Not 0 a Country 0 un r Bar ar Anymore n 0 re Reviewed by Rachel Warner Arts Editor The Station formerly known as The Sandy Station has transformed transformed transformed trans trans- formed into a hop hip-hop pool shooting karaoke singing full on entertainment dance club Surprised Well you should be Once the home of the boot boogie is now packed with people of all ages flocking to see some of the best DJs DJ's in Utah With Power 1079 sponsoring the DJ contests many talented artists are making their way to the stage to perform their version of what is good and bad in the DJ indus indus- try A battle of the bands or shall shallI 1 I say battle of the DJs DJ's filled the club up to its capacity on February featuring three very talented men spinning hip- hip hop and top hits The contest was to be judged by the crowd which is understandable considering considering considering consider consider- ing they were the ones listening and dancing to the songs Whatever the crowd decided was to be the final say Or was it When one goes to a dance club most are interested in what type of people they will be mingling mingling mingling min min- gling with whether the music can get them off their seats and onto the dance floor and how fast they are going to be able to get a drink Being a regular club goer I would know because those are the things I look for when choosing where my friends and I are going to be hanging out for a night The Station proved to be a very spacious club with enough entertainment entertainment entertainment enter enter- to keep one happy One room was set-aside set specifically for those who felt like venturing off to become a star in the karaoke room or for those who were more interested in being competitive the club provided enough room and tables for shooting pool And for those like myself who would rather not leave the dance floor all night they provided good stage room fair lighting and an okay sound system To start the contest each DJ was introduced and was allowed about 20 minutes to rock the room with their mixes of the music You could tell which DJs DJ's the crowd liked and which ones they felt were mediocre Having the chance to get a closer look I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the DJs DJ's at work A DJ by the name of Chad worked the crowd with enthusiasm and kept the music going hit after hit He played a harder set which seemed to be too much forthe for forthe forthe the crowd attending the show that night Another DJ which didn't want to be interviewed played some good music but fell short on the professional level of what it is truly like to be a DJ The guy popped in a pre-mixed pre cd and let it run until his turn was done Although the music he chose was good I was under the assumption when entering a contest such as this one one might choose to actually mix the songs together instead of watch the burned CD do all the work He also had aguy a aguy aguy guy on the stage with him talking to the crowd with a microphone trying to get them hyped Just another feeble attempt to get the crowd interested Which brings me to the talented and very popular Kidd Dogg who proved he knows what it takes tobe to tobe tobe be a real DJ I watched him pullout pull pullout pullout out vinyl records place them on the turn table and carefully mix each song together by hand without a flaw I might add Not only did the guy know how to work the music he also knew how to work the crowd which is what the contest was all about By the end of each of his sets the club was roaring with cheers and screams for the DJ OJ who had proved his worth By the end of the night the judges announced which DJ had won the contest and lets let's just say the crowd wasn't too happy with the final result The DJ who wouldn't talk to me won first place Kidd Dogg second and Chad pulled in at third Instead of cheers for the winner the club rang with boos throughout the club and a constant chant of Kidd Kidd Kidd It was clear to me as well as everyone else there was a problem What seemed to be very apparent to the crowd didn't seem to be as apparent apparent apparent ent to the judges 1 y yH H w A Ak k t f i f A i mr 1 v b 0 it- it T W. W 4 a eI h. h l i i w I dj I i M V f 7 d i x VJ t Md j I. I l iF j 4 6 if i t i J t J i AN if f Po yf tt nr it 1 M. M d. d r v 1 Kidd Dogg scopes out the crowd while playing a live mix Photo By Rachel Warner Coming from someone who's been clubbing in New York London LA and pretty much all allover allover allover over the country straight off mixing mixing mixing mix mix- ing Chad was the best and he took third Chris Roberts a crowd member states And as far faras faras faras as best selection and crowd participation participation participation par par- Kidd won The DJ that won embarrassed himself when he tried to mix live By the crowds crowd's reaction it was very clear favoritism was shown to the winning DJ Once the house DJ took the stage about 40 percent of the guests disappeared from the dance floor out the front door Because of the contest The Station left a bad taste in my mouth along with the fact it took about 15 minutes to get a drink That type of thing can make one feel alienated where they might v m R v have second thoughts about going goiny to that club again Overall the club seems to hav 2 some really good things going for them aside from the DJ OJ competition tion and the judging It has a lot lotof lotof lotof of room in the club to w around and enough entertainment to keep one happy The lighting was decent but I noticed it i imore is ismore ismore more set up for a concert type j show What the owner is trying tn tp do with the club is a step in th the right direction he just needs a little lit little little lit lit- tle bit of help With as many clubs as there arcin amin are arc in Salt Lake The Station although it needs a little bit of work could be somewhere fun tu to spend a few nights at either shooting shoot shooting shooting ing pool dancing and of cours course singing karaoke I give it two stars for its it's effort C A 4 1