House Proud

I haven’t always been the biggest fan of living here in the 505. I won’t ever deny that one. Born in San Diego, the son of a sailor, I viewed this desert wasteland as exactly that, a wasteland.

How could I find beauty in something I could never be? Such a foolish question for a young man to ask. Such an easy answer for an old man to give.

What I ultimately always come back to is the fact that if I don’t like it here, why have I stayed so long? Why did I marry a girl from here? Why am I raising my children here? Why have I committed so completely? And I suppose the answer is simple. Pride.

Pride in one’s surroundings. Pride in one’s people. Pride in one’s beginnings. Which is what I have learned to have for this, my city. Pride in the 505. Pride that can best be expressed through my connection with house.

It’s everywhere I turn. Out in the streets, in the clubs and bars, even some warehouses here and there. The music just carries on with the city. Interweaving itself into the parts of this place we seem to love so much.

But that’s the thing about house music. Just like the 505 and also like I, it has grown over the years. Changed. Evolved. Expanded. Which is why we have to do our part to keep it alive.

And how do we do that? By going to the show, of course.

House lovers have the chance to do that again on the dance floor this weekend as some of my favorite DJs in New Mexico are gathering for what they so affectionately call House Proud.

Started by House music masters Vettaluv and the Rev, House Proud welcomes local favorites to share their sound and style, and this time they have Davy jones and At_One joining them for a take over of the el Rey Mez to keep things bumping in the night.

Each one has proven themselves as true representatives of where house music lives and their pride shows in every track they play. I have no doubt they will carry that sound again the way only the 505 can do.