What Went Down: Asahi Pres. JUICE 11th Anniversary feat. Mad Decent @ Stage Club

By gigabit  •  in Reports
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JUICE had Major Lazer for our 10th anniversary – how do we even begin to top that? The answer was quite simple really – we don’t attempt to one-up lest we want to risk falling flat on the ground face first. What we can do though, was continue where Diplo and co. left off; we had a Mad Decent takeover! Bringing two DJs from their roster – Mad Decent Creative Director-cum-DJ Paul Devro and formerly of Crookers’ fame Bot – along with model-turned-DJ Michele Maturo, we threw an anniversary that, even though lacking in zorbing and daggering to the face, was nothing less than madness.

Guests were treated to the titular Major Lazer (note: not Diplo himself, but the character) on the non-existent red carpet before going into Stage Club for the party. Our Major Lazer Xerox was budgeted at about RM100, but s’all in the name of good fun! Hey, since we can’t possibly get them again, we are allowed to be self-deprecating for this anniversary. Synthwave duo, Stellar Dreams, warmed up the still building crowd with a fittingly downtempo mix, which was then continued by Asquared whose set was equally relaxed – call it the calm before the storm that was our anniversary-Mad Decent takeover.

With the venue’s pax nearly reaching its peak, it was nigh time that Michele Maturo kicked off the night with the first set that was label appropriate. We saw some punters scoffing at her DJ cred just through their judgmental prying eyes, incredulous to the fact they were treated to yet another KL cliché of having a female model as a DJ. Little did they know that Michele ain’t just another Asian stereotype, just some 30 minutes into her set, all doubts were proven wrong. Showing some girl power, aptly, she even played some quintessential ‘90s r’n’b – TLC being one – in between the frequently pumping tracks of anything from hip hop to trap.

It was a banging mix that wasn’t unlike what came after by the two Mad Decent boys. Michele’s man of the hour, Paul Devro, was the first to show the crowd what a party by their label was all about. While it must have looked pretty epic from the decks – we’re sure it did – it was amusing from the ground level to watch your regular clubgoers attempting to move to trap among the sea of hipsters. Regardless, even generic ah lians and ah bengs can get down to dancehall and moombahton once Paul got to playing Major Lazer’s hits.

Coincidentally, our anniversary party was also the same date as his birthdate, making the event the perfect birthday celebration for Paul. As CEE – the Detour Asia founder turned out to be just as good of an MC – brought the birthday cake and announced his birthday, most of the crowd showed reverence while some were in awe of Paul and Michele’s cake sharing. Apologies for all the staring, man!

The all Italian DJ-producer Bot headlined the night with much fanfare as he spun the sort of tropically-inclined dub-influenced genres Mad Decent is famous for, basically similar to what was played before. It was as if the two preceding DJs weren’t pumping enough, in fact, our anniversary was one of those few parties that was going up all the way from the beginning to end – doing away with the myth that a party can’t be pumping through its whole duration. Now while we didn’t have Diplo zorbing on the crowd, we did have pillows thrown to them in hopes of a decadent pillow fight among the ladies. Alas they were too taken by the cute Mad Decent design and opted to bring the pillows home instead. Dammit.

As the night came to an end, the Ratpack bookended the anniversary to a dissipating mob of satisfied punters. JUICE Malaysia turned 11, while practically middleage in magazine years, we’re still partying harder than ever. That might just be midlife crises in effect, but hey, that older gentleman in the club is the same guy who’s paying for all the drinks anyway.

Asahi Pres. JUICE 11th Anniversary feat. Mad Decent Takeover KL went down on Thursday 26 September ’13. The event was co-organised by Detour Asia and Livescape Asia and sponsored by Citibank, L’Oreal, Gap, Playboy Condoms, Stage Club KL, and MSN.

Find more pictures here.