While most of the music world is focused on happenings in the east valley over the next two weekends, the Hard Rock Palm Springs is making sure the west valley is getting in on the action—with a series of eight pool parties featuring world renowned DJs.
On Friday, April 11, the Hard Rock Hotel in Palm Springs, in partnership with LED Day Club, hosted A-Trak in the second of eight parties during the Coachella weekends. A-Trak is known for collaborating with Armand Van Helden (under the name Duck Sauce) on the track “Barbara Streisand,” and was once the touring DJ for Kanye West.
A-Trak—in a black T-shirt, twin shades and a backwards cap—took the elevated DJ stage in front of the pool around 11:45 a.m.. He started off with a remix of Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me,” mouthing along to the chorus of “Hey, must be the money!” In between main tracks, he would play deep house as well as nu-disco and hip hop. One transition featured a house cut with beatboxing samples from the ’80s hip-hop group the Fat Boys.
With Friday marking first day of Coachella, the pool-party crowd was not large, but attendance started to increase a bit around 1 p.m. People lounged or hung out in the pool, with the black-and-white LED-logo beach balls bouncing around here and there. Some hotel guests watched from the balconies of their hotel rooms.
One of the more interesting remixes featured Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It.” This was not the traditional ’90s version of the song; A-Trak’s version featured a more modern dance sound. This track would no doubt get an entire dance club grooving.
A-Trak’s talents as a DJ really showed when he took the Temptations’ 1969 track “Cloud Nine” and turned it into a song that sounded just like a modern dance hit; you would never think the song was from 1969.
Other tracks from A-Trak’s set included Snbrn’s “I Remember,” Vanilla Ace’s “Musicology,” Luminodisco’s “Ragazzini,” Musiq Soul Child’s “Just Friends” and Detroit Swindle’s “Woman.” A-Trak invited a friend to share the mixing board with him during the later part of his set; A-Trak lit up a joint which they shared, along with a glass of champagne.
The Hard Rock’s LED Day Club parties offer a great opportunity for locals to enjoy world-renowned DJs—some of which, like Skrillex, are also playing at Coachella—in a more intimate setting. Oh, and the Hard Rock folks definitely know how to throw a pool party, too.
For tickets or more information, visit leddayclub.com.