| 7.2.2008
PUT ON YOUR PARTY SHOES, boys. You know, the ones with extra glitter to match the sparkling array of DJs, performers, and special events lined up to entertain and thrill you during the gay high holy weekend.
Yes, there's lots going on over at the Civic Center for the official Atlanta Pride celebration (See story on Page 38, plus a map and calendar events for the whole affair on Pages 50 and 53), but the Pride party doesn't stop as the sun sets deeper and deeper and you trickle away from the daytime festivities.
Your bars and clubs pull out all the stops for the nighttime. Here are highlights of just a few special guests.
WETbar kicks things off with a fashion show featuring 2xist underwear and Rocket Dog footwear with an open bar sponsored by 360 Eco Luxury Vodka.
But an open bar and scantily clad men are not the only draws for that night. The best news is that we have DJ Scotty K. on the turntables, and a performance by mega-singer Debby Holiday.
Holiday’s sexy, gravelly vocals are sure to thrill as she performs hits like “Drive” and “Bring It On,” but she and Scotty K. are bringing new music as well. The two teamed up to write “Joyful Sound” for Del Shore’s “Sordid Lives: The Series,” which debuts on Logo later this summer.
Scotty K. tells us that “Joyful Sound” is “a really fun dance track that will appear in several episodes of the series, including the season finale. The end result was pretty incredible.”
“It’s up, fun, funky, and I can’t wait to sing it live!” Holiday adds.
Holiday returns to Atlanta for this year and is also expected to perform her current single, “Surrender Me,” produced by Tony Moran and is currently climbing the Billboard Dance Chart. Scotty K. hopes to play his new remixes of music by Kimberly Locke, Madonna and Justin Timberlake, Seal and Leona Lewis.
Not content to merely entertain us with music, Scotty K. offered poignant thoughts about Pride and the upcoming election, saying Pride is “especially important because there is a chance to get the U.S. government to a better place of acceptance and help to secure our place in this society. Electing someone [new] will surely bring us and [the] many things that have gone wrong with our country in the last eight years to a much better place.”
www.wetbaratlanta.com
That same night, C2 Productions brings early fireworks in the form of DJs Todd Skelton, Vanchronkhite, and Brett Long to Venetian Club inside Club Opera. That's just a warmup for this busy party promotions machine. Keep reading.
www.c2productions.biz
Friday night brings out big guns and Atlanta favorite Hex Hector. He returns to WETbar with the prolific Kristine W. Hector “plans to rock the shit out of Atlanta” and adds “it’s doubly flattering they asked a straight boy from NYC” to perform.
 With all the love Hector shows his Atlanta fans, they are not likely to care he is straight or from New York.
“ATL party people are stellar,” he says. “They're always in good spirits and ready to get down! That works for me!”
He is still working out surprises for the big night.
“I never plan my sets at all, so I have no idea what I’ll be playing until I play it!” (See page 103 for a full interview with Kristine W. about the appearance.)
www.wetbaratlanta.com
Meanwhile the Heretic parties hard like it does all year round with the homegrown talent you know and love. DJ Rick Walsh presides on Friday night. But Alan Collins of the Heretic doesn't stop there. He also provides Atlanta with the only afterhours party every week at the Bodyshop.
In the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning, guys who just didn't get enough during regular hours can visit the Bodyshop with SIX10 Productions, who brings New York DJ Tony Ruiz to town to set the right tone for the rest of the weekend.
WETbar turns Saturday night Pride over to the capable hands of Chris Coleman's C2 Productions and their super-special guest DJ Manny Lehman, another longtime crowd-pleaser.
“It’s a double-whammy,” Lehman says of the show. “Pride and the Fourth of July — wow! It’ll be a crazy weekend all-around.”
“Atlanta is one of my favorite cities musically,” he says. “I always get to go in there and mix things up and try some new things.”
Among those new things are new original pieces and remixes of one of the gayest of gay icons.
“I just finished remixes for my new song ‘Body Rock’ with Oceana, so I will debut that along with a couple of doo-dads for my next album, and a mash-up I did of Madonna’s ‘Give It 2 Me’ with some of my stuff,” he says.
When it comes to this year’s politically oriented Pride theme, Lehman also is hopeful for November.
“This election year is extremely important to all of us,” he says. “Pride is such a great time for us to show unity, and we need to be passionate and show a positive message to the world.
"There are so many issues going on right now, like the future of gay marriage," he says. "If the right person gets in there, it can make things easier for us. If the wrong person gets in there, it can make things much more difficult.”
www.c2productions.biz
DJ Brian Beck takes over the Heretic for Saturday, and once again, the Heretic-owned Bodyshop keeps you going — all. night. long. Griffin Productions fills the Saturday night Bodyshop set with DJ duo Yoshi Mac. That's two times the fun way past your bedtime. You know you love it.
The big-named DJs just won't leave us be on Pride Weekend. And we like it that way! Sunday night and Monday morning will see the never-tiring C2 Productions bring yet another superstar, DJ Tony Moran, to Club Opera. Doors open at 6 p.m. and Moran will man the wheels of steel until 3 a.m.
“I love Atlanta! It’s one of my favorite cities in the U.S.,” he agrees with Lehman. “The energy there is great. … Hotlanta was one of the first places to embrace my sound.”
Moran brings some big names with him in terms of new remixes for the occasion.
“Mariah, Madonna, Rihanna — my three divas,” he says. “You won’t hear them back-to-back, so you’ll have to wait to hear them. I like to space them out.”
When asked about which new tracks he’s bringing, Moran is more evasive, not wanting to disappoint fans in case a remix is not complete in time for the show.
“I will say that the Rihanna song I mean is not ‘Take a Bow’ — which I love — but a different one,” says Moran, who is also bringing new original music that he is working on for his next album for fall.
Even though he plays multiple Pride events in a year, it is still a special time for Moran.
“You get to see what people are going to do as individuals to make them look special or feel special, the way that they display themselves, like I do when I’m with my friends dancing,” he says. “Those are just all of the best possible ingredients of something memorable. It’s kind of the same feeling I get at New Year’s of optimism, of turning a new page.”
www.c2productions.biz
Once again, Heretic knows not to mess with a good thing. DJ Brian Beck returns Sunday. And once again, yes, why stop the Pride party boat on Sunday when you can do afterhours as Bodyshop? This time, finish off Pride in a way you and all your friends will remember when SweetPillow Productions brings DJ Russ
C. to latenight on Sunday.
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