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Ritchie Hawtin Strykes Gold
By Kris Conesa
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The music of Ritchie “Plastikman” Hawtin
inspired reminiscing at The Pawn Shop. |
The
best thing about going to a Plastikman, aka
Ritchie Hawtin, show happens on the way
there.
This little ritual primarily involves recounting
tales of long-past debaucherous nights involving
Hawtin. The stories are oftentimes peppered with
anecdotal recollections of hallucinogen-induced
adventures that include getting lost in a strange
city or waking up at a naked stranger’s house just
in time to see one of your buddies wearing a towel
in bed with the aforementioned naked stranger. (Yes,
that really happened.) The only rule to this car
game is that it must happen on the way to his show
so he can spin the soundtrack to the story. It
usually starts with someone saying, “The last time I
saw Ritchie Hawtin spinning, I was at (blank)” or
“The first time I saw Plastikman throw it down, I
was at (blank) in (blank) with (blank) rolling balls
till like three in the afternoon the next day.”
Oh yes, taking a trip down memory lane, back to a
time when you were trippin’, can be a fun game that
sets the mood for what’s to come.
The truth is, watching this man spin never gets old.
Simply put, he is the DJ whom other DJs respect.
Yes, it’s true, males can be DJ whores, too, and
Ritchie Hawtin is the DJ pimp. So, it’s easy to
understand why the crowd was filled with some of
Miami’s up and coming deck-masters and original
scenesters. Here, I’ve put together a couple of
Ritchie Hawtin stories I heard this last weekend
when Plastikman took to the decks at the Pawn Shop
Lounge downtown.
“Dude, I remember when Sheet One came out
back in the day, like in ’93, and no one I knew had
ever heard of Plastikman. You know, the album cover
was made to look like a sheet of acid with 500 hits.
It came perforated and everything. I used to sell
those hits like they were real LSD stamps to the
younger, less-informed kids,” said one party patron
who identified himself as Eddie Crippie,
though I’m pretty sure he made up that last name
while he was stoned.
That story parlayed into another, about a basement
party in
Detroit.
“Man, we show up in
Detroit and it’s not like here; over there, they
throw parties anywhere on the street. It doesn’t
matter where. In some random basement, in a parking
garage, they don’t care. Anyways, we’re completely
destroyed. I have no idea where we are and I stumble
by a speaker and, right at that exact moment, this,
like, freezing cold fog machine shoots out a stream
like right in my face and that was it, man. It felt
like I was literally flying through the air. That’s
when I first became a Plastikman fan. Don’t even get
me started on the old Control parties, man, I
don’t want to get in trouble,” said Nelson Diaz,
a local Hawtin fanatic who was lucky enough to
get an autograph on a dollar bill.
Oh, mad props have to go out to DJ Stryke,
who opened for Hawtin after headlining his own tour.
This man, whom I think everyone can agree should be
considered a world-class DJ, threw down a wicked set
showcasing his chops for the legions of Hawtin fans
whom showed support for the superstar. Get ready for
some more wicked tracks from Stryke, who told the
411 that he just finished his new album, which will
drop right before Winter Music Conference in March.
Spotted:
Flash, aka
Dwyane Wade,
Fat Joe,
Timbaland,
Sean Paul,
Busta Rhymes,
Pharrell
Williams and
Urkell wishing Jamie Foxx a
happy 40th birthday at the newly opened Florida
Room at the Delano on Saturday night.
The Purple One,
Prince,
performing live with backup dancers, a pair of twins
and a brass band at the Opa-locka Executive
Airport’s Turnberry aviation hangar, where
James Caan,
George Hamilton,
Brett Ratner,
Ingrid Casares, Rony Seikaly and
Jorge
Perez
celebrated the 40th birthday of Turnberry heir
Jeffrey Soffer.
Oh yes, reportedly costing more than $2 million,
this party was off the chain.
Upcoming
The 411
is currently stocking up on glow sticks because we
heard George Acosta and Edgar V plan
to bring back trance at Dream nightclub. The
show is billed as a one-night-only event where the
original Shadow Lounge crew will reunite and listen
to the man DJ Times Magazine calls the Best
DJ in America (Acosta) throw down. It’s going down
on New Year’s Eve. General admission tickets are
listed on wanttickets.com at $100, or $200 with open
bar all night.
Got the 411? E-mail
the411@miamisunpost.com. |
