We arrived at Czar Bar around 9:30 last night, expecting a line that would be snaking out of the door and up the block.  Four-time DMC world champion DJ Craze was the featured performer in a lineup that also included Drop the Lime, Blu Jemz, Rob Wonder, and locals NoMathmatics.  Thankfully, the only people outside were the smokers.

We walked in to NoMathmatics “banging the box”.  At 9:30pm.  Huge basslines were hanging around for a minute or two before wave after wave of synth arpeggios overtook them - rinse, recycle, repeat.

The casual dance crowd was into it, getting all hands-in-the-air and grind-y, which is fine and all, until the later moments of the set and the first several of follow-up Rob Lemon, when most of the crowd disappeared to the sides of the club.

Lemon was then put in a position to follow up this too-early climax.  While it seemed he was well aware he was following a set that was too aggressive too early, he gave it his best.  While there were several “white” Euro-sounds throughout his set, it had at least a good handful of funk which we greatly enjoyed dancing to.

As the tail end of Wonder’s set faltered, Blu Jemz took the decks.  I’d been excited to see him since I’d seen his name advertised on the first Scion event a few months ago, one I’d unfortunately missed.  The producer and dj is one of the up-and-coming names in the new weird hiphop scene, although it didn’t seem he was going to get the chance to play anything along those lines tonight.

He as well seemed forced into capitulating to the crowd who, not really knowing who they were seeing, seemed to expect the night to continue in the fashion NoMathmatics had started it off - big anthems, Teutonic trance synths, and simple bosh-bosh-bosh rhythms.  A half-hour into Blu Jemz’ set, we’d had our fill and left.

It was really unfortunate that NoMathmatics seemed to take the opening slot as an opportunity to pull out their big guns instead of work the crowd in anticipation of the headliners coming on later in the evening.  It’s the core issue addressed in this Resident Advisor article concerning warm-up djs from a few days ago, and it’s one I agree with 100%.

When an opening band has a great show or is just a better band than those they’re opening for, it’s a little easier to stomach.  Opening Djs should know better - warm the crowd up, don’t burn them down.

There’s a reason the headliners are the headliners.  Given that most people in this city who attend these events are more interested in who’s seeing them there, the process they had to go through to get there, etc than who’s actually slated to provide the entertainment for the night, maybe it’s not surprising that they’re going to be most up-for-it early (especially on a weeknight) and for the local heroes.

The thing is, the local djs should know what the crowd itself choses not to know.  I hope the rest of the night went well for Blu Jemz, Drop the Lime, and Craze - I really regret not being able to see his set.  But after an hour and a half of Rob Wonder and Blu Jemz having to deal with the  sloppy seconds of NoMathmatics’ premature ejaculation, I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Update - I mistakenly named Rob Lemon in this article - the actual dj who performed second on the bill was Rob Wonder - thanks to the anonymous commenter who corrected me on that one.