Monday, September 4, 1:15 a.m. "I love the way everyone just gets down here!" Percussionist Ravi Drums strokes Vegas' collective ego just a bit while I watch my glass of champagne bounce its way across a speaker in front of Jet's DJ booth—though I guess tonight it would be a VJ booth. I thought it wise to balance my house music intake over Labor Day weekend with what I figured would be a healthy serving of typical nightclub hip-hop and mash-ups, but what I discover at A/V is quite unique.
When Jet's marketing man Steven Lockwood tracked down MTV2 VJ Roonie G in his hometown of Atlanta and brought him to Ra in October of 2004 to create the monthly A/V party, I admit, I did not go. To be honest, I rarely visited the club (I can say that now as it's been closed to make way for Pure Management Group's Roxy and LAX). It's not that I didn't like it; it's that the idea of a DJ spinning music alongside videos sounded like a less than impressive reason to schlep anywhere. That is until you've actually seen Roonie in action.
A crowd has formed behind the booth where Roonie, a muscular Asian gent in a signature T-shirt with a big "R" emblazoned on the front, is vibrating with energy, whipping through the pages in his CD case. His thick arms command a Pioneer DVJ on which he literally scratches and mixes not merely CDs alongside video clips, but rather DVDs of music videos. The music is synced up to the video so when he scratches, the video mimics the sound and repeats itself on the four screens hanging over the dance floor. Three separate decks and screens let him have two music videos battling it out and still cut in movie clips from films such as The Matrix, Kill Bill, School of Rock and even Napoleon Dynamite. The resulting effect is mesmerizing.
I had expected hip-hop and maybe some mash-up action but Roonie is all over the musical map. In a quick game of Six Degrees of Roonie G, he can make it from Spandau Ballet's "True" to Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City" via Nine Inch Nails and Joan Jett in under three minutes. He covers all the bases, from hip-hop to house, with Kanye West's "Gold Digger," Sean Paul's "Temperature" and even a remix of Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes." I squeal with delight when Roonie gives us Nelly Furtado's new single, "Maneater," thanking him for playing the underutilized track.
Next to him, lighting operator Neil Kull does a show of his own. "All good lighting guys use a keyboard," says Lockwood, pointing out how Kull has wired the club's lighting system to a good old-fashioned electric keyboard, thus letting him "play" the lights. Kull even admits to wanting to hook the system up to a flute! Overhead, lit ceiling tiles dance, turning us all blue, then green, orange and red.
In the privileged inner sanctum of Table One right next to the booth, three A-list DJs have turned out to support Roonie: Tiesto, Bad Boy Bill and Deep Dish's Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia, all enjoying a Labor Day after-party with friends, bartenders, go-go dancers and promoters. Knowing how hard Roonie is working, Bill kindly passes a frosty bottle of Evian over the Plexiglas partition to the sweaty and grateful VJ. Meanwhile in Jet's house room, DJ Eddie MacDonald is spinning away while FunkyBadChad and Neva hold down the rock room. Right then, Roonie spins Deep Dish's remix of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." With Ali right there in front of me, I can't help but geek out.
Ladies of all shapes and sizes are twirling on Jet's six—yes, ma'am, six!—stripper poles, proving you can't have too much of a good thing. Other women are dancing atop the banquettes, hanging onto the aircraft cables that delineate the VIP area. One Global Events and Marketing VP Marc Jay is making like a male Shakira. As for myself, I'd already broken my "Don't stand on booths in heels" rule when "Maneater" came on. Judging by the immense crowd and its bottomless supply of energy, picking Labor Day Monday for A/V's debut was a great choice. And, if everything goes according to plan, it will become a monthly fixture on clubbers' nightlife calendars. I've already penciled it in for next month.
Xania Woodman thinks globally and parties locally. And frequently. E-mail her at
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