Venue: Eleven50

Eleven50 celebrated its two-year anniversary by presenting their monthly HouseCall event. This time, the well-renowned Mark Farina was responsible for moving the crowd.

My time of arrival was 11:30, allowing enough time to hear Caleb mixing nice house grooves in the main room. They ranged from deep to samba to vocal. Any house music fan would have been happy. I have always been impressed with the arrangement of this club, but as some say, everything in life could use improvement. And the club's management did just that. The sound is better from the new arrangement. They've taken the speakers off the dance floor and positioned them on the wall below the balcony, overlooking the dance floor. The speakers on the stage are now elevated, hanging from the ceiling. Taking from the water element of Aqua, some semblance of nature exists indoors with plants situated around the room. The lights have been rearranged to provide an even more beautiful display. Before the man of the night was to come on, I ventured outdoors to Aqua. There, along with fresh air, I found Brandon spinning deep house grooves so deep that I wanted to get a drink, sit down, kick my feet up, and find some profound topic to talk about. When that didn't happen, I went back inside.

That night, the DJ booth was set up on stage, which in my opinion adds a level of intimacy between the DJ and the crowd. We all like to feel special. Mark Farina came on approximately at 12:50. Oh wait, let me not forget the 'fall back' hour. Make that 11:50. Now, did they plan that? That's just too clever. You knew it was Mark not only by his name being displayed on the large screen behind the DJ booth, but also by the bass level increase. The first track was a wonderful house remix of "Tainted" by Slum Village. The crowd was excited and jumped as soon as Mark's hands touched the mixer. The dance floor was packed, as well as the rest of the club. I felt a little violated moving around. Mark continued to rock the club with hard-hitting house tracks for about 20 minutes. It's always a joy to watch the Mark Farina hula-hoop dance as he mixes. Mark started to lighten the mood with some softer tracks, and then back to punching beats. That seemed to be the flow for the rest of the night. Bring it up, and then bring it back down. Move your feet, and then bob your head. On occasions, he treated the crowd to house remixes of popular songs such as Parliament's "Freak of the Weak/Knee Deep," Tweet's "Oops," and many others. While others were, I wasn't feeling the remixes. But I respect Mark for what he does, and since he's so good at it, I'll let him get by this time. And besides, it made for a good game of 'name-that-tune.' I left the club around 3 o'clock when I stopped feeling the music and started feeling my old, weary body looking for rest.

Mark Farina is a top-notch DJ. Eleven50 is a top-notch club. Put the two together, and you have a great party.

Mushroom Jazz 4
Mixed by Mark Farina
Track Listing:

1. Little Soul, A - Pete Rock
2. Hot Bananas - Scienz Of Life
3. Suite For Beaver Part 1, The - People Under The Stairs
4. Truth In Position - Maspyke
5. Chicago Babe - Trankilou
6. Wiggle And Giggle - Joshua
7. Shoplif - Ripshop feat. Mr. Lif
8. Keep Your Head Up - Laurnea
9. Original Beats - DJ Slave
10. No - Fat Jon
11. Mellow Soul Fruit - Wick Wack
12. Listen - Benny Blanko
13. Phone Tap - Bernal Boogie
14. Irreconcilable - Sub-Conscious
15. Seems To Know - Juluis Papp & Dave Warrin
16. Find Yourself - Space Hopper
17. Dayz - DJ Spinna
18. Big Fish - Dubbie-D
19. Bath Music - Greyboy feat. Dave Pike & Elgin Park