Rage Through the Night

Way back in elementary school, Vanessa Banville got tagged up with the nickname Katara.

“It’s a Japanese name that actually means ‘graceful fighter,’ ” explains Banville. “And it’s a mock of me, number one, because I am small, and you can’t exactly picture me as fighting anybody. I don’t exactly got the personality for that anyway. But at the same time, when I set my mind to something, I don’t give up.”

Indeed, this small, bespectacled, schoolmarmish gal doesn’t look like the type who would willingly walk the last rotten board over hell in search of bliss for herself and others. But recently, it seems, this booking agent for local spinners DJ Micron and DJ Spiral has strolled a time or two over those creaky planks, as she has done every day for the past six years since a doctor’s visit brought horrible tidings.

It all began in late July, when this 20-year-old San Jacinto College student was given the task of managing a weekly after-hours night for a promotions company she was working with at the time. The name of this particular evening was “Dysfunktional,” and it was held at Club Fever (6808 East Haven Road). The night’s underwhelming attendance irked the club’s owner, who discontinued Dysfunktional several weeks ago. “I had some disagreements with the owner as far as how things should be run,” says Banville. “It was a personality clash. He was interested in a different aspect of the club community than what we were used to working with, and for us to work with him didn’t go over so well.”

But the Girl Who Would Be Katara wasted no time in bouncing back up off the mat. She declared independence by organizing her own nightlife promotions crew, aptly titled The Dysfunktional Tribe. “I started up my own group that would have a fresh, new outlook so that people wouldn’t try to pin me with any mistakes other people have made in the past,” she says. “It gives me the right to make my own mistakes or excel in my own areas.”

Immediately after the Club Fever debacle, she found a place to perch at Cardi’s 2000 (9301 Bissonnet). This Thursday, September 6, will mark the “grand opening” of The Dysfunktional Tribe’s new weekly gig at the club, “Digital Disco Thursdays.” Raymond Casteel, otherwise known as DJ Spiral, will once again serve as a resident spinner. “It’s gonna be a combination of the traditional disco music, the modern discotheque, disco house, tribal disco, disco breaks, disco trance, basically keeping a very good dancing-type atmosphere,” says Banville.

In the following weeks, she and her people will take over Tuesday nights with “Technological Tuesdays,” bringing in DJs to play nothing but trance, house and techno. Having new blood around the historically metal-headed club is making the seen-it-all folks at Cardi’s unusually giddy about the possibilities. “I think they’ll do well,” says Cardi’s manager Ted Hunter. “The change will be good.”

There is an underlying motivation to Banville’s mission to bring about some good, old-fashioned sonic debauchery to Houston weeknights. She’s doing it to prove that someone like her can persevere even after facing the possibility of her own premature demise. Six years ago, at the age of 14, Banville was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, a malignancy that attacks the uterus, and in Banville’s case has spread to the cervix.

But now, she says, the cancer is in remission and everything is fine. She will not let cancer interfere with her invasion of the nightlife world. “I don’t let anything get in my way,” she says defiantly. “It may be an obstacle, but I’ll get around it. So in that aspect, I am a fighter.”

Last Call

Speaking of Cardi’s, the club has another evening of off-kilter dance music for those craving a little weeknight action. Firmly planted at the beginning of the week, “Monday Massive” (originally titled “Monday Madness”) is a seriously relentless evening dedicated to the genres of jungle and drum ‘n’ bass. “It’s kinda tribal-ish in a way,” assures Darwin, the 17-year-old homeschooled student who has been putting on the weekly shindig since May. “You’ve got different styles, and you’ve got more ambience, just kinda like any other music style.” Although the night prides itself on its tribal tastes, it’s also open to the sounds of techno and house, as evidenced by the appearances of such eclectic local noisemakers as Ethan Klein, Sista Stroke, Bruno B, Population Zero and others. “We kinda mix it in there and, you know, give everyone a chance,” says Darwin. For more information, you can visit Darwin’s Web site, www.audiopimps.com. Hey, if the dude believes he’s a pimp, who are we to tell him otherwise?