Bacon is the great equalizer. Rich or poor, black or white, super fly or rhythmically inept, everybody can get down on some grease-fried pork. So when a group of local DJs set out to create the most inclusive funk and soul dance party in town, there was only one name that could truly capture its essence—Fatback.
“It was reminiscent to us of family style barbeques,” said Philippe Chetrit, one of Fatback’s DJs. “And I realize that every night Fatback is at a club and is a big crazy dance party, it feels more like a barbeque. Everyone’s family.”
For three years now, Fatback has been one of the hottest dance parties in town. And each time, one of the party’s seven DJs crafts a unique set of funk, soul, boogaloo, and disco tracks to get people shaking their stuff. And while most tracks are undeniably groovy, Fatback DJs take pride in pushing the envelope and challenging audience’s ideas of what makes good dance music.
“If you play Michael Jackson you know you’re gonna get ‘em,” Chetrit explains. “But if you play a Kenny Pendergast song that’s really slow and sensual, it’s not a guaranteed hit … But if you hit ‘em just right, people will dance like crazy to some Kenny Pendergast. And that’s what’s awesome.”
What else will you see at Fatback? Pirates. And pigs. And sweaty pirates shaking maracas while grinding up on pigs, all thanks to the bags of costumes that Fatback DJs bring to mix things up. The logic for the costumes is simple—you simply can’t work a too-cool-for-school attitude while wearing a silly hat. It’s a kind of ego-removal device that encourages everybody to cut loose.
These days, Fatback throws down every third Saturday of the month at Liv, the club attached to Bohemian Caverns on 11th and U Streets. But despite the fancy digs and expensive drinks, Fatback still does its best to simulate a party in your friend’s basement. The DJs always set up on the floor with the crowd, creating an intimacy that Chetrit said the crowd responds to positively. Because really, if you can’t rock out with a fuzzy man-pig shaking his squiggly tail in front of a glowing, neon DJ setup, there’s probably nothing that’s going to get you going.
The bottom line is that Fatback is the club night for people fed up with the club scene: It’s the place to get silly and make some friends. When you come through the door and see a hundred bodies in motion—including some anthropomorphic barnyard animals—you’ll know you’re in for a good time.
Or, as Chetrit puts it, “You walk into Fatback and are like, ‘Wow, these are the people I want to get sweaty with right now.’”
Kenny…Pendergast… is one of the greatest artists who never lived!
I think Brenden meant Teddy Pendergrass.
That party is good! Don’t go if you don’t dance, that’s all I can say