back to school jam
august 31, 2002
family focus, evanston
rebel t, sagittarius sound
pics by issa and montana
review by montana

it was a warm summer night in evanston as issa and i set out to go to this 'back to school' bashment.  we arrived around 11:45 and spent the early juggling session taking in some nice vibes and taking in some nice photos.  kid kaoss and mr. blonde, of sagittarius sound,  juggled a wide selection of tunes covering around 3 decades of dancehall.

swacky handled the mic duties as mr. blonde and kaoss set the pace for the evening.
we headed to the bar for some refreshments around 1:30.  the bar was being tended by mr. sagittarius himself and we can't give the bar any ratings though because there was NO WATER and NO JUICE!  "this is a party!" was saggi's response to our non alcoholic/non carbonated requests.  oh well.  i settled for some 'mystery rum puch' that came out of a big orange cooler and issa went for the tap water.  half way through my rum punch the sweet after taste was annoying me, so i was on the tap water boat myself for the rest of the night.  one thing in favor of the bar, there WERE straws, which was a nice touch.

around 1:45 or so, rebel t took over the mic and selecting duties.  this is when the bashment really started and soon people were off of the walls and filling the entire floor.  he didn' t look much older than 18, but he plays and handles the mic and gets the crowd hype like an aged veteran (he handled the selecting and mic duties solo for over 3 hours). 

people were still logging on, zipping it up and doing the 'online' dances, when rebel t introduced the 'higher level', (rebel t demonstrated the dances himself for the crowd) which took the party a notch higher until the diwali came on and everyone started the clapping and hopscotch thing.  it was nice to see people actually dancing to the diwali compared to the last dance i was at where the crowd barely noticed it.

sean paul's current mtv hit 'gimme the light' seemed to get the biggest forwards of the evening.  looks like a video in heavy rotation can really do wonders for reviving an old tune...

we made our exit around 4, and it looked like the dance was still going strong around that time.  despite the fact that renaissance (delano) was supposed to be there and missed his flight (his absence was hardly felt, i'd dare to say...)  i'd grade this dance an A.  people were enjoying themselves and having a great time, the music sounded nice, the people looked nice and there was toilet paper in the bathroom, which is always a plus. reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!