Regular readers of this site need no introduction to DJ/party promoter/lifeforce Dave P. Tonight, the Making Time impresario opens a new weekly party, Snacks, at the city’s best-known gay bar, Woody’s, with Adam Sparkles and series of weekly, rotating guest. Dave’s had a string of great weekly parties that for our money, were often more fun than the bigger parties, going back to Fire In The Disco at the old Soma club. After the jump, Dave talks about what he’s been up to, some nightclub history, and of course, Snacks, opening tonight with Plastic Little.

David, it’s been a while since we’ve talked. How have you been keeping yourself busy?

Well…i have a lot of parties coming up in the next few months so I’ve been doing a lot of planning. And Adam and I have been working on a second single for a label in Berlin. They are putting out our first original track, “Sunday Nite in Glasgow,” next month.

Oh, congrats! Under what name?

Well, I’m not a big fan of DJ names so Dave P and Adam Sparkles. Sparkles being Adam’s real last name, of course.

Hah. Can we talk about the flyer for your new party, Snacks? It’s evoking something, like Kids Incorporated, or like Esprit or Comme Des Garcons circa 1986…

I like the Esprit reference…never thought of that. Well… I really envisioned it being a lot simpler than it ended up. I wanted it to be mostly made of real simple line drawings, hence the line drawing of Adam Sparkles and I.

Like Terence and Philip? You guys kind of remind me of those guys.

In what way? I don’t fart a lot so… well, Adam does swear a lot.

Unclefuckers. SPEAKING OF, Woody’s! You are really crazy about Woody’s, aren’t you?

What makes you say that? but… YES I AM!!! It was one of the first dance clubs I had ever been to, and actually, I would say — a lot of Philadelphians would say the same — when i was 18 or so, I used to go to the underage night on Wednesdays. And there was also this old mattress factory converted into an all-ages dance club called Pandemonium, in Pendel. They used to have shows there and they had an amazing Industrial/Alternative dance party there… but yeah, Woody’s. It’s the best: it has the best sound in Philadelphia, best DJ booth, best dance floor. I honestly have been wanting to do something there since I started doing parties and DJing and now I’m super stoked to finally have a party there. Plus, I’ve been wanting to name a party Snacks for a long time now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I know the vibe of which you speak — for me, it was Memphis and Revival, and the best thing about it was that it was pre-micro-niching of everything: Gay kids, black kids, punk kids, preppy kids. Is that what you’ve been trying to do with booking nights at otherwise normally gay venues?

Exactly, that diversity is what made those places so great. I think we’ve achieved something like that with Making Time, especially the parties at Pure. And I think we will have that again with Snacks as well.

I also like that this is up on 13th Street, which increasingly is one of the only places in Philly that still feels like Philly did, say, 20 years ago, when the entire city was legitimately weird. I love Fishtown, but I have to say, it’s like the goddamned suburbs here.

Yeah… I prefer doing parties in Center City.

What’s the music vibe of Snacks going to be? And why isn’t Miss Phoenix doing the door?

Hmmm…maybe i should give her a call. I’ve never been a huge fan of celebrity door people. Snacks….like all of our parties will be all over the place musically for the most part but will definitely be leaning more towards the electronic side of things new electro house, techno, big room stuff some bangers here and there, but we wanna take it a bit deeper than we do at our other parties.

That’s something that DJs always say, but when you say “deeper,” do you mean that if I go to this party, something will finally HAPPEN to me?

Anything can happen at Snacks.

I’m inclined to believe you.

Snacks takes place on first and second Tuesdays of each month. No cover. 10pm-2am. Woody’s is located at 202 S. 13th St.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 2:20 pm.