By midnight, the line was 200 deep outside of Soundbar – legions of house heads shivering in the drizzle with muffled kick drums audible from the street. The scene wasn’t entirely surprising – whispers about Green Velvet’s birthday party had floated around Chicago for weeks. The excitement was palpable – not only did the lineup feature Velvet kicking off his new Soundbar residency, but also UK superstar duo Basement Jaxx and Chicago ex-pat Mark Farina.

Props have to be given to Velvet himself for the impressive artists gracing the bill. As Lucas King, owner of React Events and one of the promoters behind the night disclosed, “He called the Jaxx and Farina himself to play the party and arranged everything. Give Curtis [Green Velvet] a ton of love for that.” It’s certainly what he got as house lovers turned out in droves to support, both from the new and old guard, including Chris Santiago of Santiago and Bushido, Lego, James Amato of Potty Mouth Records, Sombionix and Hiroki.

Mark Farina’s set was a solid opener – not dabbling much in Chicago classics but staying contemporary with a focus on clean mixes, which wound up being perfect preparation for the harder tunes people were expecting later in the night.

Following Farina were the Basement Jaxx, whose set traded smooth mixing for  erratic (or simply just UK) sounds, jumping between their own material, more minimal tunes, classics and dubstep. To their credit, a dubstep segment was perfectly timed to rile the crowd up, but a graceless transition out into Lil’ Louis’ “French Kiss” took away from how dramatic the moment could have been.

Felix of Basement Jaxx

When Green Velvet took over, grinning ear to ear and wearing signature steampunk-inspired glasses, the transition was immediate and the crowd responded. Following in the Midwest legacy of long, impeccable blending, Velvet played up the crowd, alternating between techno inspirations, his own classics and a couple popular selections, like Afrojack’s “Polkadots”. Towards the end of the night, he even treated the crowd to a live rendition of “La La Land” and once the signal was given to close up shop, got on the microphone to lead the still-packed house in singing “Happy Birthday”. As the lights came on, everyone begrudgingly filed out, but smiling – Chicago had come together for one night, with Green Velvet at the helm.

Words by Dani Deahl with photos by Alejandra Guerrero