 It’s more than a month away and already everyone is talking about the Black Party. As the crowd gears up for the big event on Saturday, March 29 (and into Sunday, March 30, of course) the excitement is building now that the Saint at Large, the collective that has thrown the annual party for the past 28 years, has announced the theme and the DJ lineup for the upcoming festivities.
This year, the roster includes Montreal mainstay Stephan Grondin, who will play from 10pm to 4am, as well as two New York-based favorites, Jonathan Peters and Joe Gauthreaux, who play from 4am to 10am and 10am until close, respectively.
“We try to create a narrative arc for the night,” says Steven Pevner, the owner of Saint at Large and the main producer for the event. “The first DJ warms up the room the next DJ tries to tell a story with a lot of drama, but it has to be the deepest and sexiest part of the night. And then we play with a hint to favorites from years past.”
Peters is the main attraction here. A part of the scene for the past 25 years and a mainstay at places like Sound Factory and Pacha, Peters is well known for his long DJ sets and best-selling remixes.
“I’m a native New Yorker so I’ve been going out for a long time, [but] I have never really done something like this,” Peters says, explaining that he’s been to the party before, but that actually spinning for it will be an entirely new experience. “I do my events at Pacha, but it’s nothing like the Black Party.”
Peters says he’s most excited about playing a recent remix he’s crafted of the Led Zepplin rock classic “Stairway to Heaven.” Though he’s spun the track for a handful of followers, he says it will be a pitch-perfect anthem for the eclectic crowd at the Roseland Ballroom that weekend.
Grondin has been a DJ for as long as Peters, but didn’t start venturing out of Canada until recently, including regular gigs at Work at Stereo.
“I’ve heard so much about the party over the years, so it’s a big opportunity and I can’t wait,” Grondin says, adding that he’s never been to the party because he’s working every weekend. “I love New York. I fell in love with the energy and the people.”
Joe Gauthreaux has been around the DJ scene for more than a decade, and he’s ready for what he sees as the “challenges” of the party—or at least his part of it.
“[My part of the night is] more known for classics and recognizing the tradition of the Saint. I think the reason Steve [Pevner] booked me is to make the party a little more current and modernize it a bit, while being true to the tradition of the Saint but moving it forward,” he says.
As for the theme at this year’s party, it’s going to revolve around the best-selling The Dangerous Book for Boys, a pseudo-Victorian instruction manual on everything from how to fold the perfect paper airplane to how to use a jackknife.
“It’s a back to basics approach to what makes us men,” Pevner says. “We give the DJs that theme and tell them what marks to hit, but we leave it to each DJ to interpret it how they will.”
Still, Pevner was tight-lipped about how the theme is going to play out through the music and the production over the course of the night. Guess we’ll all have something else to talk about for the next month. N
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