Summer Brings Out The Rookie DJs was originally published on City Desk on Apr. 27, 2009, at 12:55 pm
This weekend marked the first sustained summer temps. The upshot: A lot of dudes used this as an opportunity to showcase their car stereos. It felt like everyone had a serious case of opening night jitters. I saw a lot of rookies utterly failing at this utterly simple task. I understand that it is still too early to declare a song of the summer. But still. Some street scenes were simply embarrassing.
At about 2 a.m. on a Sunday, one dude at the corner of 16th and Irving decided to crank a Modern Country rocker. Not many people were around. But a sense of shame seemed to blanket the corner. I felt embarrassment for the driver. Lesson: this is D.C., no one wants to hear your favorite fake Eagles jams.
With that, I give you Saturday afternoon’s hilarity. Someone—and you know who you are—decided that Mount Pleasant Street needed to hear “Hotel California.” Does Mount Pleasant Street look like Frat Row? Please. No one wants to hear that song ever again.
It didn’t matter the type of car (old Tahoe, sweet Honda). It only mattered that the windows rolled down, that the stereos worked, that they could get loud. At least that must have been the thinking for some. Just past 11 p.m. on Sunday, Mount Pleasant Street had to deal with one nervous DJ. He seemed confident enough, bopping up and down in his seat, head nodding to no one in particular, clearly in love with his system.
This DJ had all the necessary tools. He had a killer stereo. The bass got nearby windows vibrating. The treble came through incredibly clear. You could hear his speakers from a block away as if you were standing right next to the driver’s side window wanting to put in a song request. The problem: the driver just couldn’t pick a song and stick with it. As I walked past him, he flipped through the dial three times unable to find the right hip-hop song for his special moment. The lesson: Before you crank it up, have a set list and stick to it.
