn’t just a DJ. He is a teacher, and his lessons are with House Music. His classroom is the dancefloor.
The second time I saw Green Velvet was at EDC and it was for a night he was hosting at the neon garden that he called LA LA LAND. I can still remember the anticipation for that one.
“I’m going to La La Land. I’m going to La La Land.”
I felt like a child, and yet our friend, who had not seen him before, didn’t quite understand yet. She needed to hear and feel it for herself. Somethings you just can’t explain. So that night we welcomed her into the neon garden where Velvet played with The Black Madonna (now the Blessed Madonna) and Gorgon City.
I’m sure there were other DJ’s but that’s all I remember, because they played before Velvet, and once he went on it’s like everything else went blank.
It started the same, though. Dancing in the crowd. Lost in the garden. Surrounded by thousands of other house and techno lovers just enjoying the moment and the empty desert sky. I can even recall him walking up to the decks, with that same smile. This time I knew, though. This time I was ready.
Then I turned to our friend, and then to velvet. As if to say, get ready. And then he dropped the bass, and he smiled, and everything started vibrating again. Out there on that dancefloor, just like back home in New Mexico, once Velvet played, everything changed.
I’d say maybe three or four hours passed by before we even realized it after that, and yet the only thing I can remember pulling me out of it was the sunrise over the speedway as we tried to recover. Wasted from the lesson we were given that night. The way only this DJ could. And when they asked, who did that to us, we all said the same. It was Green Velvet.
Now, I could go on about other times I’ve seen that DJ, and how the experience is always the same. A lesson on house as well as one on what a real DJ is. Green Velvet is timeless, and yet every time I hear him I am reminded why we will always return to that experience. He is the standard. We simply have to find a way to meet it.
This weekend, July 2nd Green Velvet is coming to New Mexico again, and he’s playing at the historic El Rey theatre downtown. Playing alongside him are two excellent house DJ’s from New Mexico in a recent favorite of mine Varsity Acid, and a quality old school House Head in Swift Money.
These two DJ’s are a bridge in styles that represent the vastness of sounds here in our desert oasis. Varsity Acid is ever changing and reacting, and Swift Money is that quality B Boy Scratch House DJ we know and love. They represent what we are, and I’m happy they were the two picked to play alongside such a talent on such a night.
So please, go early stay late, and when that fuckin bass hits for the first time, and he smiles, and you realize how much has changed so completely, I want you to turn to the person next to you. Whether they are your friend or just some perfect stranger in the night. And I want you say out loud without out even thinking twice. This . . . is Green Velvet.
See you on the dancefloor.
Ourdancefloor.net 