During the pandemic, I was part of a group of artists, DJs, and creatives who really missed going out clubbing. Live streaming was already a thing before the pandemic platforms like Boiler Room are probably how the majority of DJing was consumed. But one thing that was missing from these platforms was interaction. You got to talk with your fellow watchers (if you were lucky and they enabled comments), to react with thumbs up or fire emojis, but the DJs never saw you, or felt you.
IRL, live concerts are a constant interplay between the performer and the audience. Supplanting this with the para-sociality of twitch stream chats, frog emojis and 'super-chats' was never going to replicate the reciprocal thrill of a physical DJ set. Boiler room solved for this by just being a repository for streamed offline events, half of the lure and thrill being the FOMO generated through watching behind a screen.
Energy is a term often invoked to explain this feeling, the energy of a night, of the crowd, of a DJ set, a feeling or vibe that transcends its constituent parts, the physical walls of the club and the composition of the songs. I think this interplay between the performer and the audience is precisely responsible for this, the back and forth, anticipation and expectation.
So in a time where a physical audience crammed in a small basement night club was both illegal and unethical, we worked on a live show that prioritised the ability for DJs to interact with participants. We hooked up a projector to beam to the left and right of the DJ a huge screen showing the multi panel view of a zoom call, with a technician VJing between some of the best dancers and partiers.
Throughout the live stream we had so many amazing moments, people video calling in from their phones and laptops everywhere to dance, and the interaction between the DJs and these fans was both hilarious and heartwarming in a time where we were so deprived of these moments.
Some highlights were a surgeon raving, using his surgical light to create a strobe effect within the space. We had a regularly returning nudist who was a fan favourite. Lots of pets. You can still see every one of the 10 sessions we conducted. As you can imagine streaming this on the mainstream open-web platforms was difficult, at any single event we would be simultaneously streaming to at least 3 just incase.
Dance it all again here: club in the cloud
