Chapter

01

In Residence

smartbar, Chicago

Celebrating 12 of the world's best dance floors

In 2016, RA's In Residence series will celebrate club culture by throwing a month of parties at 12 of the world's best clubs. Clubs are the beating heart of dance music, and these are the venues that keep their local scenes thriving. Week-in, week-out, they open their doors to play the music we love.

The series began last weekend at smartbar in Chicago. The city is, of course, the birthplace of house music, and since 1982, smartbar has been one of Chicago's key venues. This rich sense of history made smartbar an obvious place to begin our journey.

As we settle in for a month at each of the clubs we'll be running an accompanying feature that, through a combination of different mediums, will provide a lasting document of these iconic spaces.

Mar 05 RA In Residence, smartbar, Chicago
feat. DJ Nobu, Eric Cloutier, Jeff Derringer

Mar 12 RA In Residence, smartbar, Chicago
feat. Roman Flugel, Tin Man, Olin

Mar 19 RA In Residence, smartbar, Chicago
feat. DJ Harvey, The Black Madonna

Mar 26 RA In Residence, smartbar, Chicago
feat. Mood II Swing, Analog Soul, Michael Serafini

Chapter

02

Key info

smartbar at a glance

01
Address
3730 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60613 USA
02
Building completed
1927
03
Club opened
1982
04
Soundsystem
Funktion-One
05
Music policy
"If it works on a dance floor, then play it"
06
Capacity
400
07
Resident DJs
Derrick Carter, The Black Madonna, Olin, Chrissy, Jeff Derringer, Michael Serafini, Justin Long, Garrett David, Sassmouth, Jason Kendig, Phillip Stone, Hugo Ball

Chapter

03

History

A Chicago institution

Matt McDermott tells the story of Chicago's "biggest little room"

In our world, small and seemingly unremarkable rooms can become pivotal staging grounds for music history. smartbar, a 400-capacity venue on North Clark street, is one of those places. From the bartenders to the resident DJs (which include local legend Derrick Carter), this downstairs club and its wooden dance floor exist to preserve the traditions formed at The Warehouse and The Power Plant. This has made smartbar a second home for the artists who helped build the city's house music legacy and their modern-day acolytes.

Marea Stamper (AKA The Black Madonna) grew up in Kentucky listening to mixes recorded in this wooden room, before becoming an integral part of the club's recent history. Her protégé, Jason Garden, who produces and DJs as Olin, says he moved from Kansas to be closer to the music, initially heading out to smartbar alone and dancing alongside the people who would become his friends. He says at smartbar, "you start out going as an individual and get absorbed into a community." smartbar remains, she says, the "biggest little room in the city."

James Amato, Joe Shanahan and Frankie Knuckles

smartbar founder Joe Shanahan, like thousands of others, had his Damascus moment dancing to Frankie Knuckles. "I jumped into a cab with a couple of waiters from the club I worked in and headed for The Warehouse," he said in a eulogy written for Knuckles. "The bouncer at the door gave me a little grief… but I wanted to see the maestro, so I made my way through the dancers, back to the booth. When I got there, it looked more like a band should be playing than a DJ. There was a reel-to-reel, a drum machine, three turntables, an echo effect box, wires running everywhere and one man making it all work together: Frankie." Shanahan's 30-year friendship with Knuckles began that night. He credits that party, along with experiences at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club and Danceteria during a stint in NYC, as crucial to helping him find his calling.

Shanahan began to host loft parties, and when he came across the former Swedish community center at 3730 N. Clark St., "the writing was on the wall." Opened in 1982, smartbar was originally housed in the fourth floor penthouse, accessible by stairs or a tiny elevator, where he and the iconic drag queen Divine once got trapped. A few months after smartbar opened, Shanahan built a rock club called Metro on the second floor, which opened with a concert from a then-little known band called R.E.M. He also placed ads for smartbar in the UK youth culture bible The Face—Chicago house was a building block for European rave culture, so why shouldn't English devotees go back to its roots?

Shanahan is frank about club's demographics during the early days. "The other clubs were racist," he says. smartbar on the other hand, was for gay, straight, black, white and Latino audiences, and the DJs played music accordingly. "It was to our advantage musically to not get stuck into something that would dictate one kind of clubgoer... That's something I learned from The Warehouse." Frankie Knuckles was the first DJ to play smartbar besides Shanahan, and he held a residency there until his death in 2014, 30 years later.

After a few years of narrow stairs and dodgy elevator rides, smartbar moved into the basement. This was partly because parties outgrew the space, which only held around 200 people, but Shanahan also liked the idea of a dance club that was literally underground. "I just liked the idea of going below ground, giving smartbar that subterranean feel. I put the most intense soundsystem I could afford down there."

By now the club had a strong cast of resident DJs, with legends like Knuckles and Joe Smooth clearing a path for talented newcomers. This era also saw strange cross-pollination with the thriving rock club upstairs. Sonic Youth recorded a live album at smartbar in 1985; around this time Tom Waits played an unannounced DJ set. As the '90s loomed, smartbar began to bring in out-of-town talent. The first big booking was Massive Attack in 1991. The club started moving away from the EBM, Italo and industrial influence of its early days and more towards straight-up house music. Mark Farina, DJ Heather (who Stamper cites as one of her earliest role models), Kaskade, DJ Colette and Miles Maeda all cut their teeth in the smartbar booth.

"smartbar is almost all dance floor," Stamper says. "The space is extremely simple, it's square with wood floors and a four-point Funktion One soundsystem. The DJ is at eye level, and until very recently, anyone could walk into the booth." The DJs who excel there, she finds, are the ones willing to bring down the wall between dancers and performers.

"As Chicago's a city with a rich DJ history, lots of talent has come from here," Garden says. "Many of our DJs should be world-famous but will probably never get the chance. We've seen these people work their ass off to be good, and if we ask them to do something out of their comfort zone, they'll surprise us every time."

As the '00s charged on, the club balanced the residents with more out-of-town bookings. Shanahan puts creative control fully in the hands of his talent buyers, which, over the past few years, has included current Windish Agency agent Brad Owen, DJs like James Amato and Nate Seider, as well as Stamper and Garden. "Everyone that's been a buyer there has also been a DJ," Stamper explains. Michael Serafini, who runs the popular weekly party QUEEN! and the legendary Chicago record shop Gramaphone, says this approach helps bookers "balance the old-school mentality with the new school."

"These days, you need to advertise and bring in headliners to make money," he says. "But at the same time, if you're a regular at smartbar, they'll give you a discount on drinks. The old-school way of clubbing isn't so much about watching the DJ, it's a place to let go and hang out with people you know and have a good time."

For Serafini, the DJ is part of a non-hierarchical team that includes the hosts, the bartenders and the night manager, all of whom work together towards a consistent feel. He says QUEEN! is popular because "they know what it's gonna be like." This simplicity has made smartbar one of America's most beloved clubs for decades. Garden moved to Chicago 25 years after the club opened, but he's steeped in its history and the resident culture that Stamper sought to maintain (before her touring schedule made full-time work at the club impossible). It's easy to understand why these characters feel so attached to smartbar—in the city where house music began, there's still a club where people know your name.

Chapter

04

Residents

...in pictures

Chapter

05

Character profile

Jojo Baby

Host, QUEEN!

"I started working at Shelter nightclub at 14," says Jojo Baby, the doll maker, makeup artist, drag queen and performance artist who hosts Michael Serafini and Derrick Carter's QUEEN! party. "They had no idea how old the person wearing a blue wig on his dick was." Jojo has been keeping Chicago's clubs wild and unpredictable for decades. This brief documentary has him working a look that feels like Basquiat's take on the Clockwork Orange gang. He's known for using drag as an outlet for daring artistic endeavors. Recently, he dressed as a mosquito spreading West Nile virus for Queen!'s "bug night." Jojo is the soul of Sunday nights at smartbar.

"I've known Jojo for millennia," Serafini says. Serafini and Jojo met during their mutual involvement with Boom Boom Room, an infamous Monday weekly where Jojo was a host and Serafini was a DJ (he spun alongside fellow residents like Gene Farris, Diz and Chez Damier). Jojo's been hosting Sundays at smartbar for three years. "The best party at QUEEN! is in the girls' room," he says. "Last night there were over 50 queens in the washroom, one of us is going through a rough time, so we were all in there helping her out." JoJo's presence at smartbar on Sunday night recalls the time when club kids ruled the night and dressing for the party was like "show and tell."

QUEEN! aims to cultivate young kids who are down for a gay-centric house underground, and Jojo, who had a cameo in the Michael Alig biopic Party Monster, has taken it one further, positioning Sundays at smartbar as a place where queens can swap tips and clothing. This support system is a bi-product of the openness the club's encouraged since day one. "smartbar's for everyone," Jojo says. "We even have grannies that come and dance." He leaves the music to Serafini, Carter and Garrett David, but he's not above making requests. "I try and get them to play some Grace Jones or Cathy Dennis, mix that in with the house music."

Chapter

06

Soundsystem profile

Funktion-1

Jason Garden, AKA Olin, began working at the club as Marea Stamper's assistant, and he's now the club's full-time talent buyer, a position he balances with studio time (he's released music on labels like Argot) and an increasingly busy DJ schedule. He's also serious about sound. One of the first things you notice at smartbar is the huge Funktion-One rig.

Size isn't everything, of course—the rig must be tuned for the room as well as the DJ playing on any given evening. "For disco you want a nice, flat, balanced sound, there's so much more mid-range," Garden says. "There's tons more spectral content to push through. For techno I'll usually boost 65hz or so, dip 200hz or so (less boxy kicks), dip 4khz, and then roll off the very highs quite a bit. You want the overall system volume lower and the bass higher. House is somewhere in the middle between flat and that deep boost techno requires." As with most audio tweaks, there's a little common sense involved. "It's mostly just standing in the middle of the dance floor and adjusting."

Garden's worked on the system obsessively for three years, but says this level of attention to detail should be standard practice. "It's caring how things sound and realizing that different situations require different solutions. I think of it more as we aren't fucking up than doing something remarkable." His main inspiration is Richard Long, who designed the systems at Paradise Garage, Studio 54 and David Mancuso's The Loft. "We're just doing the same thing with much better technology."

- 4 x Infrabass 18" (218)
- 4 x Infrabass 15"
- 4 x 8" mid boxes
- 4 x AX88 tops
- Crown Amplification
- X01 Audio Management System
- Midas M32R Console

Chapter

07

Mix

smartbar classics

Resident DJ Chrissy presents the tracks that have defined the club

Download the mix

This mix took a lot of forethought, simply because of how long and varied smartbar's history is. Everybody's first thought is our resident DJs—Frankie Knuckles, Joe Smooth, Derrick Carter, Colette, The Black Madonna, among others, have called this club home—but smartbar is more than just the world-class house music venue that this list implies.

The club was also a big part of Chicago's alternative/industrial scene in the 1980s—the scene that birthed Ministry, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Revolting Cocks etc—and in those days smartbar helped to break loads of important synth pop, new wave and techno legends as well.

The current music policy is wide-open: if it works on a dance floor, then play it. In making this mix, I wanted to represent both our history and our eclecticism, so I spoke with former and current residents, staff and regular patrons about what they remembered hearing over the years, and compiled this set of smartbar anthems that hopefully encapsulates what we have always been about.

Tracklist /
The Flirts - Calling All Boys (O Records)
Doctor's Cat - Feel The Drive (Il Disc 8)
Nitzer Ebb - Warsaw Ghetto (Power Of Voice Communications)
Front 242 - Masterhit (WaxTrax!)
A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Rham! / Warlock)
Derrick L. Carter - A Hope (Over U) (Classic)
Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face (West End)
The It - Donnie (DJ International)
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk (Zanza / Rams Horn)
Liaisons Dangereuses - Los Niños Del Parque (Mute)
The Invincible Limit - Push! (Last Chance/ ZYX)
ESG - Moody (99 Records)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - A Daisy Chain 4 Satan (WaxTrax!)
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Strings Of Life (Transmat)
Adonis - No Way Back (Trax)
Paranoid London ft. Paris Brightledge - Paris Dub 1 (Paranoid London)
Jaydee - Plastic Dreams (R&S)
Gino Soccio - Remember (Celebration / Atlantic)
SFIRE - SFIRE2 (CockTail d'Amore)
Charlie - Spacer Woman (Mr. Disc / Dark Entries)
New Order - Confusion (Factory)
Meat Beat Manifesto - Helter Skelter (Play It Again Sam)
DHS - House Of God (Hangman)
Robert Hood - Clash (M-Plant)
DBX - Electric Shock (Accelerate)
Steve Poindexter - Work That Mutha Fucker (Muzique Records)
Jody Finch - Jack Yo Big Booty (BHQ Acid Vocal) (Lets Pet Puppies)
Cajmere ft. Dajae - Brighter Days (Underground Goodies Mix) (Cajual / Emotive)
Frankie Knuckles presents Satoshi Tomiie f. Robert Owens - Tears (FFRR)
Vicious Pink - Cccan't You See... (Parlophone)
New Order - The Perfect Kiss (Factory)
Jamie Principle / Frankie Knuckles - Your Love (Trax)
Choice - Acid Eiffel (Fragile)
Joe Smooth ft. Anthony Thomas - Promised Land (DJ International)
Floorplan - Baby Baby (M-Plant)
Underworld - Born Slippy (NUXX) (Junior Boy's Own)
Octave One ft. Ann Anderson - Black Water (430 West)

Still haven't got your smartbar fix? You can visit its club profile here, and there's more information on the series via the dedicated In Residence page.