Paradise Garage might have closed its doors more than 20 years ago, but Beam Me Up, a sweaty monthly disco party in the city’s west end, is keeping the original spirit of the genre alive. A collaboration between A Digital Needle duo Dylan-Thomas Childs and John McLeod, deejay and producer Mark Penner (better known as Cyclist), and promoter James Forsythe, the happening stays true to the David Mancuso loft party ethos: the music trumps everything else. In other words, it’s not the sort of party you go to in order to stand around and posture, or, well, wait for bottle service. “At other places, it isn’t about the music. It’s about the scene or getting laid. But here, it’s like you’re getting laid every song,” quips McLeod.
Forsythe, who used to work with the now-defunct megaclub CiRCA, seems to agree. Having moved on from the big-box venue, he now handles everything from stage design to spreading word on upcoming, intimate parties. While he’s no stranger to nightlife in the city, Forsythe says he hasn’t quite experienced anything like what goes down at Beam Me Up. “It’s such a different kind of party. It has its own kind of crowd. People come out and dance their asses off,” he says, admitting, “I haven’t danced like this since I was young.”
For deejay Childs, the idea behind the party is simple: “It’s a space for us to play our favourite disco tunes, from the rare to the hits, on a great sound system with a room full of open-minded dancers who just want to groove. We happily oblige.”
While other events like Members Only’s Evening Standard and the roving Muscle & Heat party bridge disco, garage and deep house, Beam Me Up seems to have cornered the city’s strictly authentic disco market. Since September 2012, the party has been keeping The Piston’s (937 Bloor St. W.) dance floor rammed every second Saturday of the month with the music men offering their take on ’70s liberation music. With the group’s sonic mission gaining momentum, The Great Hall’s BLK BOX (1087 Queen St. W.) now hosts the bigger Beam Me Up instalments, like the legendary Al Kent’s set last month. Still, whatever the venue, the foursome strive to create a fun atmosphere with the emphasis on the four-to-the-floor beat. “There’s such a different vibe from the other parties,” says Forsythe.
At least part of that vibe comes from carefully-curated selections from Childs, McLeod and Penner. The latter notes he and the other Beam Me Up residents are particular when it comes to what disco edits they spin. If it’s not true to the original spirit of the song, they won’t play it. “It can’t be too beefed-up,” says Penner. Instead of the polished and perfectly-syncopated grooves of nu-disco, Beam Me Up’s soundtrack veers towards the soulful, the uplifting, and the downright funky sounds of the late-’70s and early-’80s.
Beam Me Up will kick off its summer series with Kon – of the crate-digging duo Kon & Amir – on June 1 at BLK BOX, with the UK’s disco edit mavens Psychemagik to follow there on July 25. Stay in touch here.
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Josh Sherman is a Toronto-based writer. You can follow him on Twitter at @joshuaxsherman.
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