Claychella 5

Here it is, the lineup for my final party ever! Hope you can make it. It's free for all before 10pm and affordable after that. Saturday, March 5th. Doors open at NOON and we'll have killer food & drink specials along with 2 floors of music and 22 DJs throughout the day. Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago. (facebook event page)

THANKS EVERYONE FOR FIVE YEARS OF CHICAGO NIGHTLIFE FUN!!! I'll still be around town, just not throwing events of my own or shooting nightlife. If you have an interesting story you think needs documenting, don't hesitate to let me know! And keep your eyes on this space for a more photography-focused makeover in the coming months.

xo
Clayton

Claychella 2010 Wrap-Up

It's hard to believe it's already 10 days since this year's Claychella went down at Lincoln Hall, but that's a fact, Jack. I had to head down to Austin a few days after the party, so getting any photos online has been impossible. On the top of my list of things to do, however, is give a huge shout out to everyone who supported the event--from the DJs who played, to all of the people who came out, and everyone else that helped out in any way. Laura at Syn Vodka was essential in making things work out so big props to her!! I really aim to make the day a community affair and try my best to make it as affordable and fun as possible, which can be a big undertaking with so many people being involved.

Boring words aside, I hope you had a good time if you made it out. I was unable to take many photos myself, as managing all of the DJ sets and general goings on was way more time consuming than I had planned for. You can find the few photos I did take here and stay tuned for some additional shots from Santi along with the photo booth photos from Ryan Mitchell in the hours/days to come.. oh, there are also some photos over at Time Out Chicago that can be found here.

Oh, and be on the look-out for some rad Just Desserts (our monthly Lincoln Hall dance party) in the months to come, including sets from Fan Death, Phenomenal Hand Clap Band & more!

Click here to see all of my photos from Claychella 2010 at Lincoln Hall...

Even More Claychella Coverage

Okay this should be the last mention of Claychella 2009. Here is a gallery of photos from DJ turned guest photographer E-Six, who told me he had so much fun that he hardly even had a chance to take photos. I agree..

click here to see them all. Thanks Emilio!

More Claychella Coverage

So okay I've severely neglected this blog all week but now I'm back and vowing to stay on top of things for a little while. We'll see how that goes.

I've already posted my photos from Claychella which went down last weekend, but there are plenty more photos out there. Ryan Mitchell was on hand doing a photo booth for most of the day until things got a little crazy and he had to get his equipment out of the building before it got destroyed. You can see his shots, if you have not already, over at his website or right here below.

click here to see them all!

Also in the building was our pal Matt Reeves from rival Chicago photo blog darkroomdemons. I'm glad he was around to get some solid candids because I was both too busy and too drunk to properly do it myself. You can see his shots over at their website or peep a few below.

click here to see them all!

And finally, the following people get stars for their efforts of staying at Claychella for the entire 12 hours. If I've forgotten your name please let me know and tell me how many hours you clocked!

Clayton Hauck (14 hours!)
Eric Mellem
Juan Herrera
Dan Atteo
Laura Kashian
Kyle 'Killa' Woods
Ryan Mitchell

Claychella 2009

It came and it went.. Claychella 2009 was an epic success!  A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to party with me on my birthday and an even bigger thanks to everyone who came out and played a set. We had 23 different artists come thru to support and I wanted to do a quick shout out to all of them. Also thanks to PBR and Scion for making things happen. I can't believe it all went down with few problems. Sorry if you came late and had problems getting in. We did end up hitting capacity fairly early. Also sorry if you had problems getting a drink at the bar. I don't think I've ever seen Debonair so crazy and I damn sure haven't seen such a good vibe in there! Hopefully all of you guys managed to have half as much fun as I did...

We got things going super early. DJ Just Desserts! (that's me) got things going at 2pm playing mostly heavy metal and rock tracks to accompany the free "white trash brunch." Miss Gab took over and did a great set with her trademark club jams. I didn't take any photo early in the day and I didn't really take too many later either and I really regret it. Kid Color was up next and he seriously nailed a disco-esque set. I jokingly commanded him to get people dancing (sober people at 4pm in the afternoon) but he actually did get some people going!  After Kyle, Willy Joy took command and seriously shocked and amazed us all with a fantastic 90's Alt Rock set!  The Jameson shots might've been setting in at this point but still, the few of us who were there at this point were in awe. He was not only playing fantastic classics that hadn't been heard in years, he was also doing a great job of actually mixing them together! A few of the transitions were perfection.

The early part of the day is usually my favorite. If Claychella 2010 goes down, make sure to plan on coming out in the daytime it's super rad. Moving along, my many birthday shots began to kick in and things started to get going. This is all fun and good although it made it harder to keep an eye and ear on everything that was happening. Bald Eagle took over for Willy and immediately switched gears with some more chill jams like Toto's Africa. He took a verbal beat down from The Hood Internet, who was up next. Those two are so cute (lolz). Zebo was up next marking the number 7 DJ on the day followed by DJ Galvan. We had to move things around a little to accommodate people's schedules and things got a little messy from here on out. Major Taylor and Annalyze were supposed to do a battle set, but it turned into just a quick set from Ralph. VIPJ (The Cool Kids' DJ) went on and warmed it up for the 2 live MCs, Kid Static and BBU, who both played fantastic set that I wish could've been longer.

Meanwhile, Clash Gordon kicked off the music in the basement. I was so busy upstairs at this point and it was so hard to move around in there that I only made it downstairs like 2 brief times all night and I'm super bummed about it because I missed Black Holes, Jordan Z, Andrew Vonn and Ryan Paradise who all held things down in the basement.

Back upstairs we ran out of $2 PBR (we went thru 45 cases of it I am told) so apologies to those of you who did not get that cheap beer. To make up for it the remainder of the DJs were all top notch and things were crazy! Chuck Inglish from The Cool Kids got it going after the MCs. Flosstradamus played a super fun set and Curt was my pseudo hype man on the mic. I kept telling him to say stupid things hopefully I wasn't too annoying with it all. By now the clock was ticking and the end was near. I was itching to play so I said f it and jumped on the decks for 10 minutes or so and played some hip hop jams sans headphones. Marco Morales then took over and played for a little until the sauced-up Matt Roan got on for a few songs and everyone was kicked out. I think we could've used an extra four hours or so at the end there to fit everyone in. Annalyze didn't get to play, which is a huge shame because she's one of the best around.

Click any of the pics above or below to see the entire gallery from Claychella 2009!  All in all, I had way too much fun. I may or may not remember seeing you so don't hate if I forget to thank you personally for coming out!!

Announcing: Claychella 2009

Okay okay so yeah this little party started out back two years ago when GL-Joe and I realized our birthday fell on the same date, March 7, and thought it would be rad to do a big party to celebrate. We called it The Dream Team and got a bunch of our friends to agree to play our party as a good gesture for us shooting all their parties. Autobot, Mano, Roan, Cool Kids, Mic Terror and a dozen others all came out to play and we ended up packing the Debonair basement to capacity and caused a giant line to form upstairs. The party was supposed to be all ages in a loft but our spot fell thru and we had to stuff it all downstairs last minute.

2007-2008 flyers

Moving forward a year later, I decided to keep the dream alive and the party turned into "Claychella" as my ego got bigger and bigger. It's actually more of a joke which evolved after realizing the party was going to be 12 hours long and cover DJ sets from many of Chicago's best in our little scene, including Flosstradamus, Major Taylor, and Willy Joy. Everything was moved over to Tuman's, which was a blast but perhaps a little too small for this year's version...

Claychella 2009 is upon us! Mark your calendars for Saturday March 7th. We're once again partying all day long and there is no cover before 11pm. Things get started at 2pm and we're back at Debonair Social Club this year so there will be two floors of fun and a full menu including 2-for-1 pizza slices of delicious "Santulo's" pizza! There will also be some drink specials to be announced. As for the lineup, it's pretty insane. I'm quite sure half of Chicago's DJs will be in the building on March 7th. I'll let the flyer take it from here...

Claychella