The Immortal Moe Flex at CS

December 20, 2008

I arrived around 9:40. I think the classes might not been going very far because they were doing some footwork. This was followed by a short break followed by partner work. Hmm. Maybe that break meant that there was considerable action before I got there too.

Ivan arrived shortly after me. He has been super busy with his new job – the first year was always going to require most amount of preparation time. He talked about the Salsa team and his perception on how its absence had affected the Cambridge scene. It sounded like he hasn’t given up on dancing or Salsa for that matter.

Vish started off the party playing song seemingly designed to please more hardcore Salsa people – arguably favoring LA/NY types. Does Ven Devorame Otra Vez (Lalo Rodriguez) or Castigala (Los Nemus Del Pacifico) qualify? Vish certainly was picking nice pleasant songs rather than trying to come up with challenges and overdose on excitement.

I was spending more time dancing with people I associate with the Cuban crowd – like Cristelle and Sadia (although they seem perfectly fine dancing non-Cuban with me – as matter of fact, I like dancing with most of the good “Cuban-first” followers here in Cambridge). It seemed like there wasn’t very many of the people I think of as hard-core Cuban leaders; are they less willing to show up to the “bigger” or more “general” events? I was amused to see Moe dancing essentially slot style (but without being too strict about the slot) with Cuban followers later in the evening.

The first break of sorts happened as the social dancing was interrupted with an announcement for the Mashi Foundation charity, for which this event was held. Then started a series Moe Flex™ party dances, which Sally, Lindsey and Nicola trio excitedly joined. I decided to videotape this one (hint hint).

There was a fairly long sequence of Salsa-free songs. I think it started right after the party dances with a Reggaeton-fest by Vish. Moe was at the DJ booth next asking whether to go with more Reggaeton (not much noise) or Salsa (big noise for assent). I think not a few of the Salsa fans were disappointed by decidedly Cuban Salsa getting played next. Ivan and Jane had been gone for a while. Sally trio left shortly thereafter; I had only danced with Nicola between all of them (Sally photographed it).

So at this point, I was thinking that the party for me was more or less over. I had a bit more dances than I had on Friday. I also had fairly large number of no thank you to my dance requests – at least by recent standards here and elsewhere. I was mistaken.

…running out of time for now so this will be continued later…

Random bit: It took me a while to realize who Cristelle’s companion was.

...continued...

Moe announced that DJ Shorty was up next. Even though Moe had said there was be Mambo later, I wasn’t expecting much. Imagine my surprise when I heard vibraphones and the melody to Muneca. I smiled in amusement. Towards the end of the song, I walked over to the DJ booth and asked her whose rendition this was. Son Boricua. Of course – presumably from their 60s album.

Gotas De Lluvia by El Gran Combo was next – I danced to it. This might have been with Anna, who came in quite late in the evening. This was followed by the unauthorized remix of Ojos Chinos also by El Gran Combo. I decided to tease her about her playing three Puerto Rican tracks in a row to start off. She replied, “Good music is good music.” Either that or something to same effect.

Some Cuban stuff came on later as well, but also on later were No Ha Sido Facil (Monchy & Alexandra) and La Llave (Grupo Latin Vibe). I danced with Shorty (I wonder what her real name is – no one seems to know) to Otra Oportunidad (Jimmy Bosch). She probably would have finished off with Sun Sun Babae (Tito Rodriguez Jr – she has the Eclipse CD, which I had been wanting for some time. I don’t know if this is the version with too many breaks), but Vish switched the songs while she was dancing with me. About half the songs she played could easily have come from me.

How late was it then? 2:30? I’m not completely sure. I am unsure when the singing started. I think it was after DJ Shorty was done with her set, but I also remember talking to her during the singing and she was inside the DJ booth then. For both of us, it was only tonight where we figured out the identity of the second singer at the X-mas party.

Incidentally there were two singers tonight as well. One of the girls working behind the bar decided to sing impromtu before the main act. It was a Christmas song, which she sang again later. A first for Club Salsa – the encore by Vishal’s songbird led to a few couple dancing Salsa while she sang with pre-recorded accompaniment music. Who ever thought dancing Salsa to live music at Club Salsa was possible?

Moe Flex started another party song around this time - this one involved a Conga line.

More Reggaeton. Some belly dancing. A lot of nondescript non-Salsa songs. It went on and on and on. Around 3:30, big hands X came down and presumably left locking the entrance. It was now essentially a private party. The players were Vish, Moe, Bulbul, Shorty, Abbe (was behind the bar), Belly dancer (was behind the bar), Syed (still behind the bar), a lanky white guy with sharp movements, Vish’s songbird, a friend of Syed, and one seemingly random straggler.

Normally I would consider myself to be on the outermost fringe in this type of setting. Not so much tonight. I still was more of an observer at times, but I would have to cast myself in a role of a supporting character with a name rather than a number. Hmm. Seven if a number must be used. I danced sporadically over a long time. Some of them were even danced On2. More proper Latin dances were with Shorty and other random dances were with Vish’s songbird. Nothing significant here – I was not the main dance partner for either of them during this late hours.

By the way, Evil Ways (Cal Tjader) speeded up by 16% is too much. Maybe try 8% next time if I really want to make it faster. I was inspired to play this because Vish played a Santana song prior to it (but not right afterwards at his insistence).

Syed was getting desperate to leave. He came to me to beg me to put on a final song. I told him I will do what I can. Moe had already arranged for the next song. I previewed Moe’s song and found that it could work as a last song of the night. When the other song ended. I turned on the microphone and said, “This could be the last song of the night. Syed says he really wants to go home.” Others started protesting while Moe was trying to get his song to be played – which was my intent in any case so no conflict there. In any case it was not the last song of the night.

I wondered for a while how this kept going. I think the easy answer is that Vish was more than happy to keep it going while the guest of honor (in this case Moe Flex – he of iron constitution) was willing to stay. Some people were stuck – waiting for Syed. I probably would have left except I was curious to see how this would end. The fact that DJ Shorty was still there made it easier – if another Salsa or such came on, I would be quite happy to ask her for a dance; she’s liable to ask me for rain check if she’s out of breath, etc but she also seem quite open to dancing with me multiple times on a same night. As for others, I can only guess their reasons for staying and I am not going to share my guesses.

Syed eventually managed to take his leave – taking with him a girl friend of his as well as Bulbul. Belly dancer and the skinny white guy eventually left as well. Eventually Vishal’s songbird decided to crash after too much alcohol. Vish was quite drunk as well. The remainder of the main group (now Moe, Shorty, Abbe – there was one outsider whose purpose escapes me) seemed to be in fine shape. I was feeling a slight effect of a Sambucca shot earlier but it wore off fairly soon. Now it was around 5 AM.

I went upstairs to find it completely dark; it only dawned upon me then that the door must have been locked for some hours now. When I returned downstairs, I saw that Vishal had put on another Salsa. Shorty had moved her considerable baggage (consisting of among other things four CD cases and a headphone) and had changed her shoes, but she was still willing to dance.

Moe put on a Cuban track with a possibly religious tinted intro. Here he finally danced with Shorty for what I perceived to be the first time all night. This was a bit different from other dances I saw (or more appropriately ignored) all night. I happened to glance at the mixer board after they had been dancing for some time, and I saw that there were still over 8 minutes of song left. Shortly thereafter Moe faded the song out – apparently it’s a 12-plus minute song. It made me remember the time I played a 16-plus minute song at the end of one party.

So it was well after 5 AM when the four of us escaped from Vish, who seemed quite reluctant to let us go still – under the pretext of getting Moe well taken care of. The mystery guy was still around – still aimless and still not in a hurry to go anywhere. I don’t think Vish was going to be going home anytime soon – he was too hammered. My car clock said 5:25 when its engines were started.