Gallery Brings Chicago House to Silver Spring
Written by DCist contributor E.K. Eckert
For the past month and a half, house music lovers from all over the DC metropolitan area have been trekking up to Silver Spring on the weekends to the newest club on the EDM radar, Gallery. After hearing a lot of buzz regarding how great the club was, DCist decided to also make that trek to check out Chicago house veterans Roy Davis Jr. and Paul Johnson.
Gallery itself is billed as being set in a renovated WWII machine factory. While there was little evidence of any type of factory and/or machine building history, the contemporary feel of the club was tempered by the exposed ceiling and cement floor, giving the space the industrial edge it needed. The club is a modernist dream-scape of deep blues, silvers, and whites, with contemporary art work displayed on the walls, clean lines, an illuminated bar and walls, and a VIP seating area that would be hard to rival at a larger club. After passing the impressively designed split level bar in the center of the downstairs, we were most impressed by the back patio, which had “bi-folded glass doors” (ie, a fancy garage door) that was open so that the patio and club seemed to flow seamlessly into one another.
Photo by Flickr user smata2
The most important part of any club, next to the DJs it brings in, is its sound quality. In that respect, Gallery delivered. We can’t be sure as to how much the management spent on the sound system, but we’re willing to bet they weren’t frugal; the quality coming from the many speakers throughout the club was impressive to say the least. The night’s music started with resident DJ Shane Camp and special guest Joe L. Taking turns, the two delivered a deep and funky house set the started the night out in the right direction.
Gallery’s flier promised a night of Chicago house music that “has never been witnessed in the DC area before.” The Windy City is considered the birthplace of house music, with DJs in the mid-80’s combining disco classics, synthesized beats, soul and eurobeat dance records all night long at clubs like the Warehouse, where house music got its name. Monthly Gallery resident Roy Davis Jr. brought a solid Chicago style house to the room, particularly playing up the soul aspect of house music for the crowd. Paul Johnson started his set with a classic Chicago house tracks, but proceeded to play a rather techy set, varying between old classics and more recently produced tracks. His set didn’t have the same soul base that Roy Davis Jr.’s did, but played up more synth/computer based influences and sounds. The crowd didn’t have any problems with it though, by the time Johnson was half-way through his set, the dance floor was packed and the dancing was spilling over into the walkways, the upper deck, and the patio. Both DJ’s provided a healthy reminder of what authentic house music is all about, and particularly, in an era where house DJs can be a dime a dozen and sound just as unoriginal, how important it is to create a unique sound that reflects the individual DJ’s taste. It was refreshing to hear such different sets from DJs who would most likely agree that they have the same musical roots.
Overall, DCist would highly recommend Saturday nights at Gallery as a place to go for dance music lovers of any variety. The club, while invoking the contemporary feel of a New York or Miami club, still manages to maintain an everyman’s feel, particularly aided by the lack of a dress code, the friendly demeanor of the staff and the excited vibe of the patrons. As one partygoer and local DJ put it, “it has great sound, amazing décor, cheap drinks and a great crowd…what more can you ask for?” We'd agree with him, though in a perfect world, we'd ask for Gallery to be in D.C.
Gallery is located at 1115 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910. They feature live jazz on Thursdays, Latin inspired international music on Fridays, EDM DJ's on Saturdays, and International bands on Sundays. Upcoming Saturdays include: DJ Sneak, August 19th and Junior Sanchez, September 2nd.