In the 13-plus years that the Wednesday-night drum-and-bass night at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern has been going consistently, plenty of other DJ nights have come and gone. Heck, plenty of venues have come and gone. So it's nothing to be ashamed of that the weekly is finally calling it quits — it's just one of those things we thought would never happen.
Fuzz! — originally called Fuze — has been going since its founding in 2000 by Mike Bricks, Jason Chitty and Nick Teodori.
One of the keys to keeping the night alive all those years was occasional big-name bookings — and one of the keys to big-name bookings at a club so small was offering a gig on Wednesday nights.
"Being a Wednesday, we've been able to afford things — we're not shooting for the sky in terms of spending money or asking for covers," says Geoff Maddock (a.k.a. Cutups), who joined in the early days and is the longest-standing member of the crew. Since more popular DJs are playing in bigger venues, often in bigger cities on the weekend, Fuzz! has been a nice midweek respite. Some of drum-and-bass's biggest names — LTJ Bukem, Bailey — have made Wednesday-night appearances.
It's unique not only for a promotional group to keep it together for such frequent events over such a long time, but for an event to stay in one place for so many years. It's been a collaborative effort, the crew says — between the DJs, the owners of the bar and sound tech Bob Teagarden, who brings in a truckful of speakers every week.
After next week's final Fuzz!, the crew plans to regroup with a much less frequent night at Brillobox, the first of which will happen Thu., Feb. 20. Having events less often, they hope to get a bigger crowd. But the DJs don't mind the slow nights.
"Even if there's only 10 or 20 people on a given night, it's still great," says Jeff Schuster (a.k.a. Diabolic Logic). "We're still playing music."
"Sometimes it's even better that way," adds Darby Hoffman (a.k.a. SubQ), with a laugh. "It's a small dance floor; you have room to spread out when there's only six people."
