Category Archives: Events

Bass Breakerz Halloween 2016 feat. Shade K and BBK on their Work Hard Tour

I don’t get involved in producing underground events very often, but when Matt Housley of Night Spin Kollective approached me about scheduling a tour date with Shade K and BBK, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been a fan of both artists for close to 2 years now, and the prospect of the two of them making a whole new album and going on tour – I knew it could be good. When Matt told me they were looking to do it around the end of October, I looked at the calendar. Halloween fell on a Monday – immediately something clicked.

I knew that the big Halloween rave massive in Utah, called Get Freaky, would happen the weekend before on the 28th and 29th because that’s how V2 Presents always does it. I also knew that Corbin Schmitke did his monthly called Bass Breakerz on Mondays at The Ice Haus in Murray (Utah), so I suggested we approach him about combining forces and doing it there. I messaged Corbin and he was 100% down with the idea.

Matt and BBK had talked about doing this tour date during the process of them securing a separate earlier date for BBK to perform here in Utah – at Desert Wave, a first-year, outdoor weekend rave/”festival”.  At that show, I ended up performing with BBK as his DJ in place of Timmy Teaze, who could not make it. That set turned out to be amazing. We had a natural chemistry and were both on point. I had about 90 minutes beforehand to put a quick set together of the tracks he gave me , and it flowed well.

So back to Halloween, we made all the arrangements with the Ice Haus, booked the artists, and promoted the show lightly at the end of August through September; then did a heavy push all through October. V2 allowed us to flyer their show, which was very nice of them. But in the end, that turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. Not one single person we flyered from Get Freaky showed up. But as we expected, our core crew fam showed up in full force and it turned out to be the best time I’ve had all year.

Nosay started off the night with an all vinyl set of classic breaks, which was phenomenal because Jason has great taste. Matt (IN2GR8), Corbin (Decent) and I (Diggabeatz) did two rotations each of about 45 minutes apiece after that and man did we lay down some funky ass Bass, Breaks and Electro. Then Shade K and BBK took over and brought down the house. I have to say – as a veteran DJ of over 30 years on the decks, I have mad respect for this young DJ’s skills. Not even mentioning his production prowess, which cannot be understated. At this very moment, Shade K has, count them, 7 – yes SEVEN – tracks on the Beatport Breaks Top 100 chart. Aside from what I feel about those charts, this is a big accomplishment, especially considering (whether we like it or not) that those charts are as good as we’ve got to ranking the world’s Breaks producers.

Then there’s BBK. I can’t say enough about this young MC. I had already admired his smooth flows over the Breaks tracks I’d heard him on, but you never know what an MC will be like live. BBK kills it. He’s on point and doesn’t miss a lyric. He was up dancing on top of the subs and the energy was off the scale. On top of that, they’re both very nice people, very humble, and BBK put together the whole tour on his own, while not being greedy about it, working it out with us to be as inexpensive as they could afford.

At the end, I sent everyone home with a quick beatbox over the mic, while BBK freestyled for about 60 seconds, then told them to get the fuck out. GREAT NIGHT. Big love and thank you’s go out to NSK and Bass Breakerz family for making this an unforgettable Halloween!

Wrrd!

Digga

DiggaGig review – Wonderland – Utah’s White Party – January 23rd, 2016

Event: Wonderland

Venue: The Fallout, Salt Lake City

Producer: Utah Arts Alliance

Sound: Rock Solid – Eric

Lighting: Vanishing Productions – Dustin Moss

Visuals: Mindhum  – David Giardinelli

What a great party! I haven’t had that much fun in quite a while. The Arts Alliance and their staff and volunteers absolutely nailed it last night. An amazing mix of grand artists and their art, performers and their acts, DJ’s with their beatz. Hour and a half of DJ at the booth on the floor, then switch over to the stage for the artistic performances. It worked very well. The decoration was of course, Alice in Wonderland themed and looked fantastic. And there was a voluptuous body-painted caterpillar on a mushroom. Mindhum did some video projection mapping onto large sized white foam cutouts of mushrooms onstage and Alice and the White rabbit on the truss surrounding the DJ booth. Dustin lit the room up with a shitload of LED black lights that made all the white clothing really pop.

DJ Flash and Flare got the party started off and set the vibe very well. Then Eben Flow came in and wrecked the whole place with the best Electro Swing set I’ve ever heard. We really need more of that here in Utah. Then I played and switched the vibe up a bit, of course. I was followed by DJ Artemis who ended the party nicely with some progressive House and other stuff.

I prepared for this event by picking out a selection of my current favorite tracks from the last year. I only planned the first 5 mixes then left the rest of the set open for improv and to feature my own tracks. I also rehearsed with my current dancers, Robot Rob and E-Boogie. We have just come off of filming my most recent music video, “The Wind Up” and had a couple of classic popping routines available for that song. We also choreographed a completely new and original routine for the opening number. Very robotic, futuristic, comptemporary styles for that one. I also bought a new Adidas Superstar track jacket (Real Madrid issue – white with black stripes) and some solid white Levi’s 501’s and the white polo shirt from my Dad’s favorite rock band, Kansas. I also purchased some fiber optic sunglasses that looked very Kool Moe Dee and lit up white around the edges 😀  Aaaaand, rounded off the outfit with a brand new pair of Adidas classic Superstar limited edition gold foil shell-toes.

The logistics of the room setup wasn’t really what we envisioned, though. We had imagined everything happening on one stage but they had the DJ booth on the floor and the other performances on the stage to the right. No big deal at all, though. Actually made the opener a little more up close and personal for the crowd, which is just fine with me.

My set started off very smoothly with  us performing a popping routine to “Back” by Habstrak, then me heading back behind the decks to mix about halfway though. I have to say, Rob and Boog just assassinated it on their solos. They are both very talented. Everything continued very smoothly and the crowd got rockin’ very quickly. Got about an hour into it though and I had some serious technical problems. My Winamp started auto-playing tracks I was trying to drop into Serato very loudly and on top of the other tracks and I couldn’t stop it or turn it down for about 10 seconds… this happened 3 times before I could stop it. What really sucked is it was auto playing “The Wind Up” which was getting it’s official public debut… Ay ay ay.. how embarrassing. But, as a professional entertainer, I  just apologize and plow through to continue being dope and the crowd comes back to me. It’s not like that kind of shit doesn’t happen to me during my sets on a historical basis HAHA. The DiggaCurse continues to remind me that Murphy still haunts us.

Let me mention here, that my favorite part about this party was the fact that everyone danced all night. No fist pumping, no crowd all staring in the same direction at the stage just watching cake… people dancing their asses off and sweating like they just had the most intense sex of their lives… that’s what a real party is.  A great mix of ages, styles, vibes, etc.. And it was all positive and love.

Anyway, I finished up with some Disco-House’y 90’s sample-vibe-breaks and the crowd loved it. All in all, I had a great time and I think the attendees did, as well. Big ups to Derek Dyer and all the staff and volunteers who made this a truly memorable experience! I recorded most of my set but as usual, forgot to hit record until about the 3rd track… ugh. BUT Evan from Elm Films was there and he got some great footage. Both of which I will add to this post later.Wonderland 2016 flyer 2

WrrD!

~Digga

Wonderland (2016 White Party) - full photo set on flickr at http://bit.ly/1OQ7w7m - copyrigth 2016 Rudy van Bree
Wonderland (2016 White Party) – full photo set on flickr at http://bit.ly/1OQ7w7m – copyrigth 2016 Rudy van Bree

Digga White Party 2 Digga White Party 1 Digga White Party 3 Digga White Party 4

An Evening with 3 Hip Hop Legends

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a workshop hosted by Utah’s own B-Boy Federation at the Utah Arts Alliance facility in downtown Salt Lake City. I had the opportunity to meet, learn from and pick the brains of 3 of the most famous street dancers in history, one of whom was very influential to my style of dancing – the one and only Boogaloo Sam, inventor of the Electric Boogaloo style. The other two, Ken Swift and POE One are legendary members of the world-renown Rock Steady Crew, one of the most important B-Boy crews in Hip Hop.

Sam arrived first and for the first two hours taught us one of his classic popping routines and reinforced the basics of his trademark popping style. He really drilled us, too. It was a great work out and so much fun, clowning in the back row with Robot Rob and Terry Post. Then Ken Swift and POE One arrived for the discussion panel and we were able to hear from and ask questions of these icons of Hip Hop culture. We all learned a lot of history and insights that even I hadn’t heard about

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Diggabeatz with the legendary Boogaloo Sam
For example, I had always been taught that B-Boy or  B-Girl stood for “break boy” and was coined by Kool Herc. But I learned that it originally meant “Bronx Boy” and the term became associated with breaking because  started mainly in the South Bronx and the DJ’s associated that borough (New York speak for greater neighborhood) with that style of dancing, so when they were ready to start juggling a break they would announce it to the South Bronx people by saying “B-Boys are you ready? B-Girls are you ready?”

The panel discussion was very casual and  open format so we were able to actually make conversations out of it and I had some great exchanges with all three. I wish I could make it to the second night tonight and see the art show, but alas, I am pulled in other directions.

But I’m so glad I went; it once again refreshed my inspiration to continue living my life as an ambassador of true Hip Hop.

I just want to big up the one like Josh Perkins and the B-Boy Federation for making this happen and continuing to keep the true spirit of Hip Hop alive and well in Utah by providing quality events like these and opportunities for education!

WRRD!

Digga

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Josh Perkins moderates the panel discussion with 3 legends of Hip Hop dance. POE One, Ken Swift and Boogaloo Sam

Coachella 2015

My second year working this festival as the Coachella Stage Lighting Coordinator … click “continue reading”  for the whole story and more pix 🙂

The opening night headliners. They are all nearly 70 years old and still kick ass!!!

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Palm Springs… the irony was not lost on me that I was staying on a man-made lake in the middle of the desert during California’s drought.

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This wandering caterpillar on the first day turned into…

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This wandering butterfly on the second day…

Coachella Butterfly 2015

20150424_183711 Continue reading Coachella 2015

The 1st real rave I played – Tribal Gathering 2 – Lantana, Florida – DJ Icey, Kelly Reverb, headliners

One night in June 1997, I invited my friend and Fader Freekz co-founder, Sean Smith over for a typical night of spinning records at my apartment. He brought along a friend named Mark W. who hung out and spun records with us. He was impressed with how I was spinning and invited me to play a party he was throwing in two months. A couple of weeks before the party I got a call from my friend Mike M. who was with Mark at the graphic designer. Mark was from England and had misheard my name, thinking it was spelled Digger Beats. LMAO, Good thing Mike called me and I gave him the correct spelling!

DJ Icey and Kelly Reverb were the healining DJ’s that night. I got to meet Kelly after his set and talked to him for about an hour, which was the highlight of my evening. He was very down to earth and a very nice guy to talk to .

This event turned out to be very fun. I was there with Natasha, my girlfriend at the time, and our friends Juan, Nicole, and Jeremy. I watched DJ Jason Dunne spin before me and was blown away! This guy was so skilled and energetic and he played some dope ass beatz! Plus he had some crazy long curly blonde locks that bounced around when he danced. Then I got on the decks and he was equally impressed with my set.

3 days later he came over to my house and we improvised a tag team set that we both described as pure magic. It was like we were long lost DJ brothers LOL. I asked him if he’d be interested in joining me and Sean as a 3rd Fader Freek and he agreed.

GOOD TIMES!!

Jason Dunne at Tribal Gathering 2 - Aug 19997