Monster Session #2: LatinFest

June 21, 2008

Whoa.

It wasn't what I expected. I thought it was going to be akin to getting my teeth pulled out. It's Saturday Club Salsa for crying out aloud - I never saw a good one with caveat that I have been to only 2 or 3 not counting the very early hours. I was wrong - at least for tonight. It was hilarious, and it was definitely entertaining.

There were a lot of people - I'm quite sure it was considerably bigger than usual. There were a lot of shenanigans. It was a lot of fun. On many occasions I had my mouth open or make googly eyes in disbelief.

The start of the evening did not look particularly promising. Demetrios seemed to be substituting for Vish. Sandra might have been helping. The class was on the small side, and quite a lot of them vacated the premise right after the lessons. I did not bother to turn on one of the air conditioning units at the start of the evening.

Then more and more people arrived. It became a huge party. Thankfully Vish lent me quite a lot of his music because my CD collection is definitely not geared toward the Saturday native Latin crowd. I think that Vish might envy me for this huge party night.

Playlist [note: (v) indicates selections from Vish’s collection]

(v) 4 songs from Vish’s mix Salsa CD – (incl Micaela & Thinking Of You) (1)

Shenanigan no 1. Surprise Bachata lesson

(v) Thinking Of You (Lenny Kravitz) from the mix CD
Bachata Rosa – Juan Luis Guerra* (2)
El Cepillo – Fulanito (3)
A Pedir Su Mano – Juan Luis Guerra
El Pito – Sonora Carruseles
Acabo De Llegar – Alex D’Leon (4)
(v) Suavemente – Elvis Crespo
(v) Procura by ? (Cumbia) (5)
(v) labelled R&B Piano (6)
(v) Merengue Mega Mix 1 (7)
Ave Maria Lola – Roberto Torres
Brujeria – El Gran Combo (8)
Playa Fa Sho – Toby Love (9)

Shenanigan no 2. Birthday dance (10)
song = La Muerte – El Gran Combo

(v) Asi Asi (a party dance, not a real Merengue by a commenter)
Me Libere – El Gran Combo
(v) Cali Pachanguero – Grupo Niche (11)
La Biluribina – Juan Luis Guerra
Caballo Viejo – Roberto Torres (12)
Playa No More – Crystal Sierra
(v) Merengue Mega Mix 3 (13)
Ven Tu – Domenic Marte (14)
(v) Popular Cumbia track 16
(v) GSR = Gilberto Santa Rosa (15)
Rompe – Daddy Yankee (16)
Visa Para Un Sueno – Juan Luis Guerra* (17)
Es La Musica – Massimo Scalici (18)
(v) La Tortura – Shakira
(v) Bailando (Reggaeton) (19)
Guallando – Fulanito*
(v) La Vida Es Un Carnaval – Celia Cruz
(v) Gasolina (Reggaeton)

Shenanigan no 3. A Raffle (20)

Loco De Amor – Evolution A R
Lloraras – Oscar D’Leon
Si Tu Te Vas – Juan Luis Guerra
(v) Colombian S/A (?) (21)
(v) Macarena
Get It Up – Eurocuban Project (22)
(v) Dile (Reggaeton) (23)
A Pedir Su Mano – Juan Luis Guerra
Ay Amor, Cuando Hablan Las Miradas – Orquesta Guayacan
(v) Whenver, Whenver - Shakira
Te Conozco Bien – Marc Anthony
Te Extrano – Extreme
(v) I Will Survive (Spanish version)
Nadie Como Ella – Marc Anthony (24)
(v) Dale (Reggaeton)
No Aguanto Mas – Celia Cruz (25)
Baila Andres – Mezcla Latina (remix)
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D Keda (26)
(v) Huso (Reggaeton)
(v) Chequele (Reggaeton) (27)
La Novella – Fulanito (28)
(v) Bomba (Latin pop) (29)
(v) Simarik (Latin pop)
You Will Remember Me – Domenic Marte (30)
I Wanna Love You - Pablo Bachata
(v) Lambada (~zouk) (31)

(1) I had a couple of dances while the mix CD was being played. Between the fourth and the fifth song, there was a short interruption to a Bachata lesson led by Sandra.
(2) I thought this was the time to experiment. Too saccharine seemed to be the verdict.
(3) Merengue time. Early. Whatever. I’m supposed to play it like Vish. Also I thought I better make this an antidote to the previous song. People are starting to flood in rapidly.
(4) Even with “popular” Salsa, the dance floor is not as filled as it was with Merengue.
(5) There was an early Cumbia request. Vish left me two songs – not counting La Vida Es Un Carnaval, which is only a part Cumbia.
(6) The only instrumental Salsa Vish lent me. Relatively speaking, it’s a bomb.
(7) This is a 15 minute Merengue medley. The effect was amazing. It’s a full-blown Latin party, and it’s barely past 11 PM. Towards the end of the medley, a girl came by asking to get a birthday dance organized for someone named Philip. Why not? I think Vish mentioned that there was a birthday party or such. Does he want Salsa or Merengue? Any specific song? Fast or slow? A. Salsa not too fast. Clearing the floor is going to be problematic too.
(8) I had considered using this as the Birthday song. The big issue is still about clearing the floor without killing the atmosphere. Hmm. How about a Bachata first?
(9) Okay. This might be an opportune time.
(10) While I was in the middle of the announcement, another person rushed in saying that there is a second birthday. Oh no. I’m thinking that it’s going to take to long to establish if she would want to have a birthday dance at the same time, etc. A second interruption would be too much. No choice but to smile and carry on.
(11) I had been keeping an eye on Astrid for a dance ever since she had arrived some time before the birthday dance. Me Libere would have worked nicely but she was nowhere to be seen then. Time to scheme another opportunistic sequence. Merengue-Salsa-Salsa (I don’t think I want to play too many Salsa in a row with this crowd).
(12) Finally a dance. I think the song was liked enough but there were not too many Salsa dancers at this point so I had quite a bit of room. The floor seems a little sticky. I should adjust the AC setting.
(13) I opted for this 15 minute long mix over an 18 minute one. This one unlike the first mix did not generate much interest. I might have faded it out with about 3 minutes to go. Meanwhile there was a Bachata request, so I rearranged the song sequence planned few minutes earlier.
(14) Another dance.
(15) Another dance. I don’t think I like this song as much for Salsa dancing – at least not with my current stylistic preference. By the way, I forgot to turn on the AC unit on the side and raise the setting for the other AC unit earlier. This was finally done after the end of this song.
(16) Time for the first Reggaeton.
(17) Not sure why but Bulbul did not like the sound of this song.
(18) I had been thinking all along that this song might work for Saturdays – in low dose. Spectacular result for tonight.
(19) This was a specific song request.
(20) I’m not sure exactly when the raffle took place. Would Vish have allowed this? No idea. At least I was told that it was for a charity.
(21) This was in the Salsa CD, but it sounded more like a Merengue. I took forever to settle on this song and was surprised by the content as well as the reaction – as well as the fact that it started skipping with about a minute to go and stopped altogether shortly thereafter. Thankfully I had the next song cued already, and what I switched to the other song the place exploded. Amazing.
(22) What a crowd. It feels like everything I touch is gold.
(23) I told Bulbul that we probably won’t be closing at 2 AM tonight. He looked happy.
(24) Another specific song request. I was going to play another Marc Anthony soon – this merely finalized the song choice and time. Time check: 2:07 AM.
(25) Something of an experiment. I think my lack of experience with mixing, beat matching, etc is finally showing. Then again, not playing 10+ minute Reggaeton and constantly changing music style is helping with short-attention-span problem. Salsa people, Merengue people, Bachata people, Reggaeton people all know that their song is coming up very soon. Also it won’t last so they better take their opportunity while it lasts.
(26) Another dance. There was another with someone else earlier, but it was quite problematic – I hadn’t had so much difficulty even with raw beginners in well over a year. This dance was quite relaxed – good for some conversation too. I think this one was where I was critiqued by someone I didn’t know for saying 30 seconds. Probably too business-like or such.
(27) I came closest to mixing with this one. Actually the two songs were a little too similar to each other.
(28) At this point, I’m trying to close it out. This still isn’t very good so I faded out the end.
(29) This was a request of sort arranged by Bulbul. Again my inexperience with the Saturday crowd showed. The only good thing I did was to let someone else take over briefly without throwing tantrums.
(30) Bulbul asked for the next one to be the last one. There was a guy who wanted zouk music earlier. I thought I found a reasonable alternative, but I wouldn’t use it as the last song without confirmation. Oh well.
(31) Not so fast. There was a confirmation, and he convinced Bulbul to make it one more song.

Total = 62 songs. 29 songs were from Vishal’s collection with the breakdown being 9 Salsa, 2 Cumbia, 5 Merengue, 7 Latin miscellaneous, and 6 Reggaeton. 33 songs were from my collection with the breakdown being 8 Bachata including 1 new, 8 Merengue including 2 new, 1 Reggaeton, 14 Salsa. Overall breakdown by song stye = 23 Salsa (including 5 to start with from the mixed CD meaning only 18 Salsa for the “real” party), 13 Merengue, 8 Bachata, 7 Reggaeton, 2 Cumbia and 7 miscellaneous. So that’s a little over 1/3 Salsa or under 1/3 Salsa – more or less what I expected.

The party ended at 3 AM. Enough said.