Was down in SF for gramma’s big 80th birthday fest, so Cryptic, Matthew and I hit up the Green Velvet / Designer Drugs show at Mezzanine. Overcame a Dutch Goose double cheeseburger and arriving to a still pretty sparse dancefloor, and by the end of the night I was fist-pumping and singing along to the GV classics. Very fun show.

I was curious to see Designer Drugs given their blogosphere success over the past few years, not exactly sure if it would be live or a DJ set that consisted of a lot of their productions. It was latter, not superbly mixed (only quick cuts) but he did the job. Got a meandering audience pumped and primed for the headliner, and was fun to hear the electro bangers from my iTunes actually getting played out. Riverside is blowing up!!

To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from Green Velvet. I knew I had maximum respect since he was listed in Daft Punk’s Teachers, and I have liked all his hits. And his set turned out to be just as I had been imagining — very funky tech house, bordering on techno but I definitely felt it in my hips. And when he flipped his headphones around and started singing, that was epic. Extra points: rocking the sunglasses the entire set in a dark club!

The evening was a fun juxtaposition of old and new for me. Designer Drugs are very much what’s current; Green Velvet has been rocking his sound for a long time. It was refreshing to set aside the latest-and-greatest pursuit for the night, as well as remember back to the 227 glory days when sets like that were standard issue. I feel like expectations have been hard to meet lately, but this show danced around that. Just a fun-ass time, no more no less.