We drank Patron with the most beautiful women in the world in Lavo’s VIP room

Clyde Narain, more commonly known by his stage name Chuckie, is one of the most popular DJs/producers in the dance music industry.

When we saw his name set to headline Lavo on October 1 we knew we had to go see him play.

Luckily for us, Chuckie and his management team are some of the nicest guys we’ve met in the industry.  After reaching out to his team we were given passes to watch his show.

Little did we know, this would become the most memorable experience of our NYU careers so far.

When we turned the corner of 58th Street and Park Avenue, we weren’t surprised to see an endless line of people waiting to get into Lavo. The hype to experience one of Chuckie’s shows was palpable.

We’re not going to lie to you, even though we were on his guest list we were freaking out about getting in.  What would you do if you were a bouncer and saw two college guys trying to get into a huge club without any girls?  When we got there we went up to a 270 pound Samoan bouncer and asked, “Where do we go if we are on the list?”  Not surprisingly, he pointed to a long line of dudes alone waiting to get in. 

After five minutes of going nowhere we went up to the door, tapped the shoulder of a guy in a leather jacket (which looked like it cost more than a months rent) and told him we were friends of Chuckie. 

From that moment on it was smooth sailing. 

When you walk down the steps of Lavo you enter a different world. 

The most beautiful women we have ever seen surrounded us. 

The only problem was that being in that room, with no girls or other friends and on a college budget, felt like a tease.  For the first half hour or so we were nobodies.  We kept giving each other the “this sucks but I don’t want to admit it” look. 

Luckily, Chuckie’s team gave us some cell numbers to hit up in case we needed anything.  Shortly after a text to Chuckie’s team, a Lavo manager escorted us to the DJ booth.  We started feeling like high rollers.

We could’ve watched the show from there all night, but the booth was packed and we wanted some more space.  That is when we were escorted to a VIP table right across from the DJ booth.  Earlier in the night nobody would look twice at us.  It was clear that we weren’t Wall Street millionaires who were going to sweep a girl off her feet.  It’s funny how the tables turned throughout the night. 

Once we were at a table (with free bottle service we’d like to add) we were suddenly somebodies.  Girls kept coming up to us asking, “Have we met before?”  This just goes to show that finding great experiences in New York City doesn’t require money, it’s all about who you know.  Chuckie’s set was great, but what made it even more enjoyable was the hospitality from his team and Lavo. 

Twenty minutes into his set we knew that Chuckie lived up to expectations.  He stuck to his Dutch house roots while mixing  rap, dance hall and even alternative rock.  We have never seen a DJ that was able to control a crowd like Chuckie. Lavo was mesmerized by his performance. The dance floor was going crazy, and everyone at the VIP tables could not stop dancing (including us, thanks to Lavo).

Chuckie may be a superstar DJ, but what was most important to us wasn’t the amazing set he played.  We were impressed by how someone with so much success can still be a humble person, a rare commodity in the dance music industry. Besides putting us on his guest list for the show, Chuckie’s team coordinated with Lavo to let us watch the show from the DJ booth, they hooked us up with a VIP table. The night could have ended there and we would still have had an amazing experience, but Chuckie took the time to sit and talk with us:

Who were your earliest inspirations and who would you typically listen to?

People who really helped inspire me in terms of doing both hip hop and house music were guys like Kenny Dope from NYC. Armand Van Helden also used to produce dance tracks and some hip hop tracks from time to time.

Who is your favorite up and coming artist right now?

I like guys who do it a little different. For example, there’s this guy from Houston called Ape Drums, I really like this guy, cause he’s different you know. Also the music he gets inspired by is the music I kind of grew up with. Like the carribean style and the dance hall music, and I think it’s cool.

ADE is one of the biggest dance events in the world. How did you get involved with it, and what keeps you coming back to it each year?

Yeah I’m super excited for ADE. First of all, it’s the most important electronic music gathering in the world. It gives a lot of new talent a chance to kind of hook up with the industry. Even I kind of started out at ADE. I was warming up for David Guetta and he was like, “Yo your shit is tight I want to take you on my world tour.” And I get excited to come back because there might be the next superstar DJ warming up with me and I think that’s just such a cool thing. And I have my own event, Dirty Dutch Black Market, in a very cool venue, and I think it’s going to be fun. Literally like every dj is going to be there. There will be over 350K people there and over 600 DJs.

What’s your favorite part about New York City? Besides playing shows

The crowd itself. I really enjoy playing in New York, it’s so diverse. And I come from that kind of background where I like to listen to all kinds of music. So it challenges me to play in a certain place and try to find new ways of entertaining without playing the same old tracks every time.

I was taking notes on the songs you were playing, and it seemed like you would change up the type of songs you played a lot. Could you elaborate on the process?

To me, I try to tell a story with more of hip hop approach, it’s not about the song. When I put things together like a puzzle I try to create a story about that. I would use an old vocal just to get the party going, but then I would come in with a completely new drop. And I think that’s fun.

Even though this kind of thing doesn’t happen all of the time, it does happen.  We are in the prime location to do crazy things like this.  We were lucky that Chuckie and his team are awesome, but you are just as likely to find yourself telling a story like this one if you take a chance and reach out to people.  You never know what you can do in this city.

Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) takes off this weekend, so be sure to keep your eye out for Chuckie. Snapchat has a story mode called “DJ Takeover: Amsterdam” so you’ll be able to follow all the exciting events that are about to go down.