In Extremis 1997-2000

Extremis Mix March 17, 2000  Click here

48 minutes/streaming. This mix represents what was going on a little later during my residency. It starts off with house and then works its way into breaks later on.

Extremis Mix with Benny B, sometime in mid to late 1998  Click here

59 minutes/streaming. I'm not really sure when this was recorded, but judging by the tracks it had to have been mid to late 1998. This is the oldest mix that I have from this club and it features Benny (DJ Vogue) along with myself. Mostly breaks with a little house.

MY FIRST DJ JOB

1997 to 2000 marked a significant time in Sarasota's club scene. It was the last golden age of house and breaks in the city on the weekends. Not three months after I picked up my first set of turntables, I found myself - all by myself - behind the decks at Sarasota's In Extremis. Benny Bergeron (DJ Vogue), the weekend resident there, took a weekly Friday night gig at the Garage (now The Underground) in Tampa and that left a gaping hole in Extremis' Fridays for another resident DJ. Having next to no experience and totally unfamiliar with the equipment in the DJ booth, I was set up to spin by myself with only one day of training. I hadn't seen or even touched a DJ CD player prior to this and was extremely intimidated by everything around me. Having only been a bedroom (or in my case, a living room) DJ for less than 90 days, I was terrified at the prospect of screwing everything up.

At the time In Extremis was maybe pulling 200 to 300 people in on Friday nights. The mix of music was just all over the place. Hip hop, alternative, some house, booty and some breaks. The few customers who were there were not very keen on techno of any kind and it took a lot of work and time to wean them into more of a "club" sound. There were some people who would actually hurl half-empty beer bottles at us in the booth because they didn't agree with our choice of music during those early days.

By mid-1998, we grew very stubborn with regard to music selection at In Extremis, even to go so far as to post a sign outside of the booth stating that we would not take any requests under any circumstances. The general consensus between DJ Benny B, DJ Corey Allen and myself was that if people didn't like what we played, then they should leave, even if it meant we would all get fired. We fought constantly with management over our musical choices but ultimately prevailed. It took nearly a year to change the crowd makeup from mainly radio, rap-loving thugs to something more like what one would see in a much larger city. By the time Spring Break rolled around in 1999, we had completely changed the format to dance music with a heavy emphasis on house. We took a lot of shit from people during the change but we held our ground. This even meant tossing out drunk girls who would literally strip naked in front of us just to hear one rap song.

Between March of 1998 and March of 1999, the number of patrons frequenting our Fridays swelled to nearly 800 to 1,000 people consistently. The thug element slowly disappeared and the downstairs eventually became jam packed as was the upstairs where the DJ booth was located. We tripled the attendance without ever having to play a single rap or booty song. Fridays would start off pretty mellow with some chilled out melodic house and then slowly progress into more commercial and underground breaks and house as the night wore on. By midnight In Extremis was usually standing room only downstairs filled with older, well-dressed partiers and upstairs would typically be crammed with the younger glowstick crowd. The vibe was incredible. People normally would be on the floor by 10 pm and many would stay there until closing time at 2:15 am. Mind you, In Extremis did absolutely no promotion for their Fridays. We never once had to bring in a big guest DJ (or ANY guest DJ) to build our night, either. Not once. Everything we had was the result of a lot of work and taking a lot of crap from people.

By the beginning of 1999, I was the only resident there on Fridays and my sets would typically last six hours. Benny B had left after a dispute and Corey was no longer interested in DJ'ing. Our ratio of women to men was nearly 2 to 1 during this time and the place was  just absolutey crazy! I would see people coming from as far away as Tampa and Ft. Myers on a weekly basis. The line just to get in would stretch out the door and past the elevators even during the off season. It was safe to say that we had one of - if not the biggest - all house night in the Tampa area on Friday nights. This lasted about a year-and-a-half until I left the club following a dispute with one of the managers. This was in late December of 2000.

After my departure In Extremis changed its format and managed to keep its crowd for a few months, but eventually many of the regulars began slowly drifting away. I was rehired in June of 2001 to try and rectify the situation, but by that time the damage had been done. Our regulars were gone forever. In Extremis had gone through a lot of changes since then but it was never been able to bring back the true club crowd and sense of unity we worked so hard to achieve. It became mainly a hip hop club running cheap drink specials in order to attract customers and they permanently closed their doors within a few months.

As for the old gang, Benny B moved to Canada in December of 2004 and Corey Allen passed away on Easter Sunday in 2005. I really miss those guys - I credit both for the reason I'm here.

After going through some boxes here in the studio, I ran across a case of old DAT tapes that were recorded between 1999 and 2000 at In Extremis on my Friday nights. I figure I have about 30 hours' worth of mix tapes from that period and I encoded one of them here for people who are curious about what made this night so successful. It also serves as a sentimental reminder for those who frequented In Extremis during that time. Like I said, I placed a fairly heavy emphasis on hard house with a good portion of breaks. I think the general mood and vibe we had comes through very well in these mixes. For a frame of reference, this is right around the time  the "Horizon" CD came out.

I miss my old days at In Extremis. Looking back it was truly an incredible experience during those few years. The staff at Extremis, the customers and the other DJs involved all deserve credit - it was a team effort. Sadly, I don't believe we'll ever see something like this again in Sarasota. Things have just changed too much. No matter, we had a lot of good nights and I will never forget the people who used to support us and In Extremis on what really was the last real club night in Sarasota.

-Sharaz / Originally written: October, 2002 REVISED in January, 2006