Lawrence.com

When Edwin Morales laughingly talked his way into hosting a weekly dance party called NEON, he just wanted to spin records while having fun out with friends.

The unexpected, immediate popularity of the homespun event prompted Morales to seek out help - Stevie Cruz, lead singer for Lawrence metal-rockers The Esoteric and budding DJ with a deep record collection. As DJs Konsept and Cruz, the pair's egalitarian mix of hip hop, '80s tunes and electronica earned them a devoted fan base.

Morales began adding live acts to his mix - all kinds, too, from local hip-hop artist Approach to drag-rockers Vibralux - and NEON became Lawrence's version of Studio 54, with lines of dolled-up fans stretching around the block.

As the event prepares to celebrate its fifth year, Cruz and Morales stop by our rhinestone-studded podcast studio to reminisce about early days and talk about NEON's return to The Bottleneck on Thursday nights.

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lawrence.com: We're here for a brief history of NEON.

Morales: The condensed version is that NEON started out as a joke. In 2001, Kelfel Aqui - he used to be the owner of the building that's currently the Jackpot Saloon, originally Coco Loco, then La Tasca ... Well, I had a bunch of records that I'd never played out and I was joking with him to let me play some stuff. At first they were going pretty shitty ... um, can I cuss?

Oh, go ahead.

Morales: ... And they started to get better little by little. Then he moved us to Tuesdays, and Tuesdays started to develop and I asked Stevie Cruz to come along ...

Cruz: It picked up pretty quick. Then after a bit it started getting really full, almost uncomfortable - there was a line around the building most of the night. Eventually we thought why not take it to the next level, work a bigger space, and that's when we moved to the Bottleneck in early 2003.

Morales: And we were packing out THAT place [The Bottleneck]. Then we got the opportunity to take it to The Granada.

Cruz: We thought it would be cool to have an actual big club night, not like some fratty, Top 40 type of thing. And it worked! When we first moved to The Granada, it was amazing, it was packed - we hit capacity that first month.

These things are big productions. You really set the scene with decor and movies ...

Morales: Initially, when we were at The Bottleneck and La Tasca, the things we had to do in order to make the night successful were pretty minimal because the venues weren't that big. But in the giant that is the Granada that took a lot more effort. Sometimes we couldn't fully decorate it like we wanted; we couldn't do what we wanted to do. And in that room if you don't do it all the way it looks half-assed.

Audio Slideshow

NEON Dance Party

What were some of your more successful effects or theme nights?

Cruz: We always go with a theme of some sort, which usually has something to do with a really cool record or a crazy movie, and people dress up and we dress up the room. Sometimes we do theme nights other than the Proms. We did a Night of The Living Dance, a zombie thing, and a Warriors party.

Do people get into it?

Cruz: Oh yeah. People love to dress up

What percentage of your crowd is regulars?

Cruz: There's always a flux. At least 20, 25 percent have been coming regularly since it was at La Tasca.

Morales: People have graduated, gotten married, started their families and they're still coming.

What's hip in music nowadays?

Audio Slideshow

Neon at the Granada

Cruz: Nothing's hip anymore.

Morales: It's just music. People are realizing "Hey, I can dance to anything I want to." I don't know about Cruz but I just want to play whatever the hell I want to play. The multi-genre dance thing is where it's at. There's no more pigeon-holing.

Cruz: NEON has always been really eclectic. To this day people say "'80s night! Retro night!" and to an extent it is. But then there's also tons of new stuff. Edwin's getting records all the time. ... We can't exclude some types of music; we have to give them everything. I think that's generally what people dig. It's what we dig.

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