Food For Thought/U.S. Futures Exchange @ Harris Theater Rooftop

The initial thought that entered my mind as I walked into the massive space of the Harris Rooftop Theater was, "My Lord…it is waaaay too orange up in here." Understandably so, that was the primary company color of U.S. Futures Exchange, a corporation dedicated to providing products to stockholders and investors. Along with the delicious delicacies of Food For Thought (who hired us) and the stellar sound set-up by Soundtronics, Fig was chosen to work with the best of the best to deliver an amazing aural and visual evening—and then some.

I was partnered up with one of our prime deejays, Alvin Black. This was special to me: Seeing as how Alvin and I do not drive, it is usually difficult for us to work together. Awww. We're usually partnered up with other people that have licenses, cars, and, well…the ability to drive. Thanks to our partners Jon and Tim (who helped us out later in the evening) who assisted with the gear, we were able to play together under the same roof. I consider us both to be well-versed in numerous genres, and I was excited to see what Mr. Black was going to lay down tonight.

The evening began with people, as it is said, "mingling and schmoozing" (whatever that is!) to the jazzy background music of Bebel Gilberto, John Coltrane, Yoko Kanno, and other artists. I was already impressed by Alvin's selections; I was always wondering what was coming up next. One fun thing we learned during the evening was how the "color" filter works on our DJM-800 mixer.

(OOPS—SHOP TALK ALERT!)

Okay—a "color" filter simply changes the tonal colors of your song. There are four kinds of filter effects that you can apply to music: Harmonic (detects the actual key of a song and changes it to to the next truest key to go with another song); Filter (acts like a "kill switch" to single out the highs and lows of a song); Sweep (makes your music sound more airy and "old," or deep and complex), and Crush (self-explanatory—it distorts your music).

(SHOP TALK OVER!)

The night continued with a PowerPoint presentation and speeches from two of USFE's head honchoes. Disappointingly, the presentation froze a couple of times, but through diligent troubleshooting, the presentation continued. After the PowerPoint and another 90-second "pep" video, Alvin and I were ready to rock. I started off with "Start Me Up" by the good ol' Stones. Alvin followed up with a perfectly beat-matched "(You Shook Me) All Night Long." From there, we went all over the place with our selections, and we kept it fresh, funky and lively. I was thrilled to play Cameo's "Candy," as well as Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' In the Free World," which some people were mirthfully lip-synching to. We played music all the way until—believe it or not—8:17pm. We were quite close to declaring overtime, yet we ended with an apt choice: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' "Don't Leave Me This Way." The guests and employees left anyway, amusingly. It was time to go, and all went pretty well. Alvin and I packed up our gear and the lovely gift bags we were given. It was great working with a huge, friendly team and making this evening happen. To say it with color, we were ticked orange!

– Brent Rolland, resident Fig deejay