So far Sonar’s decade celebration year has been rocky, to say the least. General Manager Dan McIntosh found it necessary to personally take over booking responsibilities. When the past booking staff left Sonar, they apparently left many of the club and lounge slots open.

In a recent press release the troubles are only mentioned in passing, but what I find most interesting is talk of Sonar’s focus returning primarily to djs. For the time being Lisa Chaplin Suit, found and president of Baltimore Music Conference, and Chad Moore, of Give Productions, are acting as talent buyers. Here is what they have to say:

“I wanted to see Sonar stay as a viable venue for the dance community
and want to bring in those that may not have played in Baltimore for
quite awhile and in many cases, have never played here” stated Ms Suit.
Engaging Mr. Moore with her ideas, the two then met with Mr. McIntosh to
discuss the possibilities. “I want dance music! I want a variety!” were
the words from Mr. McIntosh. “We still have 2 years on our lease and
lots of ideas so we don’t plan to go anywhere else anytime soon! We are
making upgrades to the venue to include a new state of the art video
system! We want to bring everything in here and when the lease is up, we
can move somewhere bigger if need be” he continued and so a new
beginning has started.

It’s just my speculation, but when people talk waiting out the lease, shit can’t be going well. But heres the bit I do like:

In addition to the February 23rd show, Sonar will have the newly formed
‘Koncrete Jungle Baltimore’ parties starting in March as well as a
weekly party in the lounge featuring drum and bass hosted by Justin
Patchett of Top Ranking Records. Ms. Suit and Mr. Moore also have plans
to bring electronic dance music into Sonar twice a month as a Saturday
show as well as any additional nights that the schedule allows.

I would really like to see dnb come back to Sonar. For awhile, there was a really strong jungle scene going in this city, until Lonnie decided to be a party-pooper. Junglists can be some angry, intimidating people, and I don’t know if they will forgive Sonar so easily.

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