Just Announced! Pre-Independence Day Party at Decades
JUST ANNOUNCED!
On Tuesday July 3rd DCClubbing and Decades DC join forces to bring you the most epic Pre Independence Day Party!
Featuring All Four Floors – 2000s, 90s, Decades of Hip Hop, and Decades of Dance Rooftop – As well as a light night Cookout Featuring food from the grill on the luxurious rooftop and Decades starting at 8pm
NO Cover Charge at the Door, 21+, and Open til 4am !
We don’t think it gets much better than that !
Plan B Live at Echostage: 06.21.18
DCClubbing Presents:
Plan B
Live In Concert
Saturday July 21, 2018 | Doors 9:00pm | 18+
Echostage • 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE • Washington, DC
VIP and Venue Information – 202.271.1171
Puerto Rican-born cousins Chencho and Maldy Vega’s combination of talents as Plan B showcases the pop excellence of the reggaeton genre. Discovered by Latin American bass music innovator DJ Blass, the tandem’s turn of the 21st century explosion has only expanded into worldwide renown since. Top ten global hits like “Si No Le Contesto” and “Te Dijeron” have spawned careers as producers as well, expanding their legacy. 2018 finds Chencho and Maldy, still, as always, hungrily pursuing their next level of career success.
Arcángel Live at Echostage – 06.23.18
DCClubbing Presents:
Arcangel Live at Echostage
Echostage • 2135 Queens Chapel Rd NE • Washington, DC
VIP and Venue Information: 202.271.1171
Tickets On Sale NOW!
Arcangel Returns to Washington, DC on Saturday May 23rd
Austin Agustin Santos better known by his stage name Arcángel is a singer and songwriter. Born in New York – he moved to Puerto Rico to pursue a career as a Reggaeton performer. Arcangel grew up listening to various types of music and has been a fan of rock music, particularly Robi Draco Rosa, a Puerto Rican pop rock artist and a former member of Menudo. Arcángel was not always a fan of reggaeton; he claims that it is not his favorite type of music, but it is easy to sing to. During the early 2000s, Arcángel grew fond of the new kind of music. Listening to artists like Tego Calderón and Tempo, it inspired him to pursue a singing and rapping career in Puerto Rico.
For two decades, Nuyorican reggaeton superstar Arcangel has established a high-level standard for pop excellence in the genre. Emerging in the mid-2000s as half of a top duo with De La Ghetto, Arcangel’s hits like Agresivo”, “Sorpresa” and “Mi Fanatica” highlighted his career. However, the 2010s have found him thriving as a solo artist, with hits including top 10 smash “Tu Cuerpo Me Hace Bien.” Four solo albums, multiple mixtapes, numerous hit singles, and recent smashes alongside current hitmakers Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Farruko have proven to show his growth towards being an artist with a growing iconic legacy.
Don’t Miss Out on Arcangel live at Echostage!
Jersey Shores Ronnie Hosts TBT at Decades
Ronnie From Jersey Shore Hosts TBT at Decades
Thursday May 17, 2018 | Doors Open 9:00PM| 1219 Connecticut Ave NW
On Thursday, May 17th we welcome MTV’s Jersey Shore Cast Member Ronnie Magro to the Nations Capital to Hosts a Special Edition of Throwback Thursday. With that being said grab your friends and get ready to fist pump the night away as we take you back to the shore for a little GTL action under our roof.
Featuring Drink Specials, Three Floors and our Heated Rooftop – this will be a night you don’t want to miss!
NO TICKET NEEDED
Hosted By: Ronnie From Jersey Shore
Drink Specials include : Ron Ron Juice
Decades First Beach Themed Party of THE SEASON!
FARRUKO AT ECHOSTAGE : 05.17.18
DCClubbing Presents:
FARRUKO WORLD TOUR
Thursday May 17th,
Thursday May 17, 2018 | Doors 9:00pm | 18+
Echostage • 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE • Washington, DC
VIP and Venue Information – 202.271.1171
Farruko Returns to Echostage!
Farruko is a reggaeton and Latin pop singer from Puerto Rico. His given name is Carlos Efren Reyes, and he was born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico in 1991. At the age of 16, he began to post his songs under his stage name to MySpace. His first single, “Sexo Fuera del Planeta,” gained thousands of followers, and from there he explored the potential of other social media networks. Due to his massive success on the Internet, he came to the attention of Puerto Rican radio and music industry executives, who enlisted his vocal talents for other artists.
Farruko’s debut album, El Talento del Bloque, appeared when he was 18. It was released by Siente Music and distributed by Universal. Most of its 13 songs were self-penned. The set became an almost instant hit, and several singles followed from it. Some of the album’s highlights included its collaborative tunes such as “Su Hija Me Gusta” with José Feliciano, “Ella No Es Facil” with Cosculluela, and “Traime a Tu Amiga” with Arcangel and Julio Voltio. He also issued the non-album smash “Pa Romper la Discoteca” with Daddy Yankee and Yomo.
In 2012, he issued his sophomore offering, TMPR: The Most Powerful Rookie. Its first smash single was “Feel the Rhythm” (“Siente el Ritmo”), though it was one of five. As a whole, the set demonstrated that Farruko was as comfortable in electro and pop circles as he was in reggaeton; it was nominated for a Latin Grammy.
Don’t Miss Out on Farruko live at Echostage!
SUPERBOWL WEEKEND AT ULTRABAR
Super Bowl Weekend at Ultrabar is a weekend that you DON’T want to miss! Come Celebrate Super Bowl 52 a head of the big game on Sunday Night – Our Usual Friday and Saturday night Lit Parties with a Super Bowl Twist!
Free Admission All Night 21+ Wearing a Team Jersey
Free Admission Until 11:00PM 18+ Wearing a Team Jersey
5 Levels, 4 DJs spinning Top 40, House and International
$400 2 Stoli Vodka and 1 House Champagne Table Special
Bottle service available at (202) 638-4663
Ages 18+ w/ valid ID
Dress code: Dressy Casual. Guys: No boots, no sneakers, no t-shirts, no grungy or athletic clothes, Girls: Keep it classy.
Music Format:
– Main Floor: (Top 40, Mashups, Hip Hop)
– Bedroom: (Hip hop, R&B)
– Chroma : (Latin & International)
– Basement: (Mash Ups)
Ozuna Odisea World Tour: 05.20.17 at Echostage
DCClubbing Presents:
Ozuna Odisea World Tour
Saturday May 20th
Live in Concert
Saturday May 20, 2017 | Doors 9:00pm | Ages 18+
Echostage • 2135 Queens Chapel Rd NE • Washington, DC
VIP and Venue Information – 202.271.1171
25 year old Puerto Rican trap and reggaeton icon Ozuna headlines Echostage on May 20th as part of his current international tour. Billions of Youtube hits and Billboard nominated album Odisea and single “Dile que tu me quieres” later and he’s riding an incredible wave of popularity into North America’s most popular live music venue. Described as “a true music maven and an online powerhouse, his meteoric rise to the top of the Latin pop music charts has reached unprecedented proportions.
Lady Gaga Is The Best Pop Star Of The 2000s/2010s
Slated for release on October 21, Joanne is the recently announced album from Lady Gaga. A return to more club-ready music is expected from Joanne as compared to Cheek to Cheek, her 2015 Grammy Award winning duet album of jazz standards alongside Tony Bennett. Gaga’s easily one of pop music’s most outstanding artists, statistically the best selling artist in popular music in the past decade, and maybe the best pop star of the past 15 years.
What is it that makes Lady Gaga so successful? Well, it’s simple. As a singer and songwriter, she knows her way around words and phrases and always finds just the right ones to say for any specific moment. Furthermore, her performances are amazing in a manner that oftentimes is directly related to another amazing pop song. As well, producers that she’s worked with in the past do something similar too. Many of Gaga’s biggest hits have strong similarities to other pop hits, but are just different enough where they can stand apart, oftentimes greater than the song that influenced their creation.
In looking at Lady Gaga’s five biggest hits AND the songs that they’re similar to in some way, the reason why Lady Gaga is the best pop star of the 2000s and 2010s.
1. Bad Romance – released in 2010, nearly 30 million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics – PURCHASE HERE
“Bad Romance” is the lead single from The Fame Monster, which was Gaga’s second major label album release in 2010. It was debuted at Alexander McQueen’s show at Paris Fashion Week in 2009 and won two Grammy Awards in 2011. As compared to its sound-alike, “Sweet Dreams” also hit #1 in America. However, whereas “Sweet Dreams” was a top 10 single in 15 countries, “Bad Romance” was impressively a #1 single in 20 countries worldwide.
2. Poker Face – released in 2008, nearly 15 million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by SNAP – PURCHASE HERE
“Poker Face” was the second overall single released of Lady Gaga’s career and is from her debut album The Fame. The song was covered by everyone from Chris Daughtry to the trio of Kanye West, Common and Kid Cudi, and was even performed on an episode of American Idol. As compared to it’s sound-alike, “Rhythm Is A Dancer” was a #1 single in 11 fewer countries than “Poker Face,” amazingly enough America being one of the countries where Gaga hit the top and SNAP did not.
3. Just Dance – released in 2008, nearly 12 million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Inspired By: “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie – PURCHASE HERE
“Just Dance” was Lady Gaga’s first overall mainstream single, and like “Poker Face,” is from her debut album The Fame. Both in the video and the branding for the song, she’s featured wearing lightning bolt makeup over her left eye, in homage to David Bowie. As well, then-breakout R & B superstar Akon was paired with Gaga in order to give hear a broader appeal to the urban demographic. As compared to the song it’s influenced by, Bowie’s 1983 hit was actually a number one in five more countries than Gaga’s debut single and has sold just as many singles, too.
4. Born This Way – released in 2011, nearly nine million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Express Yourself” by Madonna – PURCHASE HERE
“Born This Way” was Lady Gaga’s first release from her 2011 released album of the same name. The song is meant to serve as an empowerment anthem for the global LGBTQIA music community, and Gaga herself describes it as a personal “freedom song.” In later years, the song’s title has also doubled as the inspiration for her Born This Way Foundation that supports “the wellness of young people, and empowering them to create a kinder and braver world.” As compared to the song it sounds like, “Express Yourself” only went 1x platinum and was a number one single in five countries worldwide, which means that “Born This Way” is statistically 8x more popular as a seller and 5x the success that “Express Yourself” was as a number-one single.
5. Paparazzi – released in 2009, nearly five million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin – PURCHASE HERE
“Paparazzi” was Lady Gaga’s last official release from The Fame, her debut album. The club-ready take on a pure-pop ballad is highlighted by Gaga’s vocals bearing a strong quality to those of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. Interestingly enough, “Paparazzi’s” producer Rob Fusari gave Stefanie Germanotta the name “Lady Gaga” as an ode to Queen’s 1984 song “Radio Ga Ga.” As compared to the song it sounds like, Berlin’s Top Gun soundtrack anthem “Take My Breath Away” was a number one hit in more countries worldwide, but Gaga’s single has been an infinitely greater seller overall.
The Undefeatable Britney Jean Spears
A 17-year old girl who’s an ex-Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer is dressed up in a 13-year old’s schoolgirl uniform and cast in an instantaneously iconic music video. This same teen then releases three albums that would go on to sell 70 million copies, go on three world tours and have acting roles in three globally-released films by the time she was 21. If I then told you by the time this teen was 25 that this one-time child superstar of superstars would be shaving her head, living as a divorced single parent and “going crazy,” it could almost be expected. However, as she nears 35, and after nearly two decades of recording music, Britney Spears has evolved past being a girl, is now completely comfortable as a woman, and is impressively on her way to being a superstar yet again.
For as much as we at Decades love to talk about how cool the ‘90s are, it’s this 2000s era pop priestess who likely deserves as much love as we give the ‘90s. To showcase just how cool Britney is, there’s a very real arc between Britney Spears and Elvis Presley that isn’t just tied to performing in Vegas. This linkage showcases just how massive of a star she is. Similar to Spears, Elvis did the following:
- released three iconic albums and had roles in three films before his 21st birthday
- had four consecutive #1 albums
- after eight consecutive years of releases had a stress and pressure-induced recording hiatus
- has an undeniable mystique attached to his career that is tied to a generation of kids and teenagers loving his visuals as much as they loved his music
2016 finds Britney Spears releasing her ninth studio album Glory while also in the midst of her third year of her Las Vegas performance residency at Caesar’s Palace. What’s interesting is that for an artist that so many have believed to be in “decline,” let the record show that Spears has released four albums since 2007, done two limited tours, released perfumes via Elizabeth Arden, been active as a charity contributor and also is raising two children aged 10 and 12, respectively. Though her last Billboard #1 single was 2011’s “Hold It Against Me” and she’s removed from an era of having four consecutive number one albums, the idea that Spears ever “fell off” could be argued to be completely wrong. If anything, Britney’s the 21st century’s ultimate pop music survivor.
Since Britney’s Vegas performances haven’t been publicly aired, her magnificent Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special-similar performance was recently alongside G-Eazy at MTV’s 2016 Video Music Awards. These are the same VMAs where in 2007, her performance of “Gimme More” signaled to the world that her life was in possibly falling apart in front of our eyes. Regarding her performance of “Make Me,” Billboard noted that it was a “subdued victory for Spears” that “checks off another box on her way to a revived career — not just as a pop superstar who once was, but as a pop superstar who still is.”
In 2011, Entertainment Weekly summed up Britney Spears’ career as “an American institution, as deeply sacred and messed up as pro wrestling or the filibuster.” As well, when artists like Nicki Minaj say that Spears’ success drives them because “once you keep at whatever it is you’re doing, people may not like you, people may not love you, but they will have to respect you at the end of the day. And that respect is all that matters,” the need to see Britney Spears excel is not just an expectation, but a necessity.
At Decades, we’re proud of Britney’s ability to endure and excel. We’ll be playing tons of her music in celebration.
On Burning Man 2016 And The Evolution Of Festival Culture
Thirty years ago, Burning Man was a festival associated with “radical self-expression” that took place in the shadow of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and ended with the ritualistic symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy-as-man. In 2016, Burning Man is a destination on Instagram near Reno, Nevada where from August 28-September 5, the likes of Paris Hilton and 70,000 of her friends partied on-board a jet-plane as art installation, Jack U played Billboard pop hits, and yes, they still burned a wooden man. Somewhere in the middle of this insanity there’s a lesson about what happens when underground things become mainstream fads because everyone loves a good, cool party that it seems like nobody else is attending.
Burning Man has existed for 30 years, but it was ultimately the festival’s close alignment with mid-2000s leading indie-to-pop cultural staples of electronic music and festivals as communal experiences that arguably put it over-the-top. Over the past weekend, Burning Man’s attendance reached a 40% surge in the past five years. That’s roughly 70,000% growth in the festival’s 30-year history, so it’s probably as good of a time as any to sit down and consider how movements develop and when it’s time to start doing something new.
Getting angry about Burning Man “not being for the scene” anymore is arguably fruitless. From disco to old-school rap, scenes evolve over time, as people, places and economics “conspire” to open culture up to society-at-large. These evolutions welcome in people who bring their unique human backgrounds into what are ideally supposed to be “shared cultural spaces.” Whenever “sharing” occurs, there’s a balance that must be achieved. Of course, when that balance is between wealth and “free-thinking,” the idea that wealth allows for free-thinking to include so much of what we saw at Burning Man 2016, stories like that of a “fancy camp” founded by the son of a Russian billionaire being ransacked make sense.
There’s been recent discussion of moving the Burning Man Festival out of the Nevada desert because of festival taxes being levied by the state of Nevada. If Burning Man were still all about free-thinking hippies on a beach, that’d be a problem. However, confusing what Burning Man originally was with what it is right now is like comparing a McDonald’s Big Mac to a steak dinner at The Palm. In Burning Man 2016 being far more of the latter and less of the former, the idea of taxing the wealth-positive festival makes sense.
Here’s an intriguing solution. Maybe it’s time for the OG burners to head, as VICE suggested in 2015, to Utah. In June 2016, Burning Man’s organizers purchased the 3,800 square foot Fly Ranch in Washoe County, Nevada in order to build year-round Burning Man-style infrastructure. While for some this may seem like an ideal solution for those looking to get away from the growing crowd in Black Rock City, heading to Utah instead could be a winning plan.
In the 2015 Vice piece, Burning Man’s CEO Marian Goodell notes that the Nevada taxes has made the festival’s organizers “ look longingly towards Utah or any other state that might not have levied that.” However, when Goodell also notes, “[w]e have watched the change in the type of people that come to Burning Man, and we’re not gonna get in front of certain things and force issues. We are gonna nurture the process so we all get the best results. Burning Man is an experiment in temporary community, and we’re the stewards of that process,” is it also a nod to potentially taking things elsewhere? When she continues to note that at 2015’s festival may be the most important sign that times have changed and that the festival’s culture may need to evolve:
“I was one of the people who was awakened at 3 in the morning by the sound of thumping music. My trailer was vibrating! Several of us came out, shocked, and couldn’t understand, even though I’ve been doing this for 19 years. We got in the cart and went out and it was an tart car facing its speakers towards the camp. It was past the man and it woke me!”
Again, in 2016, Burning Man was a destination on Instagram near Reno, Nevada where from August 28-September 5, the likes of Paris Hilton and 70,000 of her friends partied on-board a jet-plane as art installation, and ultimately, given how change occurs and things evolve, that’s okay. In looking to discover how to preserve a Burning Man that’s more about good music, good vibes and hanging out on a beach as a wooden man burns, maybe it’s time to think about Utah, and that’s okay, too.
