With special guests galore, the DJ crew regularly delivers soul and funk to Billy’s Lounge and The Pyramid Scheme, growing a devoted, dance-happy audience in the process.
Vintage Soul and Funk: Grand Rapids Soul Club has been lighting up the dance floor at The Pyramid Scheme and Billy’s Lounge for more than two years. (Photo/Katy Batdorff)
By David Specht
LocalSpins.com
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Bringing the funk to West Michigan.
After celebrating its two-year anniversary in January, the Grand Rapids Soul Club continues to find unique ways of doing just that.
Founded by local DJs Josh Breuer, Andrew Christopoulos and Mike Saunders, the GRSC gathers on the fourth Friday of each month — typically, at The Pyramid Scheme or Billy’s Lounge — to highlight rare funk and soul via turntables and crates.
“We like to play a lot of stuff from this region,” Saunders says. “Even old Grand Rapids artists like Spot & the Blotters or People’s Choice, who have gone relatively unknown on a national stage.”
Grand Rapids Soul Club’s two-year anniversary show (Photo/Katy Batdorff)
The crew, Saunders says, also spins vinyl from better-known artists such as Curtis Mayfield, The Isley Brothers and The Supremes.
GRSC not only keeps downtown dance floors grooving by means of spinning its own selections of soulful vinyl, but through the company of guest DJs.
In March, for example, Doug Shorts and Rob Sevier joined the trio for its monthly gathering at The Pyramid Scheme.
“Doug Shorts is an amazing vocalist and musician that I met while living in Chicago,” Christopoulos says. “He has played with or been a part of many important soul music groups from Chicago and has released some killer records of his own as well.”
Mike Saunders and Josh Breuer.
Recently, the U.K.’s Jazzman Records and Chicago’s The Numero Group re-issued some of Shorts’ older and unreleased material. And Sevier, who co-founded The Numero Group, “has excellent taste in soul records,” Christopoulos says.
For this Friday’s gathering at Billy’s Lounge in Eastown, GRSC plans to put an early electro spin on the evening, calling it “The Grand Rapids Machine Soul Club” and featuring DJ PHYXIX. (Doors open at Billy’s Lounge at 8 p.m. Friday with the 21-and-older show beginning at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $5.)
“He’s going to spin a set of electro and early techno, mostly from Detroit, with soul influences,” Christopoulos says of DJ PHYXIX. “We’ll still play some classic soul club material but the focus will be a little later (late ’70s and ’80s) than some of the other nights. This is just a one-off theme and we like to do that from time to time to keep things interesting.”
Andrew Christopoulos
GRSC certainly has a knack for keeping things interesting for audiences, which have grown since 2012.
“I tend to think that most people like to go out, have fun, dance and listen to music that they might not hear at home,” suggests Christopoulos. “DJs, whether soul or EDM, that plan good parties with good music, will always have the attention of younger audiences.”
With attendance up, there is, now more than ever, a great energy and flow to evening performances, Christopoulos says.
“We had well over 200 people and more importantly, most of the people I saw were dancing, socializing, and just having a good time,” he says of last month’s show.
To the founding members, that’s the ultimate goal.
“It’s a labor of love,” he insists. “It feels good to see people dancing and sharing the same enthusiasm as I do with the records I play.”
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
