![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aruanBig thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stamplet for transcribing my phone post from last night, though it wasn't terribly informative and mostly involved my whining about the cold. Because, okay, holding open-air concerts on the intracoastal in the middle of March? Would've been fine if we weren't all told to wear our South Beach clubbing best. As it was, this review would be a lot more detailed if most of my attentions hadn't been preoccupied with not catching hypothermia.
However, there's still being hit on by Paul Oakenfold, a surprise Chasez performance, Paris and Nick, and some other trippy cool acts. Not bad for a night of sitting around.
I wore a pink silk halter top with a large flower broach. From the way men on the freeway were pulling up next to me/catcalling/other such dangerous at 80 mph behavior, you'd think they'd never seen a girl dolled up. Sad, really, but mostly dangerous. Road, people!
Seatfiller definitely involves a high tolerance for standing around, which was fine once they moved us across the street from the red carpet arrivals. Dave Navarro would fit in my pocket, yo. Moby is bigger than him! No, really! Otherwise, it was like the Latin Billboard all over again, except I knew all the names but had absolutely no faces to put to them.
So we finally get inside. There's more waiting around before they start seating us, taking the first cluster of twenty which left the couple who had snuck in front of me and the rest of our group. At this point the theater was still relatively empty, so they were just sitting us down to see who would show and when and make do from there.
They take our group next, and get this - first row, center section. Huzzah! There was already a DJ spinning, and we were only about seven feet from the stage, so I'm all psyched because I know many of the people slated to perform and am looking forward to the show beyond JC, so I didn't even think to look before the girls next to me ask whose seat I'm in. I turn to check.
JC freakin' Chasez.
The discovery of which may have elicited a bit of a shriek, but that's right, kids, I was sitting in JC's seat, with the couple in line before me taking up Paris and Nick's seats, respectively from the end of the row. We all may have squeed a little. I basked for a long minute, then asked the guy sitting next to me (whose seat didn't have a name on it) to switch with me and may have made him promises I can't keep if his doing so meant I would be sitting next to JC for any or all parts of the show.
This switch of seating landed me between JC and Paul Oakenfold, who turned out to be much more of a character than I ever bargained for.
He shows up about twenty minutes after we'd gotten settled, a somewhat shortish man in sunglasses and artfully androgynous hair a la BT, and spreads himself over a seat and a half smiling like he'd already gotten the best action of the night and is very pleased to be here indeed. He surveys the stage for a moment, then turns to me and says in his outrageously sexy British accent, "Hello, I'm Paul Oakenfold," and holds out his hand, declaring that while he came alone, it would seem as though seating would have it that I be his date for tonight, belatedly making sure to ask the boy sitting next to me if I am his girlfriend. Then he makes the observation that I'm "a pretty girl" and asks how I'm doing, if I'm enjoying myself so far. Despite being a little dumbfounded (because ohmygodPaulfreakin'Oakenfoldishittingonme) I came off rather winningly, though I suspect he didn't much listen to my answers. *shrug* I already had afterparty plans anyway.
Carmen Electra is also very tiny and doesn't have much more going for her than her smile. Is it so hard to find a host who draws ratings as well as being able to read words over two syllables off a stinkin' TelePrompter? Yeesh. Tommy Lee is a very skinny man whose baseline seems to be coked-up. Boy George is just as off-putting and pretentious in person - no one with that much paint instead of hair on his head should take himself that seriously. Yoko Ono is a tiny little thing who couldn't read the TelePrompter because of her dark sunglasses, which was quite amusing.
Paris presented... something, wearing quite possibly the most heinous dress in all creation that actually made her look frumpy and fat, then came to claim her seat with a manager-looking type in a half-fedora. Upon closer observation, the inch-wide straps of said dress appeared to be made of rows of diamonds, and that's just excess beyond reason right there.
So, after I'd taken in all I could tolerate of Miss Hilton's deeply unfortunate fashion but tastefully expensive bracelets (huge colored diamonds set in a border of tiny white diamonds) I noticed they were setting up the stage again (the presenter's podium is off to the side with a large, center stage.) Except they were only removing equipment, not setting new stuff up, and they were marching out four girls wearing black bodices and spike-heeled boots. I'm all, 'Wait a minute,' then recognize one of them and maybe squeal a little, but definitely clutch at the guy sitting next to me, saying, "My boy is going to perform! I know those girls, my boy is performing!" (All the event info seemed to indicate he was merely there to present.) Having already heard my JC squee from before, he pretty much just took this all in stride, the good sport.
And perform he did. The sheer embroidered black shirt and sparkly black pants are back! Hallelujah and praise be! Also, he did the full song this time, bridge and all, and though the choreography was still different in parts, it was a lot more like what we saw during the December club tour than what he's been doing on the promotional tour. He looked so good! And the thing about an event centered around this kind of music? The sound was fantastic. So I'm sitting not seven feet away (and it was all I could do not to stand up) grooving along in my seat. He did great, the crowd loved him, lalala ofcoursecakes, but the thing is, I think the industry folk would've gotten a lot more out of it if he'd done a radio edited version of, say, Force of Gravity with BT spinning as he sang, which is what many of the other acts did. They showed a really cool performance by Puff Daddy last year, same idea - it just would've better kept with the theme of the show. Also, I really would've liked it and really, isn't that reason enough?
Sadly though, he never actually made it to his seat, and I eventually had to give mine to Rob Boldt who came a little after Nick, who looked nice in his brown mules, khaki pants, and baby blue button-down shirt. And, okay, so, Paris and Nick? Even blonder in person, if that were possible. Also, it bears mentioning that theirloveissonarcissistic in that consciously MFEO way. Not cuddly, but they held hands and whispered back and forth, wearing identical expressions of distinct boredom. Here's something cute though: when Paris first arrived, she asked down the line of us for a cigarette, which Nick actually cajoled away and stomped out when he showed up. Aaaw!
There was a very cool performance by the Crystal Method (who are totally insane, by the way) and a very wild looking man whose name I want to say was something exceedingly innocuous [ETA: John Garcia]. They did a song called Born Too Slow that brought the house down - even the techie girl standing on the stage's upper scaffolding was rocking out.
Did you know every song off Moby's Play has been used in a commercial? I'm not entirely certain this would be a point of pride for me, especially as an advocate of an environmentally friendly, Vegan, nonviolent lifestyle, all of which go against most of the basic types and tenets of advertising. *shrug* Just me though, apparently.
Paul Van Dyk looks more than a little like Adrian Brody. Mmm. He's also humble, speaks with a verra sexy German accent and an all-around classy gent.
There was a British girl sitting next to me at one point who caught the guy running drink orders for the celebs and requested a "vodka and orange." He told her it was called a Screwdriver, which she balked at and said to just make sure there's something alcoholic in whatever he brings. She ended up being moved not too soon after that, which meant I got to have my very first Screwdriver (on an empty stomach, having eaten a couple of latkes around ten o'clock this morning.) If nothing else, as there was hardly any alcohol in there to make it worth your while to water down the orange juice, it helped with the cold. Which, have I mentioned it really, really was?
Sander Kleinenberg won Best Remix for his take on Rock Your Body, which was fun. I do like what he did with it.
I could live a thousand lives and never see Dave Navarro wearing thigh-high white vinyl boots, matching miniskirt and nothing else and be a happy woman/man/vegetable/mineral.
The finale was a Blue Man Group homage/cover of Donna Summer's I Feel Love, sung fantastically by this lovely girl in a rainbow-colored dress that lit up in alternating stripes as she sang. The Blue Man Group boys really do put on a show - loved the water and colored lights on the drums bit. However, ultimately, it only served to get me singing One Night Stand all the way to my car.
Ran into the two girls I was sitting next to when they first sat us down (we'd also talked in line a bit) in the parking garage on the way out. They managed to stay together after they were moved and saw me grooving to JC in my seat! They said I was cute, which, probably true. We exchanged contact info and you know what, I think I'd make the drive back down to Miami to party with them.
Quotes of the Day:
"He's completely wicked... He's not a very serious kind of guy, yet he has this amazing raw natural ability. I felt utterly vindicated working with him. All my chin-stroking DJ friends were like, 'What the fuck are you doing with him?!' They all gave me shit about it. And now they're all falling over themselves to work with guys like JC and Justin. Be in no doubt - he is a talented man. Hanging out with JC was great. He has millions of stories from the road, just about all of which I can't repeat. Sadly."
-BT (from an interview about his collaborators in the Dancestar program)
Tease! But a flatterer, too, so we'll let is slide this time. Besides, it's not like we haven't done well being left to our own devices until now. ;)
You picked vocalists from such different walks of life on 'Kish Kash'...
"We didn't really plan it like that, but by the time we got to the end of the album, we were like, 'Wow, we've got a real diverse range of artists here.' We like the fact that we have people from very disparate strains, and they're all really cool in their own right. Probably the biggest surprise for us is JC from *NSYNC, because that wasn't planned at all. He was in London and said he wanted to meet us with a view towards producing something for his album. We were working on 'Plug It In' at the time, so he ended up being on that. He was really cool. First of all, he flattered us a lot and said we were really cool and told us what tracks he liked, and he was believable. So often you meet people in the music business and they're full of shit. He was cool and seemed to have a genuine love for music and wanted to do interesting things and was very happy to do anything we said. He's got talent."
-the Basement Jaxx
And there's no arguing with that. Also, JC the fanboy makes my toes curl.
Finally, there's a picture of Justin and Danny Tenaglia on the last page - apparently, they ran into each other while he was rehearsing for SNL and Tenaglia was in town to test out some new equipment. Anyway, the point of it really is Justin's shirt, which is bright red, and says, a la the Von Dutch logo, 'You Dork.' [[heart]]
stamplet for transcribing my phone post from last night, though it wasn't terribly informative and mostly involved my whining about the cold. Because, okay, holding open-air concerts on the intracoastal in the middle of March? Would've been fine if we weren't all told to wear our South Beach clubbing best. As it was, this review would be a lot more detailed if most of my attentions hadn't been preoccupied with not catching hypothermia.However, there's still being hit on by Paul Oakenfold, a surprise Chasez performance, Paris and Nick, and some other trippy cool acts. Not bad for a night of sitting around.
I wore a pink silk halter top with a large flower broach. From the way men on the freeway were pulling up next to me/catcalling/other such dangerous at 80 mph behavior, you'd think they'd never seen a girl dolled up. Sad, really, but mostly dangerous. Road, people!
Seatfiller definitely involves a high tolerance for standing around, which was fine once they moved us across the street from the red carpet arrivals. Dave Navarro would fit in my pocket, yo. Moby is bigger than him! No, really! Otherwise, it was like the Latin Billboard all over again, except I knew all the names but had absolutely no faces to put to them.
So we finally get inside. There's more waiting around before they start seating us, taking the first cluster of twenty which left the couple who had snuck in front of me and the rest of our group. At this point the theater was still relatively empty, so they were just sitting us down to see who would show and when and make do from there.
They take our group next, and get this - first row, center section. Huzzah! There was already a DJ spinning, and we were only about seven feet from the stage, so I'm all psyched because I know many of the people slated to perform and am looking forward to the show beyond JC, so I didn't even think to look before the girls next to me ask whose seat I'm in. I turn to check.
JC freakin' Chasez.
The discovery of which may have elicited a bit of a shriek, but that's right, kids, I was sitting in JC's seat, with the couple in line before me taking up Paris and Nick's seats, respectively from the end of the row. We all may have squeed a little. I basked for a long minute, then asked the guy sitting next to me (whose seat didn't have a name on it) to switch with me and may have made him promises I can't keep if his doing so meant I would be sitting next to JC for any or all parts of the show.
This switch of seating landed me between JC and Paul Oakenfold, who turned out to be much more of a character than I ever bargained for.
He shows up about twenty minutes after we'd gotten settled, a somewhat shortish man in sunglasses and artfully androgynous hair a la BT, and spreads himself over a seat and a half smiling like he'd already gotten the best action of the night and is very pleased to be here indeed. He surveys the stage for a moment, then turns to me and says in his outrageously sexy British accent, "Hello, I'm Paul Oakenfold," and holds out his hand, declaring that while he came alone, it would seem as though seating would have it that I be his date for tonight, belatedly making sure to ask the boy sitting next to me if I am his girlfriend. Then he makes the observation that I'm "a pretty girl" and asks how I'm doing, if I'm enjoying myself so far. Despite being a little dumbfounded (because ohmygodPaulfreakin'Oakenfoldishittingonme) I came off rather winningly, though I suspect he didn't much listen to my answers. *shrug* I already had afterparty plans anyway.
Carmen Electra is also very tiny and doesn't have much more going for her than her smile. Is it so hard to find a host who draws ratings as well as being able to read words over two syllables off a stinkin' TelePrompter? Yeesh. Tommy Lee is a very skinny man whose baseline seems to be coked-up. Boy George is just as off-putting and pretentious in person - no one with that much paint instead of hair on his head should take himself that seriously. Yoko Ono is a tiny little thing who couldn't read the TelePrompter because of her dark sunglasses, which was quite amusing.
Paris presented... something, wearing quite possibly the most heinous dress in all creation that actually made her look frumpy and fat, then came to claim her seat with a manager-looking type in a half-fedora. Upon closer observation, the inch-wide straps of said dress appeared to be made of rows of diamonds, and that's just excess beyond reason right there.
So, after I'd taken in all I could tolerate of Miss Hilton's deeply unfortunate fashion but tastefully expensive bracelets (huge colored diamonds set in a border of tiny white diamonds) I noticed they were setting up the stage again (the presenter's podium is off to the side with a large, center stage.) Except they were only removing equipment, not setting new stuff up, and they were marching out four girls wearing black bodices and spike-heeled boots. I'm all, 'Wait a minute,' then recognize one of them and maybe squeal a little, but definitely clutch at the guy sitting next to me, saying, "My boy is going to perform! I know those girls, my boy is performing!" (All the event info seemed to indicate he was merely there to present.) Having already heard my JC squee from before, he pretty much just took this all in stride, the good sport.
And perform he did. The sheer embroidered black shirt and sparkly black pants are back! Hallelujah and praise be! Also, he did the full song this time, bridge and all, and though the choreography was still different in parts, it was a lot more like what we saw during the December club tour than what he's been doing on the promotional tour. He looked so good! And the thing about an event centered around this kind of music? The sound was fantastic. So I'm sitting not seven feet away (and it was all I could do not to stand up) grooving along in my seat. He did great, the crowd loved him, lalala ofcoursecakes, but the thing is, I think the industry folk would've gotten a lot more out of it if he'd done a radio edited version of, say, Force of Gravity with BT spinning as he sang, which is what many of the other acts did. They showed a really cool performance by Puff Daddy last year, same idea - it just would've better kept with the theme of the show. Also, I really would've liked it and really, isn't that reason enough?
Sadly though, he never actually made it to his seat, and I eventually had to give mine to Rob Boldt who came a little after Nick, who looked nice in his brown mules, khaki pants, and baby blue button-down shirt. And, okay, so, Paris and Nick? Even blonder in person, if that were possible. Also, it bears mentioning that theirloveissonarcissistic in that consciously MFEO way. Not cuddly, but they held hands and whispered back and forth, wearing identical expressions of distinct boredom. Here's something cute though: when Paris first arrived, she asked down the line of us for a cigarette, which Nick actually cajoled away and stomped out when he showed up. Aaaw!
There was a very cool performance by the Crystal Method (who are totally insane, by the way) and a very wild looking man whose name I want to say was something exceedingly innocuous [ETA: John Garcia]. They did a song called Born Too Slow that brought the house down - even the techie girl standing on the stage's upper scaffolding was rocking out.
Did you know every song off Moby's Play has been used in a commercial? I'm not entirely certain this would be a point of pride for me, especially as an advocate of an environmentally friendly, Vegan, nonviolent lifestyle, all of which go against most of the basic types and tenets of advertising. *shrug* Just me though, apparently.
Paul Van Dyk looks more than a little like Adrian Brody. Mmm. He's also humble, speaks with a verra sexy German accent and an all-around classy gent.
There was a British girl sitting next to me at one point who caught the guy running drink orders for the celebs and requested a "vodka and orange." He told her it was called a Screwdriver, which she balked at and said to just make sure there's something alcoholic in whatever he brings. She ended up being moved not too soon after that, which meant I got to have my very first Screwdriver (on an empty stomach, having eaten a couple of latkes around ten o'clock this morning.) If nothing else, as there was hardly any alcohol in there to make it worth your while to water down the orange juice, it helped with the cold. Which, have I mentioned it really, really was?
Sander Kleinenberg won Best Remix for his take on Rock Your Body, which was fun. I do like what he did with it.
I could live a thousand lives and never see Dave Navarro wearing thigh-high white vinyl boots, matching miniskirt and nothing else and be a happy woman/man/vegetable/mineral.
The finale was a Blue Man Group homage/cover of Donna Summer's I Feel Love, sung fantastically by this lovely girl in a rainbow-colored dress that lit up in alternating stripes as she sang. The Blue Man Group boys really do put on a show - loved the water and colored lights on the drums bit. However, ultimately, it only served to get me singing One Night Stand all the way to my car.
Ran into the two girls I was sitting next to when they first sat us down (we'd also talked in line a bit) in the parking garage on the way out. They managed to stay together after they were moved and saw me grooving to JC in my seat! They said I was cute, which, probably true. We exchanged contact info and you know what, I think I'd make the drive back down to Miami to party with them.
Quotes of the Day:
"He's completely wicked... He's not a very serious kind of guy, yet he has this amazing raw natural ability. I felt utterly vindicated working with him. All my chin-stroking DJ friends were like, 'What the fuck are you doing with him?!' They all gave me shit about it. And now they're all falling over themselves to work with guys like JC and Justin. Be in no doubt - he is a talented man. Hanging out with JC was great. He has millions of stories from the road, just about all of which I can't repeat. Sadly."
-BT (from an interview about his collaborators in the Dancestar program)
Tease! But a flatterer, too, so we'll let is slide this time. Besides, it's not like we haven't done well being left to our own devices until now. ;)
You picked vocalists from such different walks of life on 'Kish Kash'...
"We didn't really plan it like that, but by the time we got to the end of the album, we were like, 'Wow, we've got a real diverse range of artists here.' We like the fact that we have people from very disparate strains, and they're all really cool in their own right. Probably the biggest surprise for us is JC from *NSYNC, because that wasn't planned at all. He was in London and said he wanted to meet us with a view towards producing something for his album. We were working on 'Plug It In' at the time, so he ended up being on that. He was really cool. First of all, he flattered us a lot and said we were really cool and told us what tracks he liked, and he was believable. So often you meet people in the music business and they're full of shit. He was cool and seemed to have a genuine love for music and wanted to do interesting things and was very happy to do anything we said. He's got talent."
-the Basement Jaxx
And there's no arguing with that. Also, JC the fanboy makes my toes curl.
Finally, there's a picture of Justin and Danny Tenaglia on the last page - apparently, they ran into each other while he was rehearsing for SNL and Tenaglia was in town to test out some new equipment. Anyway, the point of it really is Justin's shirt, which is bright red, and says, a la the Von Dutch logo, 'You Dork.' [[heart]]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: March 10th, 2004 10:54 am (UTC)