Every year, when I head home to visit my family in Jersey where I grew up, it becomes a four day balancing act between spending QT with the fam and trying to relive my youth by getting in as much of the NYC music scene as I can. This summer was no different. STS9 was playing their first live PA set in NYC at the newly renovated Studio Mezmor, and the next morning I was slated to run in the annual Spring Lake 5 Mile run with my family. I debated my priorities heavily, but when Laura Cohen from LC Media came through with a media pass for me, I knew I had no choice. I didn’t set any records at the Spring Lake 5, but I don’t regret my decision
I must admit, I was initially clueless as to what a “live PA set” was, but based on the excitement on STS9 blogs, I new it was something I wanted to check out. Turns out that the live PA set consists of Hunter Brown, Zach Velmer, and Dave Murphy making/mixing wicked electronic music through their iBooks and a program called Ableton. In NYC they had the full STS9 crew with Jeffree Lerner and David Phipps on drums and percussion. The hypnotic but high energy beat and gut-wrenching bass of STS9’s music fit perfectly in the chic dance club setting of Studio Mezmor which you could tell normally catered to NYC’s late-night dance and party crowd. The usual Sound Tribe crowd was obviously a foreign sight to the 7 foot bouncers at Scores Gentleman’s Club next door who kept periodically wandering over to see what all the excitement was at the Mezmor. STS9 played two non-stop sets before relinquishing the sound system to the house DJ, who I can only assume kept the packed house pulsing ’til sun-up.
As for me, I wandered around taking some more pics of the NYC street scene before walking to the parking garage. I paid the toll at the Lincoln tunnel, and rode the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway home to NJ, high on the buzz of a great night of music. Just like back in the day
