LODA Runners — Freddy Sanon & Jacques Renault bring it to Silver Spring

July 16, 2008 by Sexy Fitsum  Send to a Friend

For a lot of heads, checking the flyer for last friday’s LODA was probably like hearing one of those 6AM calls to prayer given the headliner in Gallery’s main room, Freddy Sanon. Sanon has been around long enough to have spun at Paradise Garage, and currently manages Shelter in New York City along with (photophobe and) the equally legendary dj Timmy Regisford. On the new school side of the roster, DC ex-pat Jacques Renault, of more than a few label associations — DFA being the most notable, headlined the outdoor space them-a-call the “Alley of Boom”. Renault’s exposure to House music while living in Chicago during late 90s led to his hard fall later for disco, a prediliction he took with to New York in ‘02 — where he developed his trade as producer and live jock of consequence — then semi-worldwide. The interesting thing about Renault’s production work and the some artists on the DFA label is how they inject big chunks of disco idioms into their take on dance-punk and sort of reanimate the steaming pile that was left of the so-called electroclash wave of so many summers yonder*. Hercules & Love Affair are ridonculous examples of this move. While I’m short on DFA label mates LCD Soundsystem, Pat Mahoney’s set last month at Blisspop is still stuck in my blood.

After Sam Burn’s warm-up set segued into Freddy Sanon’s, drop after drop I found myself totally let down by Sanon’s selection. I was hoping for depth, as in deep with lots of space — maybe a touch of dubbedness, maybe not — but definitely something dark and plush I could sink into like a 2 meter bong hit. Maybe I was set up by listening to the wrong mouths talking up what to expect from the legend. Maybe I should’ve done my homework and listened to more of his production work or dug around for one or two of his mixes.
OK. My fault.
Ultimately there’s no doubt I was a minority of one, judging from the joyful frenzy within and without the dance circle. There were a couple of local DJs and promoters intermediately swaying then not, while civilians popped, locked, jacked and whatevered relentlessly even as the house lights faded up to full blast and the management got real explicit about, like, how we didn’t have to go home, but that we had to go.

The scene in the alley outside was just as high-energy. Measax and Dosindo.Dorsey, who I remembered from last April’s Flash party, set the pace. Mind you, I had no expectations of Renault when he came on. In fact I barely noticed, until I started shooting and realized he was a totally different caucasian from the other two. I’ll be honest: like just about every DJ set I’ve ever shot, I didn’t remember exactly what he played. I do remember the feel (bouyant, sometimes quirky) the tempo (up, uuuuup, practically poppin’) and the dancers’ reaction to the set. And that I wanted to stick around outside more than I wanted to go back inside. We all ended up going inside as the outdoor set ended earlier than the one indoors, probably because of noise regs.

Big up to Dave of Eightyeightdc for consistently booking solid dj talent and organizing the visual art on a weekly basis. I get that it’s his job and all but, seriously, show me a harder working event promoter in the DC area.

» Complete photo set here (though you’ve pretty much seen them all)

*I can’t stand that electroclash shit. Bust how quickly it went from zero to annoying cliché in no time flat. You would hope this neo disco swing won’t go the same way. You would. Me, I’m too old for hopin’.
:(

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