When I was looking for the Placebo video the other day, I was reminded of this pub back in Ireland that did a no cover club night Fridays and Saturdays; and that I used to hit up with my friends sometimes.
Most of the time they would play typical pop crap, but we'd show up when this one DJ was there, and he'd do a set of well... random madness. Punk, ska, new wave, alternative, metal, hardcore, a little of anything and everything; but there would always be a few key pieces in there.
Well of course once the popcrap stopped playing, all the hoop ringed, track suited idiots would get off the floor, but my friends and I would be out there pogoing up a storm.
The way the DJ would signal he was going to do the random madness set was always the same: He'd play the Sultans of Ping "Where's Me Jumper":
The Sultans were an absolutely mad Irish punk band, who wrote insane songs for people to get drunk and slam dance to. Sorry for the talking over it, but I couldn't find any others of decent quality.
Anyway, once the skangers and morons were off the floor, it would always be a quick swing into the violent Femmes "Blister in the Sun":
And a little detour into psychosis with a remixed Boomtown rats - I don't like Mondays:
Or maybe a little bit of the old Declan McManus with a fast and somewhat nasty version of Olivers Army:
Which by the way I'm sure he put in there to get one over on the drunken British assholes over in Dublin for a "dirty weekend"... like any of them would notice (but we definitely did).
To continue the Irish punk theme he'd usually throw in Stiff Little Fingers - "Alternative Ulster" (best punk band to come out of Northern Ireland by the way):
From here it would vary, but he'd usually be speeding it back up with something like The Ramones - Blitzkreig Bop (the fast version, as it should be):
Then he'd be crushing it in with say Blur - Song 2 (the hot and loud version. Unfortunately only the MTV version is on YouTube):
Hit the hardcore with a little KMFDM and "Juke Joint Jezebel":
Then he'd ALWAYS stick a speeded up and remixed version of One inch punches "Pretty Piece of Flesh" in there somewhere (which is where we'd all watch the girls grind on each other):
Then there'd be something like the Lords of Acid with "Out comes the evil":
He'd mix in another grrrl track with Republicas "Drop Dead Gorgeous":
and throwing in a crowd favorite like Beastie Boys "Sabotage":
He'd start transitioning down with something like Placebo - Nancy boy:
And if Imogene was in the audience (a girl I used to live with - platonically) and she usually was, there would ALWAYS be a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes cover just before the end of the set... usually "Sweet Caroline", because for some gawdawful reason a stuffed Turkey puppet named Dustin (you can't make this shit up - oh and see if you can find "Podge and Rodge" videos, from the same creator as Dustin; they're hilarious ) released it as a dance track that fall and it got huge; unfortunately I can't find a good version of it, so here's their cover of REO Speedwagons "Take it on the Run":
Finally, every time he'd close it off with a little bit of Madness - baggy trousers:
When they went into the the refrain everybody would stop and lean back with their hands up in the air, singing along... and when they hit the "baggy trousers" chant, the entire place would be bouncing and screaming it.
Actually, msot of the songs were what you'd call "Audience Participation", with refrains that would get people singing along with them, or call and response chanting out of the audience. It was great fun.
That would be about 35 minutes of continuous high speed "dancing" (mostly bouncing bodies together) depending on exactly what he mixed in where; and by the end of it we'd be sweaty, exhausted, and completely stoked. We'd recover with a pint or two and then head on to Fibbers for the rest of our night (which was all metal and industrial).
