DJ Big Styles shares a few of his favorite memories from So What! The Club

By Dave Herrera Fri., Jan. 18 2013 at 12:02 PM

Aaron Thackeray

Tomorrow night at Beauty Bar, So What! The Club celebrates its twentieth year of keeping Denver funky. Earlier this week, we shared some of the fliers from the early days when the night first got going at City Spirit on through its move to various other locales, including 9th Avenue West and Rock Island. Today, occasional Backbeat contributor Shawn White (aka DJ Big Styles) shares some of his favorite memories from So What!, including the time the So What! crowd was enlisted to appear in a commercial for Replay Jeans to a few amusing celebrities encounters involving Massive Attack and Velvet Revolver.

Aaron Thackeray

DJ Big Styles of the So What! crew keeping things funky at Beauty Bar.

So What! The Club Has Always Been All About the Crowd

More than the celebrities who came through So What! The Club over the years (I'll get to a few of those stores in a moment), my favorite memory of So What! has everything to do with our crowd. The vibe at So What! is timeless cool because the people who have always come to our parties are actually legit. They don't put on airs; they don't freak out and starfuck when a celebrity shows up at the party. Like our motto: They don't front; they just funk.
Because of this, when people have friends visit from out of town, they always bring those friends down to check it out. So on any given night, you have a good amount of people from all over the world who have chosen to spend their night at So What! Back in the City Spirit days, my friends David Lucas and William Logan brought their mutual friend Michael Haussman down to check out the vibe. Michael is the world famous director of music videos such as "Take a Bow" by Madonna and "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake -- IMDB the dude; he's awesome.

Michael, who is a Colorado native, just couldn't believe the level of sophistication with the So What! crowd and decided to cast a commercial he was in town to shoot for Replay Jeans almost entirely from the So What! crowd.

What ended up happening was that the next week, on like Wednesday, all the people who had been cast met up and spent the day shooting in the Comedy Works. It was like a special daytime edition of So What! The Club, and it just shows that there are real connections that have come about from this little Tuesday night party. I think I speak for all of us when I say that that is what we are most proud of and what we will remember the most.

Keep reading for some classic So What! The Club stories involving Daddy G from Massive Attack and Slash and Velvet Revolver.

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yarr

Why is it that while the producers do 95% of the work, it's the DJs who always get the spotlight? It would be nice to see a feature about local producers and composers who don't ncessarily play out, for once. Not everyone in EDM just presses "play" in front of a crowd.

Interview with producer: "Here's how I crate music... This is what motivates me... These are my influences..."

Interview with DJ: "I.. ugh... umm... I play music from the radio!"

dave.herrera moderator

@yarrWe've actually profiled numerous producers, including Real Cosby, Jomeezius, GirlGrabbers and a whole bunch more (Booney Mayfield, Davey Boy, Dealz Makes Beats, Es Nine, Graffiti Black, Kid Hum, Lenny Lenn)

deejaystyles

@yarr YOU are the reason why DJs get interviewed. Insufferable elitists who aren't informed enough to know that the best producers of "EDM" were and ARE DJs. Diplo, Sampha, SBTRKT, Flying Lotus, DAFT PUNK.

Real DJs are constantly in the business of creating music, your SPIN magazine cover boy wankers like Deadmau5 are busy standing on the shoulders of giants who came before them and established this game, and because THEY give terrible performances they wanna say all I do is press play?

Do yourself a favor, get up on a little history and you will find out that it's called HOUSE music. It's been here long before you deigned to gaze down your nose at a culture you don't understand, and btw we don't think you're ironic when you don't dance at the party we think you're sad.

Holla back at me when you get some respect for the culture you so poorly represent.