ADE is a really cool place – I can’t stress this enough. In our heads, it seemed like we would walk past someone famous every minute (we had about 6 Paul Oakenfold sightings for starters). So true to form, our Saturday night venture was a result of one of those type meetings. Most of the folks at ADE had a uniform: dark skinny jeans, short black boots, and either a motorcycle jacket, or a hooded puffer coat. MOST EVERYONE. It was almost comical to be out of uniform daily, in my bright 4 color hoodie and neon trainers. We walked through a crowd of hundreds as everyone was getting out of the day’s conference, as cocktail hour spilled over into the streets. As we were on our way out, we passed a guy wearing a white t-shirt, relaxed jeans, and a hat. My partner exclaimed “He HAS to be from the US” and ran off after him to say hi.
Sure enough, this is how we met Darrin Linnel Bolden. He might not be a household name in the US, but his music certainly is. In the 90’s, he was a part of the group Roughnecks that created the track “Everybody Wants to Be Somebody” which is a staple to this day at house music nights in some remix or another. This Chicago born, NYC raised artist landed in Amsterdam a while ago, and with his promo company Hotmix.fm, plays and parties around the world. Professionally, he’s been producing and playing out since 1994. He’s even won a freaking Grammy in Japan!. Despite all this success (which he is humble enough to note that you have to work HARD to stay with it!), he was super cool, down to earth, and just generally nice.
We dropped in to see his party, Premiere, at the Supper Club the following night. After a quick interview, we hopped back into the club for drinks (filming) and dancing (photos). At first, we dropped downstairs (bathroom), where a dj was catering to a different crowd with top 40 danceable songs. We grabbed a drink and peed, and headed back upstairs.
The Supper Club is simply a cool place, and the best place possible for this party. The entirety of the side walls were lined with plush seating, that looks like a very long and deep day-bed. In the back, there was a bar, with a very large open kitchen area behind it. There were some sweet old school analog looking (but 8 bit attacked) repeat visuals, and the entire place’s whiteness glowed with the colored lights. There was a narrow second floor parallel to each other on 2 of the sides, but they were empty, as the floor was packed! On a normal night, this would be a night of drinks, dinner (hence the name), and dancing, but if there was food tonight, we missed it. People walked in, tossed their coat or purse on the big bed, walked to the back bar to get a drink, and then hit the floor. I would never in a million years leave my purse or even jacket out in the open unattended in the US, but this House was a safe place for all those inside tonight. There was a cool VIP feel to the entire place, but everyone, as is typical with the Dutch, was just plain cool. No snooty itty bitty dressed women, but there were some sharp looking people in the crowd. Drinks were on point and the price point did not match the atmosphere (no 13 euro cocktails! whew!). What a sweet venue!
We didn’t get the name of the DJ before Darrin, but he was awesome. This was a true house event, with jacking bodies, even with those dressed to impress, and all versions of the genre represented. Even little snippets of house classics were tossed in, and there was a beautiful, corset clad violinist that accompanied many of the songs. People got lost in this music and this cool vibe. When Darrin got on about 2, the crowd went nuts, and he took them on a journey we were sad we only got to experience half of. What a great event with a great guy. We couldn’t have asked for a better Saturday night!
Be sure to check out more on Darrin with our 1 on 1 interview after his performance here:
For a quick refresher, here’s Darrin’s hit Everybody Be Somebody :
Journalist/blogger since 2009 and music lover since 1980. Bex now travels the world and writes and takes photos of dance events, creates art in various media, sings quietly to her cat in the shower, and occasionally builds something that tends to involve a blowtorch. She can usually be seen hiding behind some sort of camera rig.
