When the velvet ropes came down and the downtown club Spy introduced a new afternoon event called Remedy to an unsuspecting public on April 11, the first couple of hours were somber. There wasn't much of a crowd. The limited-English bartenders on the patio deck were talking among themselves. Box fans strategically placed for misting water weren't working. Upstairs it was just as dry. A trio of sistas hung back, nursing their drinks, refusing to partake in some booty-shaking action.
But as the sun faded, Remedy began to build momentum. The dance floor became packed with people casually dressed and getting their groove on. For five hours every Sunday, Spy enthusiastically opens its arms to anyone ready to break free of the monotony of wee-hour club-hopping in favor of some sunset spontaneity. Men and women lose every hint of inhibition as floor speakers shake the last breath out of their bodies and smoke seeps out from machines overhead. Strobe lights spook the hell out of folks from underneath their feet. Now, that's a party, dammit!
These pre-evening, PG-rated shindigs are weekly affairs that are both uplifting and intoxicating. "You know how Tom Hanks says, 'Houston, we have a problem.' We say, 'Houston, we now have a Remedy,' " says event host T.u.n.d.e. When he's not serving as an applications developer for a technology-based business solutions provider, the 28-year-old from Lagos, Nigeria, helps supervise this club party or, as he refers to it, "a musical form of healing."
T.u.n.d.e. has been setting up local nightclub throw-downs since the early '90s. When he was approached by spinmaster DJ Theory to coordinate, shall we say, a reasonably alternative club celebration, he didn't find it the least bit impossible to pull off. The plan had its detractors, though. "In fact, we heard many people tell us that it is not gonna work," he says. "That it's gonna be really difficult to get people downtown on a Sunday afternoon."
Theory, an eight-year DJ veteran, radio-show host and University of Houston senior, wanted to see the same kind of comfortable funkiness he has seen at clubs in his New York homeland right here in H-town hangouts. "Some of the nicest 'club' experiences I've ever had have been on Sunday afternoons," he says. "Friday and Saturday nights, you know, ten to two in Houston is so typical. It's like, 'Oh, man, let's go out, let's drink, and let's go home at two.' So automatically, when you think of Sunday afternoon, you think, okay, I'm not doing anything else, and it's a time to prepare for the next week. It's a time to cap off what you just finished."
Theory promises his weekly playlist will be a high-decibel hodgepodge of underground dance music, ranging from gospel house to classical house to spiritual music to underground garage.
So far the club's stiffest competition has come from daytime jamborees like the Houston International Festival. But T.u.n.d.e., Theory and the Remedy folk are looking to put the word out on their weekly laid-back soiree. One big thing they're getting ready to drop is a companion soundtrack CD, featuring tracks and mixes arranged and conducted by DJ Theory, to be released midsummer.
But T.u.n.d.e. isn't worried; he knows if you jam it, they will come. "I think people will come out 'cause there are lots of people that don't normally go out that are looking for this type of thing," he says. "And once they find out what is going on, they will come out whether it's at two in the morning or one in the afternoon." They already have the toddler set jumping. The adults won't be far behind.
-- Craig D. Lindsey
Remedy takes place on Sunday afternoons, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Spy, 112 Travis. $2 drink specials and no cover for guests. To be on the guest list, call (713)780-1800 or e-mail at www.enjoymusic.com/remedy.
