11.18.07

On Friday night, about 600 people gathered at Metropolis Night Club on the West Bank of The Flats in Cleveland for the Koala-Tea and B.A.D. Ass collaboration of "Substance."

Dieselboy, Punisher and Terry Urban of Cleveland were headliners along with a solid lineup of locals which included Still LIfe, DVS, Truck Stop Tourist, Vinny Peace, Robtronix, Nox, Damien, Abduction and MC Barrenzemo, Grasshoppa, Greg Zorn, Nocturnal and of course MC Infinity.

Even for being in Cleveland as much as I am now days while still living in Dayton, I haven't seen so many familiar faces at one event than I did Friday night. I don't know if it takes the right venue or just the right headliner to bring out people, but something was in the air.

And really, I can't tell you the last time I was at Metropolis. For me it's a good balance between club and warehouse atmosphere. And with the lack of underground massives anymore, it's a good safe place to pack in a crowd.

I remember going to Metropolis' Sunday "Church" nights during my college years at Kent State University every week when resident DJ Tigga rocked the main room with his hard house anthems, and the side room belonged to Tik Tak and drum 'n bass.

As for this event, my regret was missing some of the local talent (read: Nox, Robtronix, Still Life and others) earlier in the night. It's a shame some of these locals don't get headlining timeslots.

From the talk I heard floating around after Dieselboy's set, Still Life (aka Cleveland's Grand Poo-bas' Record Shoppe d'nb buyer) seemed to be the crowd favorite. But of course, Dieselboy still had the whole main room jumpin' off to his dark and gritty tracks. (Note: Did you see the facial hair!? This boy's all grown up.) Terry Urban played in the prior timeslot which I missed too. (Hey, I was driving up from Dayton!) ;)

Despite a couple glitches later in the night (equipment/ lineup issues toward the end of DVS' set (?)), the crowd was definitely feeling the music.

As for Punisher in the back room, the techno heads were there seeing what the Detroit DJ had to offer. If you've never seen her, the girl is more than a pretty face. She's got track selection and mixing down.

Truck Stop Tourist (the Akron techno duo of Andy James and 1 Auxy) of the Tek-Know? crew (www.myspace.com/tekknow) followed her set. They've got both the look and the tunes to really make a name for themselves.

"Substance" definitely made me think maybe this scene isn't quite so dead as it seems. The lasers and visuals made the night, along with the sound that had my ears ringing until the next day. One of these days I'll put down all of my promotional Bassline flyers, camera and beer and start to dance a little more.

Now, if we can just get the people to stop smoking in the bathrooms ...