Thomas Blondet - Sat 3 Dec 2006

Metro! - Roanoke, VA

Thomas Blondet aka DJ Tom B returned to the area again tonight to as part of his "ESL South" residency, and this time he brought a friend, percussionist Javier Miranda of Theivery Corporation. Tom and Javier got settled in early - Javier set up his congas on the couches near the DJ booth and practically on top of the dance floor. Javier got warmed up by drumming along to my closing few tracks, and there are simply no words to descibe the depth and presence that a live percussionist can add to any track, no matter the genre. When I asked him about how he managed such deft moves on the drums, he just smiled, showed me the callouses on his hands and said, "It takes alot of practice."

Tom took over presently and opened up with some deeper house, showcasing some of ESL and RNC's newer releases. He threw in a couple dub tracks just for good measure but quickly started to bring the energy level up with some harder house. The building crowd followed this transition gladly and even obeyed when the playing track urged them to "throw your hands up for Detriot". Tom played several killer tracks, including an uptempo breakbeat remix of "Summertime" by... He slowed back down a bit to give the crowd a breather. Tom and Javier closed out the night playing to an intimate crowd that simply would not stop dancing.