SCENE + HEARD: Josh Sparber DJs For Brooklyn Boys With Jobs At GUMBO

(Nick Kennedy, Scott Laborsky & Mike Garten @ Galapagos Art Space)
 

“It’s a cool, collected, Brooklyn vibe,” said DJ Josh Sparber at last night’s GUMBO at Dumbo's Galapagos Art Space. “Kind of a 'later than after-work and earlier than dancing till four in the morning’ crowd." Usually the party features a stylist giving gratis haircuts, but this month’s installment brought a twist with free flipbooks being provided by PS122. “Ben Harvey put the party together. People love them, they get up on the stage and walk like an Egyptian” said Sparber.
 
Projecting the movie Shortbus onto the stage's exposed brick  wall and spinning a mix of overlaid pop tracks by Sparber, GUMBO's trinity  created a vibe for a guys with a “mix of buttoned-down shirts, horn-rimmed glasses & scruffy beards,” according to Josh.
 
“The turnout is shockingly good. When they started the party and invited me to do it, I didn’t know about the neighboring ‘hoods like Clinton Hill being major gay areas” confessed Sparber. With another DJ gig in Brooklyn moonlighting at Sugarland on select Fridays, Sparber enjoys the varying degrees of the Brooklyn gay. “Sugarland is like 22-year-old kids with mohawks. These are people who have 9-to-5 jobs, where Sugarland feels like people who work in nightlife or are going to school." A place for grown-up gays to play? Pencil us in!  –Christopher Dilley