Weekend Pick To Click: Weekend Picks To Click: August 13

Log In + |
Create a Free Account

Tuesday
05.21.13
Partly Cloudy
74.0ºF

Now

August 13, 2004
DJ Plez GoPride.com columnist

Weekend Picks To Click: August 13 – 17, 2004

You might still be recovering from Market Daze, but the weekend is here and there’s plenty to do. Here are my recommended highlights.

On Friday night, Hex Hector returns to the city and will be spinning at Hydrate Chicago as they continue to bring the best of the touring club DJs to Chicago on Friday nights. He tore the roof off of Sound-Bar when he was last in town over the 4th of July weekend, so expect more of the same from this talented and inventive dj/remixer/producer.

On Saturday night, the Dresden Dolls, which was in my previous review column, will be at Schubas (at the corner of Belmont and Southport). This is by far one of the most interesting bands I’ve heard through my earphones in quite some time, with a quasi-punk rock style that reminds me of a 1980s favorite of mine: The Violent Femmes.

After turning the Sunday night DJ booths over to out-of-towners last weekend for Market Days, Sound-Bar and Crobar are back to showing some love to the locals. DJs Chris Eterno and Luis M (pictured left) will be setting the pace underneath the “El” tracks at Sound-Bar (Event Details), while long-time Chicago favorite Teri Bristol will be back in her familiar position in the Crobar DJ booth (Event Details).
Sign-up for the Sound-Bar VIP List (requires weekly sign-up) and get in FREE before Midnight!

Pushing a few days past the weekend, a very interesting musical group called Bond will be performing Tuesday night at the Park West. This quartet of beautiful women has been causing a sensation on a global scale. Not only are they lookers, but they are accomplished musicians playing violins, a viola, and a cello within a mish-mash of styles including jazz, African and electro beats, hip hop, and Latin-infused songs. They’re even venturing toward the electronica realm as the white hot remixing tandem of Tony Moran and Warren Rigg have produced Bond’s “Fly Robin Fly” remake into the “Fly Samba Fly”dance track. Having already sold over three million albums with their first two releases, Bond is currently touring in support of their third effort, Classified. This group is truly unique and well worth checking out when they hit the Park West stage on Tuesday.

For additional event listings, check the ChicagoPride.com Event Calendar.

POST A COMMENT

No one has commented on this column yet.
Be the first one to comment!

About DJ Plez

DJ Plez (aka Michael Pleasants) has been DJing since the late 1980's, sharing his passion for dance music with dance floors and listeners around the world. After many years of successful toil in the financial services industry, he’s now spending much more time in a DJ booth instead of an office cubicle.
DJ Plez has quite a diverse range of dance music “likes” to accompany his true love of house music.
The incredibly wide variety of records and CDs that DJ Plez possesses helps explain the unique style he has forged: one that melds various forms of dance music - Chicago house, progressive, tribal, underground, and club - into a cohesive presentation that is rhythmically exciting, sexy, and energetic.
DJ Plez uses fresh approaches for each of his live sets, skillfully producing intricate mixes on the fly, creating a sense of dance floor drama with his in-booth programming, and most importantly to him, making sure his sets have one abiding element: GROOVE!

As would be expected from his wide ranging style, the DJs that have most influenced DJ Plez represent the vast global dance music scene and include: Victor Calderone, Derrick Carter, John Digweed, Danny Howells, Frankie Knuckles, Susan Morabito, Ralphi Rosario, Danny Tenaglia, and Junior Vasquez just to name a few. However, the most significant influence on DJ Plez’s abilities in the DJ booth are the experiences he has when he’s out dancing at parties and in clubs, staying intimately connected to the dance floors and partygoers populating them.
It’s this connection that allows him to truly find out and understand what makes a dance floor tick, thus leading to his success in the DJ booth.

DJ Plez sees himself as an ambassador of house music on a mission to help perpetuate and grow this Chicago-born art form. During the past year he had gigs in Zurich (Nuts & Bolts Party; Labor-Bar), Montreal (Unity 2; Chrome), and Miami (Cactus) and will be adding Amsterdam, Detroit, and Los Angeles to his travel itinerary. Locally, DJ Plez has residencies at Cell Block and Ezuli in Chicago and has made several appearances at PUMP!Milwaukee. In addition to numerous private and corporate DJing gigs, DJ Plez is the Music Editor of ChicagoPride.com.

Mixes of DJ Plez have been played on internet radio at www.circuitmix.com since June 2003. Additional opportunities to listen to more mixes by DJ Plez will come about in the near future on his web site www.djplez.com.