Photo by Anthony Gambino (@earth2gam)
What you missed at Saturday’s insane Boiler Room party
'It felt like a movie': Scenes from the club music institution's full venue takeover at Avant Gardner
Photo by Anthony Gambino (@earth2gam)
While the sun was just peeking over the horizon on Sunday morning, people were still going hard on the dance floor. Weed clouds thickened the already humid-heavy air as overpriced drinks, elaborate outfits, and illicit drugs worked their way through Boiler Room – one of the world’s most popular all-night shows.
It might be a cliché at best (and, more recently, kind of a lie) to say that this is a city that never sleeps. But Boiler Room put the expression through its paces at East Williamsburg’s 8,000 square-foot Avant Gardner over the weekend. From 6 p.m. Saturday to 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, thousands of people packed tightly into three different rooms to see over a dozen live performances and DJ sets spanning everything from hip-hop to bounce to grime to techno and more.
Boiler Room — a globe-trotting party that began in London’s underground music scene — has been commissioning and streaming live music sessions around the world since 2010. The outfit produces about 30 to 35 new shows every month in 200 cities worldwide and has featured 8,000 performances by more than 5,000 internationally-known acts as well as emerging and local artists.
Saturday’s Boiler Room was true to form, kicking off with performances by some hip-hop and alternative artists such as Luci, Musclecars, Navy Blue, Boy Harsher, and a DJ set by Kat Offline on the main outdoor stage, called the Brooklyn Mirage. It was the calm before the storm — both literally (it rained! a lot!) and on the dancefloor.
Just before 10 p.m., two indoor rooms opened — Kings Hall and the Great Hall — and club kids flowed like rainwater from stage to stage to catch Brooklyn native AKAI SOLO at Great Hall who heated the crowd up with hip-hop and rap before hours of house and techno sounds took over.
“Doing Boiler Room was a silent goal of mine,” he tells Brooklyn Magazine. “I am aware of the prestige it carries in tandem with some of the artists that have also graced the platform with their presence. The opportunity to expand my reach on such a large platform is one that I treasure.”
Boston-bred, Haitian-American, Brooklyn-based open format DJ, producer, and creative Boston Chery followed with an eclectic set of their own — their second at Boiler Room — before rapper BKtherula and her DJ, Hu Dat hit the stage for a moshpit-filled performance.
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“My favorite thing about Boiler Room is the crowd is full of music lovers and people prepared to be introduced to new sounds,” Chery says. “Everyone was dancing, there was so much love in the crowd during and after my set. It felt like a movie.”
Up next, New Jersey vocalist, DJ, and producer Uniiqu3 — who last spun at the Boiler Room in 2013 — literally made the Great Hall shake with a riotous bounce set.
“When I walked up on stage I was welcomed by my friends, it was hugs and high fives — it felt so fulfilling,” she says. “I had the biggest smile on my face while thinking of what imma hit ‘em with next. I love to provide happiness and I do that through music. The energy of everyone in the audience from front to back was on level 10.”
Uniiqu3 says she had been grieving the death of her friend and fellow Jersey club legend DJ Tim Dolla prior to her set, and that she thought about him throughout the night. “Sometimes I see DJing as an escape from the day-to-day,” she says. “When I press play my spirit gets lifted by the beats.”
Following Uniiqu3 in the Great Hall were Brooklyn rapper Young M.A., rapper-producer Galcher Lustwerk, and Chicago house staple Derrick Carter who moved through rap, hip-hop, techno, house, and electronic until 4 a.m.
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Around midnight the rain picked up at the outdoor stage, which changed … absolutely nothing. If anything, British-Swedish singer-designer-model Ecco2k and Swedish rapper Bladee brought even more party people outside to the Brooklyn Mirage stage, followed by New York native DJ cry$cross. She says she has waited six years for a gig this big.
“Wow, Boiler Room was really something else,” she says. “I had some pre-performance jitters a few hours before my set but that feeling subsided when I ran into friends on the dance floor and backstage. They really gave me the energy I needed. The feeling during the set was incredible!”
Glasgow-based DJ-producer Denis Sulta finally shut things down outside on Brooklyn Mirage stage with a set that went to 4:30 a.m.
Back indoors, New York-based fashion disruptor Shayne Oliver’s Anonymous Club finished the night off from midnight to 4 a.m. in Kings Hall. Oliver created Anonymous Club as a multidisciplinary creative studio where music, fashion, and art meet. Eartheater, Babyxsosa, Ayegy, Izzy Spears, Meth Math, Nation and LEECH were all represented in Saturday’s collective. Together they were on hand to launch Anonymous Club’s latest collection and to launch Club Couture, a new party series.
Also among Oliver’s entourage was someone who has been DJ’ing in some instances for as long as the youngest club goers have been alive. Booty Bass pioneer DJ Assault brought a little ghettotech and Detroit dance with him to Kings County. The man behind the club classic “Ass N Titties” had never played Boiler Room before and says he was surprised by how the younger crowd knew all of the throwbacks he played.
“I’m getting educated more from the crowd — I listen to a lot of feedback from them,” he says. “I’m just glad people still appreciate what I’m doing.”
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If you couldn’t catch Boiler room IRL, or if you just want to appreciate it all over again, you can watch the pre-recorded sets on their website or YouTube.
